11 Tips on How to Stay Physically and Mentally Healthy in College
Being a college student is no joke. Intense academic curriculum, part-time jobs, social events, lots of responsibilities, and no parents around to remind them to eat well and sleep tight can become serious obstacles on the way to a healthy and joyful college experience. That’s why it’s time to show some consciousness and introduce these 11 healthy habits.
Eat More Fiber
Fiber is a natural scrub for the human digestive system. It helps remove toxins, maintain a healthy acid-alkaline balance in the stomach, and ensure normal metabolism. In other words, it makes you feel well and energetic during the day, which is crucial for a college student.
Therefore, try to include more fruits, veggies, and whole grains in your diet. This will help you feel full but still light during the day, so no stomach pains or disorders will distract you from studying.
Take Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamins and minerals are also crucial for normal metabolism. They take part in hundreds of metabolic processes, specifically in keeping the immunity strong and resistive to different diseases and pathologies. Vitamin and mineral deficit is a common problem among students, especially from the Northern States. So make sure to consult your physician to check this issue and take it under control.
Walk at Least 10 Thousand Steps Per Day
Walking is the healthiest and the most pleasant type of activity for people of any age and weight. It normalizes metabolism, lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis, and normalizes blood pressure. Unlike other aerobic exercises, walking is relatively easy and is available to most people regardless of their physical level. To stay healthy and control your weight, many doctors recommend walking at least 10 thousand steps per day.
Cut off Sugar Intake
Delicious as it is, sugar can be incredibly dangerous when overused. Not only excessive sugar intake can lead to diabetes and obesity but also some studies have proven that it can cause aggression and prevent reasonable thinking.
To stay healthy and well, try to minimize the amount of sugar you consume. Replace sweetened soda and juices with water or sugar-free tee, cookies and cakes with healthier options, as well as try to enjoy the natural sweetness of milk in your coffee without any additional taste boosters.
Minimize Caffeine
But don’t overindulge caffeine. As much as sugar, caffeine can cause anxiety, aggression, compulsive thoughts, fear, and even depression. Besides, it’s off-limits for people with hypertension.
If you’re an ardent coffee person, allow yourself a cup in the morning but try to stick to caffeine-free drinks most of the time.
Have a Regular and Sound Sleep
A healthy sleeping routine is incredibly important, especially for college students. You might have already noticed how bad you feel after a few all-nighters in a row. The brain refuses to work, everything annoys you, and information simply doesn’t stick. So what all of this for?
Give yourself a promise to sleep no less than 7 hours per night. If you’re having a tough time trying to sleep, use blackout curtains and earplugs to remove light and sound distractions. Short power-naps during the day are also a great practice that can help you reboot your brain and restore energy for another academic leap.
Stay Active
Even if you are a stay-at-home type of person, try to include more physical activity in your daily routine. Exercising has many benefits – better memory, good shape, stronger health, and vitality are among them.
However, not necessarily this should be a special training session. Instead, you can walk more, ride a bike every now and then, dance with your friends, and just stay on the move. Doing chores rather than using robot assistants can also be a pretty effective workout, and you won’t need any gym subscription.
Practice Good Hygiene
While it’s clear for everyone that clean home and clean you are good for health, a lot of students often forget about such important thing like hygiene. It’s okay to enjoy street food but make sure you disinfect your hands with antiseptic spray or tissues if there’s no way to wash them with soap and water.
Cleaning the place is also an issue for busy students. At the same time, an untidy room can be a honey trap for germs, insects, and parasites. So make sure you tidy up your room regularly, as well as wash dirty laundry without delay.
Do What Invigorates You
Having a hobby and doing what you love is as much important for healthy living as anything else. It fuels your body with endorphins, helps your mind relax, gives you a purpose, as well as keeps you cheerful and upbeat.
That’s why you should always find time for the activities that invigorate you. Whether sports, woodwork, or clothes making, make sure you put it in your busy schedule.
Find Time for Friends and Family
Social activity may not be a top priority when you rush around from one pressing deadline to another. But don’t underestimate the value of communication and social contact for your health and well-being. Loving people can give you support, hope, inspiration, advice, and just make you feel that everything will be okay. Furthermore, an open conversation between two close people is considered the best anti-depressant. Therefore, make sure you don’t keep your friends and family on the sidelines.
Consider Therapy
Nevertheless, sometimes college puts you into so much stress that you don’t even see the way out. If you feel like you can’t handle the situation on your own, don’t be ashamed to ask a professional to help you out. “Timely psychological therapy can help you avoid a lot of undesirable outcomes, such as self-deprecation thoughts, anxiety, and depression,” is sure Melany Brome, a Pro-papers psychology expert.
Therefore, when you feel overwhelmed, consider therapeutic sessions. They can help you to manage stress more effectively and bring back peace of mind.
