by Bailey Field, Kayla Foster and Bet Llavador
If the dorm food and lifestyle have taken their toll on your body your freshman year of college, do not panic.
Start getting back in shape before school ends for summer with tips from fitness instructors and personal trainers at Colorado State University.
The weight gain known as “the freshman 15” is a common phenomenon among first year college students. It relates to the abundance of food and its availability to the college dorm residents and the laziness or lack of time to exercise that cause freshmen to put on weight.
Though hard to resist the all-you-can-eat ice cream and the endless supply of chocolate chip cookies, Jaime Bellandi, an employee at Corbett Dining Hall, believes there are plenty of options to eat healthy in the dining halls.
“There’s always the gluten free station . . . the salad bar and the fresh fruit bar,” Bellandi said. “All of the fruits and vegetables from the dining hall aren’t frozen and most of them are grown locally.”
Erin Stamper, a resident in Corbett Hall, finds it hard to discern between eating the right amount and eating until feeling full. “The dining halls definitely make it very hard to stay in shape, but they do have a wide variety of food,” she said.
Eating healthy can be tough, but Aaron Ayers Jr., a CSU Recreation Center personal trainer, says it is possible even with dorm food. “Eating is going to be based on you as a person,” Ayers said.
“It is going to be based on your body and what your goals are. If you are trying to lose weight or trying to maintain you [should] track of your calories.
“There are so many different calorie trackers that you can use so you know you aren’t eating too much or eating too less. But if you are eating too less it can also cause you to gain weight.”
Ayers suggests mypyrimid.gov as an effective calorie tracker. This website directs you in finding how many calories you take in each day, the types of food you eat and what these foods do to your body. It also helps you track your physical activity.
Click here to go to the CSU nutritional value calculator.
Click here to go to the CSU nutritional value calculator.
Worrying about your actual diet is going to take a lot of observation and being honest with yourself,” Ayers said. “You have to take the initiative to actually count your calories and make sure you are eating the proper foods that you should be eating per day.”
Also available through the CSU Health Center is a nutritional service where nutritionists can create a nutrition plan that is best for you.
CSU Rec Center fitness instructor, Kristen Sample, says, “It’s a combination of diet and exercise for a successful result. If you do just the diet or do just the exercise, you’re not going to get the most efficient results as if you combine the two.”
Sample’s advice for getting in shape: “Make it a lifestyle versus a temporary ‘I’m just going to do this for the summer.’”
“[Getting in shape] is something that you are definitely going to have to take baby steps with,” Ayers said. “You don’t want to rush into it so take your time. Devise a plan, whether it is coming to a group fitness class, working with a personal trainer or working out with a friend.”
Ayers recommends finding a way to enjoy exercising. “The more you enjoy it the more you will go back and you won’t have to actually be in this position where you are trying to get back into shape again.”
Health experts recommend a half-pound to a maximum of two pounds a week for weight loss. “Typically people who gradually lose weight tend to keep it off more successfully than people who try to lose it very quickly,” Sample said.
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| Colorado State University Rec Center fitness instructor, Kristen Sample, facilitates the 60-minute step class at the CSU Rec Center. The Rec Center offers 101 different fitness classes for CSU students. |
“[Exercise] more than 30 minutes or more than three to five times a week if you are trying to lose weight or trying to significantly change your body,” Sample said. “Also include [in your workout] muscular endurance, strength training exercises and flexibility training.”
Sample explains that running on a treadmill for a miserable hour is not the only way to exercise.
“You can do high intensity intervals . . . you can take [your workout] outside. There are a million different options for cardio training and probably one of the best things to do is vary it up a lot,” Sample said.
The Rec Center offers 101 fitness classes a week. Cardio only classes, strength only classes, a mix of the two and even flexibility classes are just a few of those offered at the Rec. Click here to see the Rec Center fitness classes schedule.
“We have classes that concentrate on more moderate intensity endurance type cardio, like out 60 minute step class,” said Sample, who teaches many of the classes. “We have classes on the opposite spectrum that focus on very short intense intervals, like our Tabata Attack class where you work as hard as you can for 20 seconds and take a ten second break.”
“There are so many free classes; you don’t have to figure out how to do this on your own. Just walk in and we will show you how to work out effectively,” Sample said.
Personal training is another option to get fit at the Rec. “We can help you devise a plan that is going to personally help you reach your fitness goals, whether your fitness goals are to lose weight . . . or to gain muscular strength,” Ayers said.
“We are here to help you at the Rec center,” Ayers said. “We can devise so many different plans that are going to help you with your physical appearance and with your lifestyle.”
