Freshman 15/Workout Routines

[sweatpea559]

Hi everyone!

I'm finishing up my freshman year of college and my weight has fluctuated a lot since I've been here. I blame it on the cafeteria food! I seriously go weeks at a time without eating any fruits or vegetables... which is awful! I didn't think I would gain weight here because my school is on a hill, and everywhere I walk is uphill or up about 200+ stairs...

But anyway, I did gain about 20 pounds, and lost about 8 so I'm still up 12. Since I can't really eat healthy here, and I'm too broke to go to the grocery store and buy food with ACTUAL money (I'm on a meal plan), I set up this new workout regimen:

Every single night I go out to the track. I usually work out for an hour but I might stay longer if I'm not tired or my roommate is being particularly annoying. First I walk around the track once, stretch, then run one mile, walk a lap, then run another mile, then just walk and run in intervals for the rest of the hour/until I feel like stopping/until I reach 5 miles. Then I usually do about 100 crunches, and sometimes I tackle a set of stairs (But not usually lol).

I'm still not really losing weight! I don't know what they put in that food! Any suggestions?

Did you guys gain the freshman 15? Did you ever loose it? How?

Oh, and post your current work out routine if you have one!

Hopefully we can give each other ideas and share things that have worked for us!

 

[NutMeg]

I got a wicked bad stomach bug in my first month of university, so when I gained weight I was really just going back to my regular weight.

That being said, you really do have to watch what you eat as much as you can. Try to get as many veggies/fruits as you can (surely your cafeteria has a salad bar?), go for lean proteins if you can, and try not to overload on carbs. I realize that you're pretty limited in your diet by being in a cafeteria, but you have to do the best you can.

Oh, and make sure you eat breakfast everyday. It kick starts your metabolism, otherwise your body thinks that it needs to hold on to every calorie you get throughout the day.

My routine is pilates, 10 minutes of abs, 10 of legs/butt, 10 of arms/shoulders, 10 of high intensity cardio, and then 10 minutes of stretching. I also power walk everywhere, I live on a huge campus so I walk an average of 5 kms every day.

Finally. Do some strength training. You need to be building muscle, because increasing your muscle means that you will start burning more calories even when resting. Do strength training before you do your cardio.

Good luck.

 

[sweatpea559]

Yeah the one thing I do buy at the store is milk and cereal. I always have to eat breakfast, partially because I know it's healthy and partially because when I wake up I'm so hungry it's actually painful! I think it's because I work out really late at night and don't eat afterward sometimes. =/

I have tried out the salad bar. There are a few things I like but most of it either isn't washed right or not the variety I like. Ughh I'm so picky. Another issue is that fruits and veggies cost so many points... pizza is always so darn cheap, and I'm running out of points =(

I think they want us to be fat! haha

 

[kdemers1221]

I actually lost about 10 lbs my first quarter at college. I would try to eat as healthy as possible. Drink a lot of water, you will pee a lot but the more water you drink the less calories you'll actually eat because almost 3/4 of the time you think you're hungry you're actually thirsty. the thing that started to sabotage my weight was drinking at parties. beer and alcohol in general is the devil for your waist line. I'm not sure if you're a drinker but i've seen people gain tonssss of weight because of binge drinking.
if you're still not losing weight keep a food journal writing down everything you're eating. by writing it down you might realize that you're eating way more than you need to. google a calorie counter to find out the caloric value of the food you're cafeteria serves.

 

[gabi03]

I got a work study job inside of the gym, I was in charge of cleaning up the gym area and putting weights away. Since i had to know how the equiptment worked, I got to work out while earning a paycheck. And if I couldn't workout if it was busy, I stayed afterwards to workout since i was already there. I also put myself on weight watchers but I never deprived myself of good fatty food. Its all about finding a balance that works for you.

 

[L1LMAMAJ]

I gained like a freshman 10. I had to get new pants; it was horrible. The next year, I started to eat out less and it really does save you not only money but calories. Try that out. Cooking is quite enjoyable when you have a couple of good recipes and some patience.

Good luck!

 

[sweatpea559]

I don't do the stairs because I work out at night and there are no lights... lol... and there are a lot of broken stairs so I'm afraid I will fall (which would probably kill me). I wish I could cook but I don't have a kitchen. We can't even have toasters here.

I've been buying lean cuisine meals and I lost 6 pounds, and I've been getting salads in the cafeteria but they just don't fill me up. I can't stay full for more than an hour. So I have mass amounts of 90 and 100 calorie packs in my closet for snacks. And sometimes I just have a slice of bread with peanut butter on it between meals.... I just hate being hungry!
My favorite foods are brown rice, fish, shrimp, grilled chicken, artichokes, etc... if I could just cook I wouldn't have this problem. grr...