What is your best Stay Healthy/ Young/ Don't get Fat Grad/Student tip?

[DrZoe]

So many people get fat and unhealthy in grad school.  Including me about a year ago. Then I joined the Biggest Loser... no, I didn't. That's  a lie.   I did have to lose a bunch of weight, however, the natural way.  So for me, my top 3 stay healthy/young/don't get fat student tips: 

 

1) Yoga 

2) ZenPhones and ZenTones   ( These SAVED me and my GPA. Especially the ZenPhones which helped me tolerate horrible, loud roommates....)

 

3) Facebook --- ( For entertainment purposes, but not too much. This can be a thief of time!) 

 

4. Going gluten-free. ( I don't care what anyone says. I looked pregnant until I started cutting out gluten.)

 

Yours??? 

[spectastic]

9 hours ago, JQR said:

 

(I find it crazy that I got "minus one" for that!!  )

just different opinions. I happen to side with those who think that obesity is a real problem, and ignorance is not bliss.

[breadwinner]

Listening to audiobooks and/or NPR both makes my necessary 40min walks to and from campus enjoyable and increases my motivation to run on a daily basis so I can hear the next chapter. This is especially good with suspenseful books, specifically from before the 20th century so that you can find free recordings.

A big problem for me is having food around, even super healthy food, that I can eat right out of the package. To combat this I changed up items so they now require prep (e.g. rice instead of bread, dried beans instead of canned beans).

[rising_star]

17 minutes ago, breadwinner said:

Listening to audiobooks and/or NPR both makes my necessary 40min walks to and from campus enjoyable and increases my motivation to run on a daily basis so I can hear the next chapter. This is especially good with suspenseful books, specifically from before the 20th century so that you can find free recordings.

Any advice on where to find these free recordings??

[breadwinner]

6 minutes ago, rising_star said:

Any advice on where to find these free recordings??

https://librivox.org/

Keep in mind this is mainly old stuff. But I happen to appreciate a good flowery 19th century novel  

[MercedezThomson]

I always take stairs instead of an elevator, walk instead of taking a bus. Drink a lot of water. Also, I almost always have an energy bar or yogurt with me. It stops me from going to McDonalds.

[Geoffrey Schwab]

Right now all I want to do is to stay alive and maybe some sleep will be great too!

[Arny]

On 14.10.2016 at 1:08 AM, Geoffrey Schwab said:

Right now all I want to do is to stay alive and maybe some sleep will be great too!

I remember once I read an article, where was a statement about the influence of the good sleep on weight loss. So while you're sleeping, you're losing your excess weight.

People of Reddit tell the same: https://www.reddit.com/r/GradSchool/comments/3j0ljn/tips_to_stay_healthy_in_grad_school

[milka49]

Assuming you are an otherwise healthy person with just some excess body fat (i.e. you are a person capable of moving relatively pain-free), one of the most effective ways to lose weight is by short bursts of high intensity workouts. You need to couple this with weight training and proper diet, but you don't need to spend huge numbers of hours in the gym. Something like 2-3 hours a week (5-6 visits for about 20-30 minutes each) is enough.

Here's what you can do:

Three times a week, with alternating days, do full body weight training. Do whatever exercises you'd like, as long as you're fitting in time for core/back, legs, and arms/chest.

Two to three times, do alternating walking/jogging and full out sprinting. Start out with low repetitions (maybe just 6 cycles) and work up to ~15. Just do 30 seconds of each, so start out walking (briskly!) 30 seconds, then sprint 30 seconds, and repeat 5 more times. Eventually jog 30 seconds, then sprint 30 seconds, and repeat 12 to 15 times.

Couple this with a lowish carb and high fat and protein diet.

 

 

I find long workouts to be somewhat therapeutic sometimes, but since this thread started touching on fat burning, and we all could always stand to have more time on our hands, I figured I'd add the ideas for effective and efficient fat burning.

[rheya19]

1. I have a sweet tooth and binge on whatever is sweet in the house. So I've made a rule that I can have any treat I want, but I have to go to the store and get one single serving of it. One slice, one piece, one candy bar, one whatever. I can't bring any of it home again.

70% of the time I'm too lazy to go get anything, and when I do get a treat, I eat more slowly and savor it, and I can't binge. 

2. Gym membership. I set certain days and times I have to go. But I only have to go there. If, when I get there, I'm tired or don't feel like working out, I can turn around and go straight home. That caveat gets my butt there, but 95% of the time I figure "I might as well do the tread mill for 10 minutes," and an hour later I have done a full workout.

[victoriaaa]

For me, I:

1. try to get in at least 10,000 steps a day (this sounds like a lot, but it amounts to around an hour of walking a day). This is just my personal goal, doing any additional walking on top of what you normally do is going to reap a benefit. If you usually only get 4000 steps a day, aiming for 6000 is fine!
2. use MyFitnessPal to track my food and drink intake to keep me accountable. I find that I think twice before eating something if I know I have to record it, so it prevents a lot of mindless eating.
3. plan and prep my meals ahead of time. This can take time and energy that you may not always have as a busy student, but it is definitely worth it. Lowers your chance of buying take out when you're too tired to cook, eliminates the temptation to buy unhealthy food when you don't know what to make, etc.
4. keep healthy snacks on hand for when cravings hit. Whole foods are best.
5. find healthier alternatives for comfort foods (for instance, mashed cauliflower tastes a lot like mashed potatoes but with a lot fewer carbs and calories. Not exactly the same, but close enough that I'm not tempted to stray very often)
6. buy cheat food items like chips or cookies in as small a size as possible so they can satiate a craving without the temptation to over indulge. If you buy a big bag of chips, it's easy to just eat them all in one sitting, but if you get the little snack pack sizes, you can enjoy something you want without the ability to eat more (so long as you don't just head for the next mini bag!)
7. drink lots and lots of water. It helps keep you hydrated and feeling full.

