How Can College Students Stay Fit and Healthy?
Out of the blue…well sort of…I was approached to write an article for Platform which is the Student Paper at Nottingham Trent University.
To say this is an honour for me is an understatement and the position that students find themselves in throughout the UK at the moment due to the Global Pandemic I really hope this will help them right now….but also long into the future.
In this article, I hope to be able to give you a plan, an understanding and a guide that helps students not just at Nottingham Trent University, but throughout the world, to help you figure out to keep fit and healthy and look after yourselves as students, but also for the rest of your lives.
Table of Contents for “How Can College Students Stay Fit and Healthy?”
Who is The Gym Starter?
How To Manage Food on a Budget
How To Workout in a Dorm Room
How Can Exercise Help Your Mental Wellbeing As A Student
Parting Advice for Students
Who Is The Gym Starter?
My real name is Adam, or Coach Adam. I have a congenital heart disease, used to live in London, but now live on the Gold Coast, Australia with my beautiful fiancee.
My University experience was a little different to yours, as I went to a Drama School in London and trained to be an Actor., which meant I hads to 12 hours a day 6 days a week for the best part of three years to get my degree.
I did more hours at University in a day than one of my friends did in a week at Lectures as he was studying a Computer Gaming degree.
So I suppose you’re thinking, how can someone who hasn’t been a typical student, tell me, a student, how to look after myself?
Well I suppose I have lived on tight budgets and eating Beans On Toast for the best part of the last 15 years of my life, as Acting is hardly a lucrative business, and I have spent the best part of my life since graduating working 6 jobs just to get food on my table.
I worked as:
A Personal Trainer
An Actor
A Theatre School Director
A Semi-Professional Referee
A Washer Upper
A Staffing Support Assistant at the ExCel Centre
I know what it is like to be time poor, have deadlines and the pressures of workign every which way and never feeling like you have time to yourself. I also know what it is like to have very little control over your food intake, and to be so exhausted both mentally and physically that the last thing I wanted to do was workout.
And even still I struggle, even though my life has somewhat settled. I now work in an amazing Personal Training Studio here on the Gold Coast, I am still pursuing my Acting and just love helping people figure out this crazy little thing called life.
I became The Gym Starter because I have always loved helping people feel confident about themselves…and I have noticed since the upsurge of Social Media, confidence seems to be a personality trait that is becoming more and more scarce in the world, especially amongst our College Student population.
The constant comparison of what you see on Instagram compared to real life, the constant desire to live up to what you create and the sheer awful information and lies that exist in places like Instagram and TikTok are not helping students enter and exist in reality in such a crucial moment in your lives when you need confidence the most.
Being a student at College is scary. Away from home. Meeting lots and lots of new people. Taking independent responsibility for your study. A lot of time to kill. Being poor financially. Let alone trying to keep fit and healthy as well.
Its terrifying. I remember the imposter syndrome and the constant checking of the bank balance well.
The awkward phone call home asking for another tenner because you had to pay for your grocery deliver this week.
The last thing you need is feeling inadequate about your health and fitness too.
All because of Social Media.
So I’m here to help you. To give you a real perspective on what you should reasonably expect.
And to hopefully take away some of the anxiety you are feeling in terms of your health and fitness as a student…especially in 2021…global pandemic and all.
So take a moment.
Big Deep breath.
In for 10….
Out for 10….
My very first point stands as this: I cannot tell you to get healthy. I am a Personal Trainer, not a Doctor, and am not here to discuss your Health. Health is very different for everyone, and the markers for each person vary greatly.
What I can say is that movement, eating certain foods, and using my advice to look after yourself might indeed make you feel a lot better about yourself. There is a correlation between what I discuss and how that might improve health in certain people, but it is no guarantee.
What I can guarantee is I will make you feel a lot better about how you are living your life, how you are using your body and your energy levels in general, as well as your improved mood. If you deem that as being healthier…that’s up to you. Not me.
How To Manage Food On A Budget
This isn’t an easy topic, as we all have very different budgets to live in with our food.
And I would suggest you are doing a pretty good job at this point if you are still alive.
There is a common thread in society that eating “healthy” is more expensive, and this is true [1].
But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do things to help yourself in this department.
Here are my top 5 tips for eating on a budget:
Buy Frozen Fruits and Vegetables - especially Vegetables. Too many times in my life have I gone to the fridge to find the Courgette I forgot about and now it is rotten to the core. You don’t need to worry about whether they have enough a nutrient profile or not, it’s a daft argument that shouldn’t exist because it creates a needless barrier to entry. Eating any Vegetables will help you, frozen or otherwise. But Frozen Vegetables are often easier to weigh out if you need to measure your food, They are really simple to cook…just put them in a Wok, and away you go…and they taste just lovely. The other huge advantage to these is that they are bulky foods. They will fill you up for longer than a Dominos Pizza meaning you will spend less money overall on food.
