If you’re like me you’re sitting down all the time and not in the gym because you’re trying to save money. But this also means you’re now trying to save on calories because your energy expenditure has gone considerably down since becoming a student.
As someone who sits with my butt in a chair for hours in a day studying and coming of with ideas for the future I found my body composition changing and I was not okay with it.
It took me long time to get in the shape and the health I am in and I don’t plan to ever go backwards. So here are some tips on how to stay healthy and fit as a college student if you’re finding yourself in the same situation.
Tailor your workouts to match your needs
There are a couple parks near my apartment building which I venture off to when I need a long walk. I live in the downtown area of my city. Admittedly it doesn’t always feel safe and I have had to force myself to walk around outside over the last couple years as mental illness on the street has become more apparent.
My college pays for a city bus pass so I found the best solution to get my steps in was to take the bus up the hill further from my building to a larger park with more activity and then take the bus home.
However on days that I can’t leave the apartment I stay home and will get a workout in with a pair of old light weight dumbbells and a water filled laundry detergent container.
My arms have become toned just from consistent bicep curls using the laundry detergent container as dumbbells and a kettle ball. I also add some mountain climbers, sit ups, push ups, squats and running in place to get a full body workout.
Often times when I am watching a lecture I’ll do some bicep curls to kill two birds with one stone and will even place the laptop on the floor while I do mountain climbers or another type of floor exercise.
Find those pockets of time when you can fit in a workout and get your blood flowing even if its just for 10 minutes. Your body will thank you and you will feel much better and prepared to tackle your assignments. Utilizing time during lecture and YouTube videos is a great time to get some movement in.
Adjust your calories for your current activity level
One thing I’ve noticed as a student is that I’m sitting most of the time, as I mentioned previously. This means all those snacks that I used to love, like chips, cookies, and popcorn, are no longer my sidekick. Instead of helping me, they hinder me and hold me back from performing at my best. I’ve had to learn to watch my calories moving forward.
One thing I do is keep in mind that if I’m going to be sitting down for most of the day working on a project, I try to eat light snacks if I’m going to snack at all.
Most of the time, my day now looks like this: I get up and make a breakfast with some eggs for protein and some potatoes on the side for a bit of carbs. I might have a glass of orange juice or some water.
For lunch, it’s typically anything that’s easy to get my hands on. I might have a breakfast burrito and a cup of pears, and sometimes a diet soda if it’s a meal with animal protein like chicken with vegetables or ground turkey tacos . I’ve noticed that diet soda has replaced my snacking, even though I try to avoid it.
As I mentioned in a couple of articles, I try not to drink soda because I don’t have the greatest dental health and worry about my teeth. This is something I have to watch, but I needed something to replace the snacking. I’ll link the recent article where I talk about trying to avoid diet soda and the role cognitive dissonance plays in our decision making.
It’s a work in progress, but at least I’m aware of these things. That’s the goal when you’re trying to become your best version—making progress, not perfection.
So, here’s where I suggest that you adjust your calories to your current activity level. When you’re more active, eat a little bit more and have your snacks.
But when you know you’re not going to work out as much, if you’re worried about your body composition changing or brain fog slowing you down, it’s a good idea to reassess where you’re at in your current physical activity.
It’s always going to fluctuate—there will be times when you have more time to work out and times when you don’t. Since I’m staying home most of the time, I might have a 10-minute workout here and there with some dumbbells or do some mountain climbers, as I mentioned above.
However, I don’t get to go out and walk like I normally want to. So, I know I can’t eat as if I were walking every day like I used to when I was doing five days a week and consuming a nice amount of calories that burned off from all that physical activity.
Being fit and healthy is a process, especially when you’re a student with responsibilities outside of school
It’s important to show yourself grace and not hold yourself to impossible standards because your routine is completely different now. You have more expectations and a lot more responsibility on your shoulders from teachers and the classes you take.
These classes will vary in difficulty, which means sometimes your hours will be tied up in a project or a class, and other times you’ll have more free hours.
One way I try to stay healthy is by keeping that in mind but also making sure I don’t let those external responsibilities overcrowd my own fitness and health journey. This is something I recently learned this last semester.
Stress is one of the biggest reasons why we overeat or overconsume calories. It’s important to understand when our emotions are tied to the action of snacking and consuming comfort food.
For me, this has been a major breakthrough over the last five years as I’ve gotten healthier and fitter.
Sometimes I find myself snacking a lot more without realizing that the anxiety I’m feeling from a test is really getting to me. I know I have anxiety over it, but I don’t realize how bad it is until suddenly I’m reaching for a lot more snacks than I normally do.
It’s possible to stay healthy and fit without a gym membership if you’re a broke college student like me
It’s just about being creative and understanding your own body. You need to know when to cut back on certain things and when you can add things in. It’s not about depriving yourself or avoiding certain foods. I still eat my snacks, but I do it less often.
Instead of having popcorn every night while studying, I now save it for Friday night movie sessions. I try to watch what I consume but I’m not always perfect—sometimes I might go back for a second ice cream bar just because I love them.
However, I try not to keep them in the house because if they’re next to me while I’m studying, they’re the easiest things to reach for. I don’t have to cook or put much effort into it; I can just grab one and go back to studying.
The thing about empty calories is that they don’t fill you up, so you’re hungry again quickly, which is why you reach for the next one and the next one. It’s better to focus on meals that keep you full and satisfied rather than snacking – keep quality meals and calories in the home and limit empty calories.
So, here’s the conclusion of what my fitness and health routine and mindset look like right now
I try to avoid anything that’s empty calories because the quality of calories matters right now. Not only do they change your body composition because they are easy to overconsume, but they can also contribute to brain fog, which I don’t want to deal with as my classes get harder.
Whatever I feed my body, I know it’s important that it helps me instead of hinders me. Recently, over the last couple of weeks, I either eat some scrambled eggs with potatoes and orange juice, or I have a breakfast burrito with some pears.
I bought some Honey Nut Cheerios for times when I’m not really hungry but need a little something. I’m not a big breakfast person, so I don’t often have breakfast, but lunch and dinner are my main meals, and sometimes I have a light meal between them.
For dinner, I often have chicken, ground turkey, and rice, whether it’s brown rice or jasmine rice. I do a lot of my frugal pasta, which I’ve talked about here—it has a lot of vegetables and whole grain pasta. It’s pretty good, and I’ll link it here as well.
I also keep some Greek yogurts in the fridge and do a lot of cheese slices. I drink a lot of water, and sometimes I’ll have my own homemade Chipotle bowls with brown rice, black beans, corn salsa, sour cream, and cheese.
I don’t find myself as hungry as I normally am because I can tell my body is now burning fat as fuel. As my body composition changes, it’s going back to where it was.
Most of the time, when I’m in a fat loss phase, I’m not as hungry, so I don’t eat a lot. Then, once the burning fat phase levels off, and I have multiple light meals throughout the day that keep me good to go.
Well, that’s it for now. I just wanted to write about how I keep my fitness and health intact while I’m a student and how I try to get back on track again. Life often changes, so your eating habits often change too.
The main key is just being aware of your body and the changes it goes through, as well as when your activity level is changing. I think the best way to go about it is to be mindful instead of trying to meet unrealistic expectations or be perfect in everything you do.
Fit in workouts where you can, try to walk when you can, and make it a priority while also understanding there are other priorities as well – neither should get in the way of the other to the point where they become non-existent – show each one a realistic level of effort and respect and go easy on yourself.
The Broke College Student 
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