Obviously, willpower is the most important part and none of these things will work if you're not determined to make them work, but if you're willing to put in the effort, it doesn't have to be that hard to keep your weight under control.

[milka49]

11 hours ago, victoriaaa said:

6. buy cheat food items like chips or cookies in as small a size as possible so they can satiate a craving without the temptation to over indulge. If you buy a big bag of chips, it's easy to just eat them all in one sitting, but if you get the little snack pack sizes, you can enjoy something you want without the ability to eat more (so long as you don't just head for the next mini bag!)
 

This is also a great idea! If you don't have much of the cheat food around, you won't eat it. In other words, you just have to have willpower at the grocery store. But if you have absolutely no goodies lying around, then you'll go nuts and order bad food for delivery or something.

Another trick, since sometimes the snack packs are expensive, is to divide out the goodies once you get them in little sandwich bags that you can reuse. As long as you seal them tight, they stay good, and I've found this to be a better bang for your buck. I've never actually done this with chips, but I do with cookies, and it usually keeps me from eating an entire sleeve and instead I just eat two. Okay sometimes four.

[victoriaaa]

On ‎2017‎年‎2‎月‎25‎日 at 0:28 AM, milka49 said:

This is also a great idea! If you don't have much of the cheat food around, you won't eat it. In other words, you just have to have willpower at the grocery store. But if you have absolutely no goodies lying around, then you'll go nuts and order bad food for delivery or something.

Another trick, since sometimes the snack packs are expensive, is to divide out the goodies once you get them in little sandwich bags that you can reuse. As long as you seal them tight, they stay good, and I've found this to be a better bang for your buck. I've never actually done this with chips, but I do with cookies, and it usually keeps me from eating an entire sleeve and instead I just eat two. Okay sometimes four.

Yes on the dividing up large bags of snacks! I use this trick too. It takes some willpower, but it works for me. If I just have a big bag of chips or cookies or whatever, I'll eat the whole thing in one go, but if they're divided up, it gives me just enough to satisfy a craving without going overboard.

[Guest]

Whaaaaaaaat...?My issue is that I eat too little in grad school. Work, work,work.

[marynoland]

Mine, Stay fits tip's are:

1: Morning and evening walk

2: Meals after ever 2 hours

3: yoga

4: lots and lots of water

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by marynoland

[DogsArePeopleToo]

On 9/24/2016 at 8:22 AM, rising_star said:

Any advice on where to find these free recordings??

Looks like an old post, but since nobody has answered it, I'm taking a stab in hopes that it will be useful to someone:

• NPR has an iPhone and Android app that allows you to listen to its programming.
• iTunes has fully fledged courses that you could listen to (without doing any of the homework). I finished an entire Yale semester of lectures on the American Revolutionary War and enjoyed it immensely. The professor was an excellent storyteller and each lecture was about an hour long, which is the ideal length for a commute/long walk.
• TED has an excellent app. I used to binge on these during my walks and metro rides to and from work.

[Cheshire_Cat]

My SIL sent me a week of free meals with one of those grocery prep services (Blue Apron) and I think I'll keep using it.  The food is good, varied, and all meals are within 600-800 calories.  Since I've been in grad school, cooking has become my hobby, so it is great to get different things to prepare each week.  It is a bit expensive, but compared to going out to eat, it is not bad.  Also, knowing that I have a good meal to come home to means that I show more self control and don't go out to eat while at school.  Since I'm single, the delivery gives me a week's worth of dinners.  Also, I think it will be easier to count calories because they give you the calories for dinner, and then I usually eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch, so its pretty easy to know how many I'm eating.

[Adelaide9216]

I am going to take the university's meal plan. It's a bit pricey, but it will be a lot less costly and a lot healthier than what I currently buying and eating. I am willing to make that sacrifice...

[Crucial BBQ]

Old George Carlin joke:

Eat right, stay fit, and die anyway.  

 

I feel that I had posted the above in this thread, perhaps with a few other comments that were a bit defensive.  Not sure if I came to my senses and decided not to post, or, if my previous post was deleted?  

I am a long-distance thru hiker and I tend to walk everywhere.  I used to walk to work and back, five miles each way.  Many people thought I was nuts for that; I kept thinking "Huh?  Five miles is totally within walking distance".  I only stopped when I got a job that was roughly ten miles from home, and in that case I was forced to ride a bike.  I was also a former 8-year vegan.  My own two feet are still my preferred mode of transportation, however, I haven't rode the bicycle in a few years, as I now drive to most "far away" destinations.  To add, been packing on the pounds as I have been sitting on my behind a lot over the last two years or so.  I went from always being on my feet, even while at work, to now sitting through most days.  I feel so agitated and have this strange desire to run.  So I joined the local Y, even though I get free access to the gym at school.  Not very exciting or informative;  that's what the opening joke is for.   I also have a love for beer. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by Crucial BBQ
to include the word "not"