AND Finally – Exercise!
Welcome back to the last blog post on how to live a healthy college lifestyle! This has been such a fun semester. Getting to talk about living a healthy lifestyle and giving tips and tricks has been such a fun outlet. Last but certainly not least is getting exercise. When we think about a healthy lifestyle, we definitely think about exercise. It is so important to get yourself on a routine and exercise daily. It is recommended that you exercise at least 30 minutes a day. Whether its at night, in the morning or anywhere in between; make time to walk, run or get a workout in. It will make you feel so much better and keep you on track to living your healthiest lifestyle.
Taking Care of Yourself
Welcome back! I’m not sure what day of quarantine it is yet but we’re all in this together! This week, I wanted to talk about something that is so important when it comes to our overall healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, this is something that you want to make sure you are doing even more of when it comes to this whole quarantine thing is. Taking care of yourself and your emotional health is just as crucial to our health as exercising and eating right is. It can be so easy to let ourselves go and become stressed and overwhelmed. College is hard and it can be hard to find time to do stuff four ourselves; but we need to make sure that we do. Take time out of each day to do something for yourself. Balance your social and personal time, do things to relieve stress and be the controller of your own happiness. Taking care of yourself is something that is so important to me and it is something that isn’t talked about enough. Making sure that your emotional self is as healthy as your physical self is key to living a healthy lifestyle.
Get Outside!
Welcome back!! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this crazy time. This week, I want to talk about getting outside, getting some vitamin d, and soaking up some fresh air. Getting outside to do this is always important to your overall health and wellness, but during these uncertain and crazy time, it is more important than ever. During your time of quarantine, a lot of the tips and tricks to maintaining a healthy lifestyle can seem unachievable and overwhelming, so it is important that we do things to help balance this out. Being cooped up inside all day can cause your mind to overthink, cause stress and anxiety and it puts your body in a standstill. Getting outside and taking a walk, might just be exactly what you need!
This upcoming week, I challenge each of you to get outside for 30 minutes a day. Whether that be to do a homework assignment and study, sit and relax, or take a walk, I feel confident you can get it done!
Get Good Sleep!
When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, something that not many people think about are our sleeping habits. Sleep is key to living a healthy lifestyle and the amount of sleep we get is crucial to our day to day activities. When we get good sleep, we tend to be more productive. This could mean having the motivation to accomplish school work, do things at home, exercise and stay active all day. When we are tired, stay up throughout the night and don’t get enough sleep, that is when we tend to eat badly the next day, become lazy, stay in bed and not accomplish the things that are necessary.
This is why we need to PRIORITIZE sleep. We hear all the time that we should be getting at least 8 hours of sleep. This is so true. In the beginning of my blog, I talked about the importance of setting a routine. Add sleep to your routine. If we stay on our routine, which leads to a healthier lifestyle, and we make sure that each night our 8 hours of sleep, which leads to a healthier lifestyle, is sketched into our routine, we can be sure that we are enhancing ourselves.
Healthy Snack Ideas
Last week, I talked about the importance of healthy snacking and how eating snacks or mini meals throughout the day is actually really beneficial to us! Now, in order for this to be healthy and beneficial to our lifestyle, the snacks we eat throughout the day must be healthy options. This week, I am here to give you just a few ideas of some healthy snack options that you can bring with you or eat at home.
- Carrots and Hummus – There are so many different hummus options, from black bean, edamame, roasted red pepper, herb and classic. You’ll be sure to find a hummus at the store that you’ll love!
- Apples and Almond Butter – Slice up and apple, throw some lemon juice on them and take a spoon full of almond butter! So delicious, easy, and healthy.
- Cheese and Crackers – This is such a classic. You can get your healthy fats from the cheese but try using nut thins or rice crackers to make this snack just a little healthier!
- On the go fruit cups – this is the perfect snack. At the beginning of the week take grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and apples and divide the fruit up into 5 different mason jars. Put a little of each fruit in the mason jar, squeeze some lemon on top and put them in the fridge for ready to go fruit cups for your week!
There are so many different healthy snack options, but these are just a few of my favorites! They are perfect to pack for on the go snacking or even just to have at home! I hope this helps and gives you some good ideas to start snacking healthy!
Healthy Snacking
Welcome back!! Its been a week or so since my last post but I am back and ready to talk a little more about a different area of eating healthy. In a few of my last blog posts, I talked about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast, gave you some good healthy recipe options, and then talked about some ideas for on the go microwave meals. This week I want to talk about how you can snack throughout the day and why this can actually be very beneficial to your overall healthy lifestyle.
I’m sure you have heard people talk about the importance of eating small portions throughout the day or having mini meals. Well, this is actually really beneficial! Eating healthy snacks throughout the day keeps us full but also prevents us from overeating at meal times. If we go too long without eating and let ourselves become extremely hungry, we will scarf down a bunch of food at lunch or dinner which then leads to weight gain. Eating snacks throughout the course of our day builds this system of mini meals. Our portions at lunch and dinner become smaller, fitting into our category of mini meals.
I hope that this little tip is helpful, and I will be back next week with some ideas on healthy snacks!
Healthy Microwave Meals
Last week, I talked about the importance of eating a healthy breakfast and gave some healthy on the go options for a healthy breakfast. Now, eating a healthy breakfast is a good start, however, we eating healthy for our other meals of the day is just as important. Being in college it can be difficult to find fast and healthy options for lunches and dinners. That being said, I am going to give some ideas for quick microwavable options for meals. Here a just few options:
- Spaghetti Squash – just take a spaghetti squash, poke holes and pop in the microwave for 10-15 minutes.
