I know that most of you, including me, started school this week so I wish y’all a semester full of laughter, excellent grades, good food, enough tissues to wipe the tears and everything else that you need to survive a college semester especially if you’re in a nursing program! Hurray!
So today’s FitnessFriday is a little bit different from the others. If you read my first FitnessFriday post, you’ll know that sometimes there will be some fitness tips for FitnessFriday. Since school just started, I figured that it will be a good time to give y’all some tips on how to stay fit during the semester. Staying fit is really hard, especially when the cold weather is right around the corner and you’re busy with life. I do not let my busy schedule keeping me from being active because it is a must for me. For today’s FitnessFriday, I have 5 tips that can help you to stay fit during the semester.
1. DRINK WATER
I cannot stress enough how important it is to drink water! It is completely calorie free and very filling which means that you can save yourself from a lot of calories and processed sugar from sodas and other drinks. I know many people don’t like drinking water because it is tasteless. Drinking infused water is a great way to solve this problem. You can just add your favorite fruits, mint leaves, lime or lemon to your water bottle so you can have flavored water. Water has so many benefits that this post would not be enough to get into the details. Maybe one day, I’ll do a post just about the benefits of water, who knows!
2. Try Meal Prepping
Another way to stay fit this semester is to try meal prepping. Meal prepping is very handy, especially when you have a busy schedule, because you’ll always tend to eat out during classes/work break. However, if you bring your lunch and snacks with you to school/work, there’s no need to eat a 900 calories burger meal from McDonald. Choose a day and dedicate it to grocery shopping and meal prepping. Always include a lot of veggies, fruits, and food in which you can find all the nutrients that your body needs. Meal prepping literally helps you save money, stay fit and you can control what is going into your body.
3. Stay Active
One of the hardest thing will be to stay active. It will be hard to fit working out into your schedule. However, it is not impossible, you just have to make time. Try doing High-Intensity interval training or Hiit workout which is a training technique where you can workout for a short amount of time and burn a lot of calories, fat during that period. However, you have to give it your all and reduce your recovery time during which you’ll also stay active to keep your heart rate up. You can also incorporate stretches, yoga into your fitness routine for a quick effective workout.
4. Take the stairs.
If you still cannot find time to exercise, try taking the stairs instead of the elevators and the escalators. Taking the stairs is a whole workout of its own where you can burn more calories per minute than a quick jog. It is a very efficient and you do not need any special skills or equipment to do it! So next time you find yourself waiting for the elevator to go to the 3rd floor of your school building, think twice and just take the stairs! JUST DO IT!
5. SLEEP
If you want to stay fit or get fit, you HAVE to get enough sleep daily, at least 7-8 hours. Studies actually show that a lot of weigh gain is associated with sleep deprivation [1]. To be honest, I haven’t gotten enough sleep since school started. I really try to get at least 7 hours of sleep but with schoolwork, work and life in general, it’s very hard. So my goal for the next couple of weeks is to get at least 7 hours of sleep daily! I definitely encourage you to do the same!
I hope that those tips were very helpful! They can be applied to everyday life which is very useful. Let me know if y’all have other things that y’all do to stay fit and active during the semester in the comments below! Also, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to email or comment down below! I would love to hear from y’all! Happy FitnessFriday guys!
XoXo,
SmileyMaruth!
Reference.
- Obesity Prevention Source