Side Note: If you are a “fussy” eater, or simply “don’t eat vegetables” then it’s a hard truth, but you need to start working on that. To simply say you don’t eat vegetables is absurd because all Vegetables have different tastes and different textures. Taste Buds regenerate over time, and the more you expose yourself slowly to something you dislike the more you will develop a taste for it. Just like when you didn’t like the taste of beer and coffee when you were younger…now it seems to be rather lovely. Stop being lazy with Vegetables. It might be that you were indulged too much in your childhood, and now you are now paying the cost of that as an adult. An adult that doesn’t eat any Vegetables is simply ignorant (unless they suffer from very particular digestive issues).
2. Plan Your Meals Weekly, and budget for them - spend some time sitting down creating a two-week meal plan for yourself. That way you can easily budget for what you ate going to eat as well. A big problem with finance in terms of food is the desire to always be eating something different. Many of my friends who I work with online are advised to eat the same foods time and time again for a number of reasons. They know the nutritional profile of the food (Calories, Protein, Carbohydrate and Fat content) as well as the fact it is financially better for them. When you have a plan and stick to it, it will help you so much to manage your money. You don’t need as much variety in the foods you eat as you think you do. We all eat on average the same 8 or 9 meals, especially when we are cooking from home.
3. Eat out Less Often - sounds so simple right? But I am aware of how hard this is to do in reality. The Costa Coffee isn’t so much of an issue… its the Muffin and Toasted Sandwich that comes from the trip too, before you know it, a Mocha Chocca Skinny Vanilla Three Shot Latte (or whatever the kids are drinking these days) plus a Muffin and a Tuna Toastie has cost you £15. Added to that…its’s cost in terms of how much it will fill you up as well, combined with the number of calories you are consuming all in one go. It’s just not that wise. If you are going for a coffee…which I am a huge fan of…then make sure it is just a Coffee you order.
4. Buy In Bulk - especially your Carbohydrates. Buy big packs of Rice and Pasta. They will last forever and are so much cheaper than buying the Microwave packs that Uncle Ben makes. In the food industry, there is always a higher cost associated with convenience.
5. Spend Time Cooking - if you don’t know how to cook…learn. It really doesn’t have to be that complex. Every day for lunch when I was at Drama School I used to cook fried eggs and beans on toast. It was better for me than eating at Subway, it was cheaper for me than eating at Subway and it had a much better nutrient profile than eating at Subway. And it took about the same amount of time as going to Subway. We live in a world where cooking is really intimidating. For many years I was great at executing a gourmet meal, but when it came to just cooking everyday food that wasn’t Instagram worthy, because it was just normal food, I didn’t know what to do. What you see on the Internet isn’t the real world. There is nothing wrong with a few sausages, some mashed potato, and some frozen veggies on a plate…you just don’t think there is because it doesn’t look good enough for yout IG Story.
How To Workout In A Dorm Room
Right now, during a Global Pandemic and everlasting lockdowns, I’m not sure you need my advice on how to workout in a Dorm Room.
There are certain times in a person’s life where working out just isn’t feasible, and putting yourself under more and more pressure to live up to an outcome that you don’t need to live up to will have a wider negative effect on you.
I’d never force someone to work out if they are grieving.
Or are stressed to the eyeballs with work and worry about a loved one.
There are times when it is ok to say - actually - I just am not going to work out, and that’s ok.
I have recently moved to Australia and had to do a Two Week Quarantine in a single Hotel Room. I had the intention to workout. I had my TRX with me. But I didn’t work out as much as I hoped to, and there is nothing wrong with that. The room and my personal circumstances didn’t provide me with the energy I needed to workout.
And I’m fine with that.
And if that is you…you should be fine with that too.
I would also love for you to reconsider what you think a workout should be. You probably do not have a Leg Press Machine in your Dorm Room, so it’s just daft to have the same expectations of a workout, that you would have if you had access to a Gym Floor.
Meditation can be a workout.
Yoga can be a workout.
10 Push Ups can be a workout.
A walk can be a workout.
What I am trying to say is that it doesn’t all have to be Deadlifts and Dumbells - you need to have greater empathy for yourself and what you can achieve.
And this isn’t just true when you are in the midst of a Global Pandemic. This is true when you are up to your eyeballs in Dissertations and Essays. This is true when you are working, studying, and living on top of trying to keep fit.
