Browsing Category

Health

This Is How We Get Fat

Thomas Frank Health

10:34 PM: “Tomorrow’s the day. I’m going to get up early and hit the gym. I’ll make eggs with veggies instead of eating cereal. I’m gonna stop eating out. I have to. I can’t let myself become like everyone else around me. I’m not going to turn into the typical overweight adult. I’ll stay fit and youthful forever.”

11:41 PM: “There’s a deal for one of the games on my Steam wishlist. I think I’ll buy it and play for a while before I go to bed.”

1:39 AM: “Crap, looks like I stayed up a bit too late. Well, time to go to bed – I’ll just deal with a little less sleep tomorrow. I really want to start on my plans to get healthy in the morning.”

7:00 AM: “Oh no, it’s my alarm – but I feel like I just went to bed like 20 minutes ago! I can’t get up now…. it’s OK. My first class isn’t until 10:00. I’ll just sleep a little longer.”

8:00 AM: “Ugghh my legs feel so warm; I just don’t want to move them. 15 more minutes.”

8:15 AM: “Alright, I guess I’ll get up. I’ve got to get going on my goals. I’ll just my email real quick before I pop over to the gym.” Read More →

Yes, You CAN Afford Healthy Food In College

Thomas Frank Health

“I want to eat better food, but I just can’t afford it dude.”

I hear this one a lot. A lot of students think they can’t eat healthy in college because it’s too expensive.

In a way, this could be true. When you look at a lot of paleo dieting guidelines, you read things like:

“Buy only grass-finished beef from a local supplier.”
“Only eat wild-caught fish. Farmed fish will melt your insides and you’ll never find true love.”
“All of your produce needs to be organic.”
“If you’re going to eat butter, it has to be grass-fed butter that you buy from an Amish farm in person.”
“Buy Bazooka-Proof coffee dude, it’s made in Chili and has 800% less toxins than Starbucks.”

If you’re dead set on following all of this advice, then heck yes it’s going to get expensive! Fresh-caught fish and grass-fed beef alone would obliterate anything you make working a part-time job in no time.

However, none of these things are absolutely necessary to be healthy. Read More →

Everyone In Japan Is Thin And Beautiful (And So Can You!)

Thomas Frank Health

Raise your hand if you think it’s ridiculous that we even have the concept of “The Freshman Fifteen“. Ok, now if you’re raising your hand, you should probably put it down because there’s no reason to sit at your computer and raise your hand.

Plus, I found it difficult to keep typing with one hand in the air.

It is ridiculous, though. The fact that so many of us go to college and end up gaining a bunch of unnecessary weight is just sad. However, it happens to way too many people. Our society is so based around a sugar-heavy, carb-heavy diet and a sedentary lifestyle that it’s become commonplace to get fat after high school.

But what if we could fix this problem? What if there was a way to fix it that didn’t involve going on some rigid, radical diet or a overly complicated exercise program?

Well, that fix exists, and I only had to travel 8,000 miles to find out what it is. Read More →

Guest Post: 5 Brain-Amping Foods That Are Like Edible Rocket Fuel

Kirby Jay Health

This is a guest post by University of Tampa journalism student Kirby Jay.

Exhaustion is inevitable in college. Between the part-time jobs, late nights outs, participation in clubs and organizations, and the piles of preserved schoolwork that we knock out the night before the due date, (not to mention efforts to run every day) there is no room to store energy.

This forces students to turn to unnatural stimulants such as Adderall and Ritalin, even when they are not prescribed to these medications. These illegal drug purchases can lead to addiction, irreparable health damage, and is a total waste of your money.

Many students do not realize that food was created to do the same brain-boosting job! To keep your brain operating at maximum capacity in order to get your work done, stay up late, and remember the important appointment you have scheduled with your advisor the following day, you must consume the best, natural brain food possible. Here are five easily accessible foods on college campuses that will give your brain the boost you need! Read More →

Better Health, More Focus, Mind Powers… My Vegan Diet Experiment

Martin Boehme Experiences, Health

Near the end of January, some friends and I watched Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead, a documentary about a man’s ambition to juice fast for sixty days. Now, I have no desire to lose weight, so I was not inspired to juice fast. I need my food.

However, I did take note that Joe was eating a lot more fruits and vegetables than me. In fact, I’m pretty sure my main source of plant intake was applesauce, which, while delicious, is definitely not going to give me all of the plant-based nutrients I need to be at optimum health.

But where would I start? Being a meat, bread, and potato eater for twenty-one years, how would I best find the fruits and vegetables I liked, and truly bring change to my diet?

Simple: by forcing myself to eat the complete opposite of everything I had eaten before. To do this, I decided that I would try and follow a vegan diet for an entire month.

Got Guts? Join Us And Run Every Day Until The End Of The Semester

Thomas Frank Health

Right as March was ending, I saw my friend Bud Hennekes tweet this out:

Think I’m gonna do a 30 day trial of running everyday in April.

— Bud Hennekes (@Aboundlessworld) March 31, 2012

Since my own workout habits had been slipping, I decided to join him. I’m happy to report that we’ve both gone nine straight days running without a single skip!

The coolest part, however, is that other people joined. We now have a group of about six people on Twitter who are all running every day. Each of us is driven by the motivation everyone else contributes, and to date no one has skipped to my knowledge.

So today this thought popped into my head:

“Why not get others involved?”

And that’s exactly what I want to do now! Read More →

10 Ways To Deal With Sickness In College

Meghan Callahan Health

Ah, college. “The best years of our lives.” The big leagues. And the single largest cesspool that lets any type of bacteria/disease/virus/microbe/etc. thrive! Here’s how to have a ‘successful’ illness while at college—and how to recover fast! Read More →

Beat the Heat! Or, How to Survive Without Air Conditioning

Meghan Callahan Health

There are human luxuries we have all grown accustomed to in our comfortable American lives. These include: food, running water, bad reality T.V. shows, and air conditioning. I never realize how much I miss my air conditioner until it is the middle of August and I am left lying on the floor of my dorm room, panting, and praying for death.

Here’s a list of some useful (and some unconventional!) ways to keep cool on campus! Read More →