The Life and Times of a College Girl
I have recently noticed that this site is made up of mostly older people. While this is very motivating and I am so proud of everyone for reaching their goals and even having the courage and intelligence to take fitness seriously as a lifelong journey/goal, I am a college student. And it’s so hard to find other young people like myself to look to as motivators– even to look to as fellow fitness junkies!
Not to mention the temptations of college.. the horrible cafeteria food, the parties, the alcohol! Ugh. It’s so hard to eat right and stay healthy. I feel my self-discipline slowly slipping away!
I guess the point of this blog is to ask if there is anyone out there who feels the same way and can relate? And if anyone has any tips to how I can stay motivated and disciplined? I know it’s all in my head but I don’t want to slip. I want to have a healthy body free of crappy food and fat and full of lean muscle. I want to be a lean and mean fighting machine!
March 6, 2007 at 11:56 am
Well, I would start of by becoming selfish. Being selfish in this sport will allow you to accomplish your goals. Instead of going out drinking with the girls, let them know that you have to hit the gym or you need to go jog a mile or so. Motivation? It can come by music, a pic of yourself when you were looking your best (not daying that your not looking good now), this web site, or by any other means necessary. You just got to be consistent, determined and have the will. Good luck!
March 6, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Ya I feel you. Im a senior and I think if I would have a had a fellow fotness junkie to motivate me throughout college I would be huge by now. I use this site as motivation I look at all th pics of the guys who look how I want ot to motivate me to eat right and stay in the gym. I’m sure you will find your motivation if you haven’t alreay…
March 6, 2007 at 1:55 pm
Thanks for the advice guys!
April 1, 2007 at 6:54 am
Personally, as one of the "older people"
I wish I could go back and tell myself when I was in college to start taking the whole fitness-kick a lot more seriously. For a while I had a training partner who lived down the hall from me and would get up with me and go workout 4 or 5 days a week at 5:30am. (And at that early in the morning, if one person gets up, the other person damn well better be getting up too or there’ll be hell to pay.) But once he stopped going, I started to lose the drive to go to the gym at all. (no one to keep pushing me) If I was smarter, I would have kept going and made friends with the other people that were at the gym at that time too and just used them as my personal motivator.
As for the college lifestyle:
- College cafeterias, by law, are supposed to be serving food that has nutritional value, so just stay away from the sugar-coated cereals and try to eat healthy. (I honestly NEVER ate salads until I got into college. Never had anything less than 2% milk too; but in college it became 1% or skim.)
- Parties/alcohol: If you’re a sociable person like I am, there is basically nothing that will keep you from going out and partyin every now-and-then. The only advise here is to try to cut back on how much and how often. Only go out one night per week. Or only on weekends. Or if there’s a certain day of the week that all of your friends always go to a specific bar, just go once or twice a month. When everyone is drinking a beer, drink yours slower so you don’t consume as much, or have a bottle of water for every-other round. Cut yourself off and go home early because you know you don’t want to be groggy for your workout in the morning. Volunteer to be the designated driver if you don’t think your own willpower will be enough to prevent you from drinking a boatload at the bar/party.
I’m starting to cut back on my party schedule again. (I’m used to going out probably 4 or 5 nights a week, but recently cut it back to maybe once per week.) Some buds keep giving me $hit about "not bein able to hang with the big dawgs" anymore, but after a couple weeks, a few of them are finally starting to understand that I’m serious about getting back into shape and stopped tryin to guilt-trip me into boozin it up with them.
Well… before I make this reply TOO long (heh, too late), I guess I just want to say that it’s ALL up to YOU. YOU gotta keep yourself motivated. YOU gotta keep eating right. YOU gotta cut back on the bad stuff. Don’t let anyone (family, friends, potential lovers… ANYONE) affect your decision to keep your new healthy lifestyle. If you let them do it to you, you’re just going to be regretting it years down the road and wishing you started getting fit sooner.