- Lean Cuisine – these are super easy to keep in a mini fridge/freezer, take out and pop in the microwave for an already portioned out easy on the go meal.
- EGGS!! – eggs are always a healthy option but living in a dorm room, making eggs isn’t always attainable but now it is! crack two eggs, add a little salt and pepper and throw in the microwave for 45 seconds, stir and pop back in for another minute.
These are just a few options for on the go easy meals, that will get you out the door quick but also with a healthy option!
Breakfast Recipes!!
Last week, I talked about the importance of eating a good healthy breakfast and gave a couple of quick ideas to do so. This week I wanted to write a few recipes for some really yummy breakfast options. I hope you enjoy!
Berry Smoothie: 1/2 cup of frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup frozen blueberries, 1/2 cup blackberries/raspberries, 1 1/2cup of almond milk and blend!
Spinach Smoothie: 1 banana, 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup spinach, 1 scoop almond butter and blend!
Power Balls/Energy Balls : 2 cups rolled or steel cut oats, 1 cup of almond butter, and mix in dried cranberries or dark chocolate chips. Mix all together and roll into balls for the perfect grab and go breakfast!
Overnight Oats: 2 1/2 cups rolled or steel cut oats, 1 1/2 cups of almond milk and add these two thing into a jar and shake. Leave in fridge overnight, pull out in the morning and add honey, and your choice of fruit to the top! You can just grab the jar and its the perfect on the go, healthy breakfast!
Healthy Breakfast
Last week, I talked a little bit about eating right and how have a balanced eating schedule can help so much with a healthy lifestyle. This week we are going to be diving into the importance of eating a healthy breakfast and I will be giving some ideas for quick but also healthy and filling breakfast options.
People always say that they either don’t like breakfast food, they don’t have time to eat breakfast or they just aren’t hungry when they wake up. That is totally understandable but not eating breakfast can actually be one of the main reasons we see unbalanced eating schedules, and over eating. When we don’t eat breakfast in the morning, we tend to be over hungry and ready to eat just about everything come noon. By eating breakfast this sets us up for eating smaller meals and portions throughout the day and keeps us eating on a normal schedule.
A few ideas for a quick morning breakfast could be to keep protein, fiber, or power bars so that you can grab one and eat it on your way out. These are good for you and will keep you very full until lunch time. You can also prepackage frozen fruit and vegetables to throw into a blender for a smoothie. These are just two easy options out of so many to choose from! Eating a healthy breakfast will definitely get you on track for a healthy lifestyle.
Balanced Eating
When we think of a healthy lifestyle, often times people’s minds go straight to eating and exercising. However, those two things are only two components with many different subcategories of a healthy lifestyle. This week we are going to look a little deeper into one of the subcategories of eating; balanced eating.
In college, it can not only be hard to eat healthy but it can also become so inconvenient, especially when you are living on your own for the first time and most likely in a dorm room. It is easy to snack consistently throughout the day, not get good filling meals, and to eat conveniently. This might often look snacking and eating throughout the whole day because it is convienent.
This is something that becomes so easy to do, so it is something we want to get a hold of from the beginning. In order to do this, a few tricks would be to make sure you are eating 3 meals throughout the day at normal meal times. This may look like eating breakfast when you wake up, lunch between 11am and 1pm, and making sure to eat dinner between 5pm and 7pm. Getting into an eating routine like this can definitely help prevent all of the snacking at strange hours. If you can eat consistently throughout the day, you often times will feel more filled and will lead to a healthier lifestyle which will make you feel so much better and much more energized.
Setting a Routine
Last week, I talked about how the transition into college can be tough and how easy it is to start forming unhealthy lifestyle habits. This week I want to focus a little more on routines and how getting into a routine can help you to live healthier.
The idea behind routines is so that you have a schedule and if you are like me, you love to “check the boxes” and “mark things off your list.” This is something that gives me so much satisfaction and makes me feel organized and accomplished. By setting a routine you are almost making a list of boxes to check. You want to wake up, go to your classes for the day, workout, get your homework done and maybe even have on your routine chill time just for yourself. By getting into this so called routine you are able to check these things off your list. This will help motivate you to stick to your schedule which can positively influence your eating habits, workout habits and your school habits.
Having a routine has pushed me to get things done. If I follow my routine throughout the week I have noticed that I much more likely to feel less overwhelmed, actually workout, and actually get school work done. Set a routine for yourself today and get started on living healthy!
The Transition
The transition from high school and living at home to college is a huge step. Living on your own, making new friends, and balancing this new life of college in general can cause a lot of stress and uneasiness in the first few weeks. This stress can look different for everyone; for some this could be eating unhealthy and just eating conveniently, spending a lot of time in your dorm room, losing motivation, or struggling to get into a routine. In order to start a healthy college lifestyle, it is best to start right away, keep your mind busy and jump right into it at the start of the transition.
My tip for handling the transition is to set a routine and stick to it until! Setting a routine for yourself can help ensure that you are waking up, getting three meals in, getting out of your room and going to class! It is so easy to get overwhelmed quickly, so by setting a routine for yourself, you are keeping yourself accountable and conquering the transition in order to start college off right with a healthy lifestyle.
Welcome!!
Welcome to my blog!! This is a space that is going to be designed to help you with a healthy lifestyle in college. The four years you spend in college are the most rewarding, fun and exciting but they can also be the most stressful. In this blog you will find tips and tricks to exercising, eating right, balancing school and social life and everything in between!
"Gabby's Guide To A Healthy College Lifestyle" 