Every year, tons of young adults across the country go to school for the first time. These students are now in a position to make decisions about their lives on their own without parental guidance. One of the decisions they have to make is about food. Without structure, students in their first year of school end up making erratic eating choices that quickly lead to weight gain. Usually it is the girls who show this weight gain because they have stopped growing (unlike many of the boys) and do not exercise as much. There are a variety of ways girls can avoid the Freshman Fifteen.
The girls should survey their new friends to see who might want to join them in making some healthy choices. This doesn’t mean they can’t have a good time and have fun, which is often a right of passage in the first year of school. It just means that they might want to think twice before ordering pizza late at night on a regular basis.
Also, it’s a good idea for these girls to watch their drinking at parties. Drinks at parties can gain weight. It is better for them to limit beverage consumption and spend more time dancing (which burns a lot of calories) than drinking. The social choices these young women make will determine whether they earn the Freshman 15 or the Freshman 5.
One of the best things a young woman can do is find friends she can exercise with. Recent research supports the theory that your social group can make you fat. Basically, you pick up the clothes of the people around you. College is a great time for these women to get together and exercise instead of gorging themselves. Almost every college and university has a gym and several exercise classes that these girls can choose from. Exercise DVDs are a great option for girls who live in a dorm or sorority house. They can play them on their TVs or laptops. Also, there are a couple of new websites that allow people to download videos and many of the videos are workout and workout DVDs.