Everyone has time to be healthy
Freshman 15 is an expression used to describe an arbitrary amount of weight students put on in their first year of post secondary studies, usually due to unhealthy eating and poor exercise habits. Students say they struggle finding a balance between work, leisure, and maintaining healthy habits, leading to a lack of exercise, and poor nutrition. These complaints are clearly caused by a lack of intrinsic motivation and a growing status quo of complacency, rather than actual time constraints. Despite the vast number of home workouts that one can complete in under ten minutes, students will still excuse themselves from any form of physical activity, in favour of inactive alternatives. The problem is further pushed by an apathetic mindset towards nutrition, and meal preparation. Understanding these concepts would greatly benefit students, especially those living away from parental support. Its easy to place the blame of these unhealthy habits on the immense workload that comes with a university degree, but the mentality of students is clearly the root cause of this issue. The phrase freshman 15 has taken on a new form in contemporary university culture. We as students are not only gaining weight, but we are also losing a sense of discipline and mental fortitude, unknowingly hindering our success in an academic context, and shattering our ability to foster a healthy mindset. We must understand that a healthy lifestyle does not require countless hours of dedication, or large amounts of money, but simple changes in attitude and behavior. A common excuse students make for leading an unhealthy lifestyle is a lack of time to fit in physical activity. Attempts to defend this claim are made by blaming an “overwhelming” amount of responsibility in academic and work schedules. This justification can only be explained by a culture of laziness or a lack of motivation. We spend countless hours on mindless activities. In the university age group people commonly use free time for sedentary activities such as Netflix, or using social networks. In an age …show more content…
Students will often choose the option that appears to be the easiest and most accessible. This usually means opting to order food from the campus cafeteria. This problem can be connected to a lack of education related to meal planning but is predominantly caused by the negative mindset we possess. Cheap and quick meals are attractive choices for students as many face financial challenges. A solution to this problem is preparing meals from home. Bag-lunches are significantly cheaper than fast food and allow for complete control over what nutrients are consumed. To reverse the trend of unhealthy meal choices, we must expand our knowledge on food sources, and meal preparation. We must first be motivated to actually change our attitude. This is the real issue when it comes to healthy eating. Laziness. Everyone knows that fast food is unhealthy, but nobody cares enough to utilize alternative options. Putting chicken breast in the oven and microwaving green beans cuts into valuable Facebook and web browsing time. The health benefits and money saved from food preparation greatly outweighs the initial time investments of planning, shopping, and cooking. One would argue that their studies interfere with meal preparation, but eating healthy is not only necessary for physical health, but also fosters positive mental health, and higher activity levels, leading to higher academic
Freshman 15 is an expression used to describe an arbitrary amount of weight students put on in their first year of post secondary studies, usually due to unhealthy eating and poor exercise habits. Students say they struggle finding a balance between work, leisure, and maintaining healthy habits, leading to a lack of exercise, and poor nutrition. These complaints are clearly caused by a lack of intrinsic motivation and a growing status quo of complacency, rather than actual time constraints. Despite the vast number of home workouts that one can complete in under ten minutes, students will still excuse themselves from any form of physical activity, in favour of inactive alternatives. The problem is further pushed by an apathetic mindset towards nutrition, and meal preparation. Understanding these concepts would greatly benefit students, especially those living away from parental support. Its easy to place the blame of these unhealthy habits on the immense workload that comes with a university degree, but the mentality of students is clearly the root cause of this issue. The phrase freshman 15 has taken on a new form in contemporary university culture. We as students are not only gaining weight, but we are also losing a sense of discipline and mental fortitude, unknowingly hindering our success in an academic context, and shattering our ability to foster a healthy mindset. We must understand that a healthy lifestyle does not require countless hours of dedication, or large amounts of money, but simple changes in attitude and behavior. A common excuse students make for leading an unhealthy lifestyle is a lack of time to fit in physical activity. Attempts to defend this claim are made by blaming an “overwhelming” amount of responsibility in academic and work schedules. This justification can only be explained by a culture of laziness or a lack of motivation. We spend countless hours on mindless activities. In the university age group people commonly use free time for sedentary activities such as Netflix, or using social networks. In an age …show more content…
Students will often choose the option that appears to be the easiest and most accessible. This usually means opting to order food from the campus cafeteria. This problem can be connected to a lack of education related to meal planning but is predominantly caused by the negative mindset we possess. Cheap and quick meals are attractive choices for students as many face financial challenges. A solution to this problem is preparing meals from home. Bag-lunches are significantly cheaper than fast food and allow for complete control over what nutrients are consumed. To reverse the trend of unhealthy meal choices, we must expand our knowledge on food sources, and meal preparation. We must first be motivated to actually change our attitude. This is the real issue when it comes to healthy eating. Laziness. Everyone knows that fast food is unhealthy, but nobody cares enough to utilize alternative options. Putting chicken breast in the oven and microwaving green beans cuts into valuable Facebook and web browsing time. The health benefits and money saved from food preparation greatly outweighs the initial time investments of planning, shopping, and cooking. One would argue that their studies interfere with meal preparation, but eating healthy is not only necessary for physical health, but also fosters positive mental health, and higher activity levels, leading to higher academic