Transitioning into college is not an easy thing to do, it is the most exciting, stressful, and emotional experience in one’s life. Throughout my freshman year, I noticed I could not stick to the routine I had before starting college. While living on campus, your daily routine will change. It may take time but we will learn to adapt at some point in time. Being a college student can be a lot to handle at times and can cause you to take a couple of steps backward with physical and mental health. But that is okay because we all go through it. I want to be able to help you and get you through these setbacks and find a way that helps you overcome them. It is hard to eat healthy in college, not everyone has the right utensils in their dorm, nor do they have the room for it. Luckily in every dorm hall they have a certain number of communal kitchens for the residents. The only issue is, if I want to make a healthy breakfast I would have to go check out essentials for me to cook, cook, clean up, eat, and then proceed to get ready for class or what is first on the list for the day.
Once entering your freshman year of college, you hear people talking about gaining the “freshman fifteen.” This can happen due to poor food choices at the upstairs case and even the fast-food options students can purchase with flex. Now I know that our decision on what we choose to eat is on ourselves, but the options to chose from are not always the best. Eastern Kentucky offers a good amount of fast food and a mini grocery store inside of the lower case. Students are allowed $300 max on our flex card. Flex is the money linked to our school ID to be used for meal swipes at Upper case and fast food located in Lower case. We can choose from Chick-fil-a, Subway, Moes, Panda Express, Steak and Shake, Starbucks, and Einstein’s. The upper case closes every day after 8 pm so if we want to save our flex dollars we have to make sure to eat at upper case before it closes but they do not always have the best options to pick from. Complex food environments could require a new set of skills and mindsets to maintain a healthy diet plan that case can not always offer students. I will say that the upper case having a comfort food area that contains healthier options of food and a station to where you can create your own salad or sandwich/wrap.
On a positive note, a pro about living on campus at Eastern Kentucky University is that they just remodeled their Recreation Center. Every student enrolled can use the rec after showing ID and even open to the public but it is a $5 fee. It contains a sauna in both men and women locker rooms, four full basketball courts, indoor soccer, wide variety of workout classes you can sign up for, about three separate rooms for others to workout in private, and tons of equipment. I used the picture above to represent exercise, to maintain a healthy lifestyle you should try to exercise at least 3-4 times a week. Working out is a great way to stay healthy and burn off extra body fat that you want to lose. The only issue that college students run in to are not having enough time in the day to go to the gym but also finish your classes for the day and being able to finish assignments by assigned day and time. I think creating a schedule that includes what you must do throughout the week would be a good idea so that you can get everything done and take advantage of having a nice gym in close range. While working on assignments throughout the semester in English, I read an abstract that informed me about how there is evidence that shows a good amount of people experiencing poor physical health. The study was focused on mental and physical health of first year university students of 355 students, 244 females and 111 males (Hussain Rafat). Being enrolled in college is hard to eat healthy, at least until you can get in the swing of the new lifestyle. Many of students lack in motivation, and I became part of the many students at one point.
One thing that I feel is important that tags a long with this topic is self-care, is any activity that people do in order to take care of our mental, emotional, and physical health. Although it is a simple concept in theory, it is something we often overlook. Self-care is key to improve mood and reduce anxiety. It is normal for people to find their own methods of self-care, with being in college whether it is your first semester or last, it is hard. When we feel unmotivated or overwhelmed that is when you need to do something to help you feel better, such as self-care. It can be working out, taking a nap, making a smoothie, doing a face mask, etc. In the blog “6 Ways to Live a Healthy Lifestyle in College,” Marquis states “the best way to motivate yourself is to live a better lifestyle by establishing a personal health goal.” (para 5). By using this quote, he is trying to give other people tips on ways to live a healthy lifestyle. Having to stress about class, test, finals, homework, jobs, and having a social life is a lot to have on your plate. It is hard to balance everything out but at the end of the day you need to make sure you are okay.
Mental health and self-care are very underestimated. In the Ted Talk, Caitlyn Roux says, “I did not know how to deal with all this pain, all these emotions so I started journaling,” (Roux 2:23). The author is saying that one way to cope with certain issues could be to journal them. She also talks about what makes you, you? Many people define themselves based off their physical appearance, jobs, bank balance, the brand of clothing, and what others have to say about us. Allowing these things define you, you are allowing them to control and consume your life. Happiness is something you create for yourself and that is something that could be tampered with throughout college.
The conclusion to this web text is that self-care is underestimated and there are ways around the lifestyle you live in college, but you can still maintain healthy. There is a need for things to be altered and more resources for college students on advice over the right eating. We can see that living the college life can become tough and overwhelming mentally and physically, but it is going to be okay.
Work Cited
CANTO, ANGELA I. 1.acanto@fsu.ed., et al. “College Students in Crisis: Prevention, Identification, and Response Options for Campus Housing Professionals.” Journal of College & University Student Housing, vol. 43, no. 2, Jan. 2017, pp. 44–57
Hussain, Rafat, et al. “Physical and Mental Health Perspectives of First Year Undergraduate Rural University Students.” BMC Public Health, vol. 13, no. 1, Oct. 2013, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-848.
M., Marquis. “6 Ways to Live a Healthy Lifestyle in College.” CollegeXpress,
Malan, Hannah, et al. “Challenges, Opportunities, and Motivators for Developing and Applying Food Literacy in a University Setting: A Qualitative Study.” Journal of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics, vol. 120, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 33–44. EBSCOhost do: 10.1016/j.jand.2019.06.003.
Mehri, Ali, et al. “Health Promoting Lifestyle and Its Determinants Among University Students in Sabzevar, Iran.” International Journal of Preventive Medicine, Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd, 14 Apr. 2016,
Roux, Caitlyn, narrator. “Self-Love, be Intentional.” Tedx Talk, 2017
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle Living on Campus 