Sometimes in life, it’s more important to take 4 or 5 steps back…so that you can then take another 10 forward further down the track.
Managing your stress is indeed a workout.
But if you are the type of person who is chomping at the bit to do something physical besides what I have laid out above then my top recommendation to you is the following.
Get a Suspension Trainer. Not a TRX - they are far too expensive for what they are…and you don’t have the funds.
$25 (about £14.99) on Amazon.com.au you can get a Suspension Trainer or at Decathlon its the same price.
The Suspension Trainer was designed by a Navy Seal who wanted to be able to work out in any environment he found himself in. Especially small spaces.
And they are just blooming wonderful.
Then you can do these workouts:
Please feel free to amend the workouts as you see fit to your ability level.
I always write online programs to an RPE Scale to gauge intensity as opposed to dictating how much weight, as I have never met you, and then Reps and Sets as we all are slightly different in this regard. . If you want to increase your decrease your intensity then change the Reps or timings as you see fit.
For more information on the RPE Scale head to this article: How To Plan and Design A Home Workout - The Ultimate Guide
If you can’t get a Suspension Trainer then you can get my free book: The Beginners Bodyweight Workout Guide
The book has 56 Workouts you can do…all bodyweight based…all just 10mins a day too!
How Does Exercise Help Your Mental Health?
Every Personal Trainer in the world will sit here and advocate the benefits of exercise for your mental health.
They will then also try and sell you detox teas, show you very thin bodies as the ideal or simply tell you to “Eat Less, Move More”
Which completely undoes the benefit to your mental health.
Movement in and of itself will make you feel better about who you are, but when you start aligning that behaviour with behaviours of weight loss for acceptance amongst your peers, or to try and get a six-pack or even so that you can get laid…
A problem begins to occur.
Suddenly your movement is no longer beneficial for your mental health, suddenly it is a punishment for it.
So to gain the advantages for your Mental Wellbeing in association with fitness and movement you must make sure that you are focussing on your movement for reasons beyond superficiality.
There are many, many, many outcomes in fitness that will not lead to improved Mental Health and can send you into much poorer places with that.
And these nearly always come down to a number of factors:
Desperation: “I must lose weight in 3 months”
Pressure: “I must weight 3 stone less to feel normal”
Self Acceptance: “He will never like me if I’m not skinny”
Self Worth: “I can’t look at myself until I weight X amount”
When you are engaging in physical activity to try and “fix” something akin to what I have laid out above…you will experience much poorer mental health as a result.
Because what you desire will never come quick enough.
Fitness is a stubborn thing, that takes discipline, hard work and consistency. So much so I don’t feel like I have ever truly mastered anything in my fitness because I always fall down on these pillars.
But I am also not under any pressure to achieve any of the outcomes above.
The reason movement helps your mental health is quite well known at this point:
Can improve your confidence
Can improve cognitive function
Can send you into a productive state
Can give you a sense of achievement
Can teach you discipline
Can help change your outlook on life
But what I really think is true about how Movement and Fitness can aid your mental health is that it makes you creative.
I have written a 2000-word article on the topic for you, and that makes me feel amazing.
Makes me feel creative. When you shape and craft a workout and then execute it, it gives you a creative outlet that all humans need.
And the best bit?
There really isn’t a high barrier of entry. You don’t have to be able to be a musician or a painter.
You don’t have to be a singer or a wordsmith.
You just have to be a human.
And guess what…you are one.
So you can already be extremely creative with your movement and your body, enjoy the benefits of movement for your confidence, for your cognitive function and for your productivity…
And then your mental health will improve.
Get into Fitness to be creative.
For as long as that is the beating drum of why you are doing what you are doing…
Especially during a pandemic…
Then you will fly my friend.
What’s Next?
Across this website, I have other Articles all about managing your physical and nutritional health:
Added to that it would be AMAZING if you joined my free Facebook Group.
It is called Straightforward Fat Loss.
I do one Live Training a week in there based on topics which are designed to make your Fat Loss Journey as straightforward as possible.
It would be so wonderful to see you in there…to join just click on the button below and you will by transported at the speed of light to a grateful and welcoming bunch of people who really do just want to help everyone as much as they can.
Thank you so much for reading my article. I hope it has helped you…
Speak again soon,
Coach Adam
References:
Jones NRV, Conklin AI, Suhrcke M, Monsivais P (2014) The Growing Price Gap between More and Less Healthy Foods: Analysis of a Novel Longitudinal UK Dataset. PLoS ONE 9(10): e109343. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0109343