Fire Up with Fitness: Staying Happy and Healthy This School Year

Story by Lexi Carter
Photo by Anne Langan

In high school, not everyone needed to make time to work out. Between sports teams, extracurriculars and gym classes, there were a lot of opportunities to stay in shape.

However, when coming to college, if you aren’t playing an organized sport, it can become hard to work out regularly.

College is a whole new experience and on top of schoolwork, clubs and a social life, it’s hard to find time to sleep, let alone work out. But, if there’s one thing you can learn in college, it’s that finding time to work out is essential to staying healthy, alert and feeling good throughout the week.

Everyone Loves an Energy Boost
Working out gives you a boost of energy for your full day ahead. Instead of sitting around all day, feeling groggy and tired, try heading to the gym or even doing a short work out in your living room.

Just working out for 45 minutes can give you so much more energy to get daily tasks done.

Healthy Means Happy
Not only does working out help with staying energized and awake, it helps you stay healthy.

We all know that the “freshman fifteen” is all too real and it can happen to anyone. Being exposed to the dining halls with an overwhelming amount of junk food can seem awesome at first, until you start putting on the pounds.

If you just take a few days out of your week to work out for 30 minutes, you can burn calories and keep the unwanted extra weight off. Not to mention, you can build up some muscle, and just feel healthier overall.

Fitness Can Be Fun!
Working out isn’t something that people always think they are going to enjoy. But, once you actually drag yourself off the couch and away from your Netflix binge, it’s hard to deny working out can make your days and your life so much better.

If running or lifting weights isn’t your thing, try a Group Fitness class through University Recreation or join an intramural sports team.

Enjoy being active!