What My Health Journey has Taught Me as A College Student

Living a healthy lifestyle takes practice, you need to build healthy habits and focus on your own personal goals. There is a lot of dedication to yourself. Over the past two and a half years my experience had taught me a few different things that I believe are important to discuss. Here are seven lessons my health journey has taught me as a college student.

1.The Scale is Not Accurate.

This may be a no-brainer to some people, but I never really stepped back to think what exactly makes up that number on the scale. Initially, my weight was my body weight. I though it represented the amount of fat I had on my body. This mindset, however, is far from the truth. The number on the scale represents the weight of the fat on your body, your muscle, your bones, the amount of water your body is retaining, if you have eaten yet today, or if you have or have not used the bathroom. The number on the scale is comprised of multiple things that add up your total weight, not the total amount of body fat on your body. Not realizing this can make the scale inaccurate. It can be a useful tool for weight loss; however, it is important to note that the scale is not the only teller of fat loss.

2. Failure is Not Bad, It is A Part of Your Success.

We have all been there. Feeling like we failed is never fun, but it is important. How else would we learn? As with anything new, you are going to fall down a few times. This is okay and very normal! You may not get the hang of things the very first time you try being healthier, but what you learn and how you come back from those failures is the most important part of failure. It is about what you are going to do, not what you did or did not do. Learning from our failures is how we succeed later on.

3. It is Difficult, but It Gets Easier.

I am going to be straight forwards here, it is difficult. If it is your first time at trying to be healthier, you are doing something that is completely new and different than anything you have ever done before. If it were easy, anyone would do it. Good things are earned and require hard work. The rewards for your hard work, however, is the very encouraging and inspiring. It becomes rather addicting. As you get better, it get easier! Anything that offers an easy solution or fast result does not work. It may work for a little bit, but it is not sustainable for a long amount of time. So, do not be discouraged because it is hard, you are not alone. It gets easier with time, patients, and practice.

4. You Need to Create New Habits to Break the Old Ones.

The only way to beat those old habits that may be holding you back is to replace them with good habits. Building good habits makes living a healthy lifestyle easier and more efficient, especially for your fitness goals. Being both healthful and mindful in what you are doing from a day to day basis is important.

5. A Healthy Lifestyle is 80% What You Eat and 20% Exercise.

This one was huge when I realized this. I cannot remember where it was that I read it, but it has been a game changer. Being healthful is 80% of what you eat and 20% working out. Meaning what you put in your body has a larger impact than the way you move your body. In a world full of high calorie and processed foods, it makes it very challenging to find the balance between diet and exercise. I have reached a point where I work to eat healthful, whole foods and stay away from as much processed food as I can. Your diet is the most important factor when it come to weight loss, weight gain, or just being healthy in general. What you eat is used to fuel your body and used to help it function properly. The quality of what you are eating is important to help your body work as efficiently as it can.

6. It is 100% About Your Mindset.

One of the newest realizations I have come to is that everything comes down to your mindset. It is what determines how you are going to act and perform. If you are not in the best of moods it is easier to skip out on a workout or grab for the chips instead of the carrots. Realizing that the way you think about anything and everything determines the outcome becomes a great tool for learning how to be healthier. For instance, when you are not feeling like working out, know that when you do follow through with the workout you will to feel much better than you did at first.

7. It is About High-Volume Low-Calorie Foods Versus Low-Volume High-Calorie Foods.

Okay, this one feels like a life hack. One of the easier ways to aide in weight loss is to eat high-volume low-calorie foods. What is high-volume low-calorie? These are foods such as fruits, veggies, and other whole foods that have a larger quantity to calorie ratio. Potatoes (without adding the oils, butter, sour cream, or bacon) are a great example. Leafy greens too! Low-volume high-calorie foods, in contrast, are usually highly processed. This includes easy grab snack foods, fast foods, and sweets. Usually highly processed foods are designed to taste good so that they trigger a want for them in our brains when we eat them. This is to make our bodies crave them so that we eat them again later. If you measure out a serving size, you get a very small amount for a high number of calories. Therefore, eating low-calorie high-volume foods means you can eat more for less. You will feel full, satisfied, and happy knowing you provided your body with great nutrients!

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Check out my last post: Why You Should Track Your Workouts