Few young people realize how important it is to be healthy and what it means to their future. Not the future when they are about to retire, though. Sometimes, it is about preserving health just to make it through the college years.
A stressful environment, lack of money and time, and lack of healthy eating and other good habits often collide during this period of time and significantly affect one’s well-being. So, here are some recommendations on what you can do to practice self-care as well as deal with stress, bad habits, and the resulting lack of motivation. Finally, all of those are equally important ‘cause everyone knows: there is a sound mind in a sound body.
Take Time to Rest
One of the keys to staying healthy is not making it worse when you are already ill. Continuing to study even when you feel unwell has consequences in the end. For example, when you have a cold or flu, your body needs all the energy it has to fight the virus or bacteria and recover. If you spend that energy on studies, the recovery will last longer, and there may be complications from the illness.
In the end, you may skip even more of your studies, and it will be harder to catch up with lectures and assignments. Of course, when it comes to the latter, you can address a college paper writing service and get your papers and essays done for you, but you can do the same as soon as you get ill. There are numerous perks of doing that and staying at home:
- you don’t have to worry about your written assignments, hence no stress;
- you spend much less money for a couple of papers you need to submit soon than when fighting the illness for several weeks and delegating all the tasks that have piled up;
- you don’t spread the disease and don’t expose your weak immune system to other bacteria and viruses.
Mind Your Diet
Excessive consumption of fats and fried food and lack of plant-based food, including its fresh form, lead to an unbalanced diet. The latter results in mineral deficiency and, thus, low energy levels. However, to get enough minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants, one doesn’t need to buy superfoods and a bunch of dietary supplements.
First of all, make sure you consume enough:
- protein (meat, fish, cheese, nuts, seeds, legumes)
- fiber (fruits and vegetables)
- water (pure mineralized water, not tea, coffee, juice, and so on)
The point of drinking enough water excludes the possibility of confusing hunger and thirst and prevents overeating. Protein takes more time to get processed, which helps one avoid binge eating. And fiber, in turn, helps the digestion process as well as makes one feel fuller.
Sure, filling your stomach with meat only will make you feel full as well, but that amount of protein and fat is too much for the digestive system of any human.
Learn To Delegate & Prioritize
Quite often, all you need to do to stay healthy is get rid of the stress or at least know how to resist it. The stress may come from a bunch of chores and tasks you have no energy to deal with. You keep thinking about them and how you can’t get a simple thing done, the procrastination kicks in, and here you are: stressed and worn out and buried underneath the feelings of guilt and despair.
Meanwhile, the room gets dustier, and the deadlines get closer. So, be realistic if you have little to no resources to handle all the stuff. Skip a party to restore your energy, order a paper from a professional, and ask a friend or your roommate to clean up your room for you this time. Unless you start taking advantage of one’s help, it’s okay.
Learn to Take It Easy
Learning institutions bring a lot of stress to a student’s life. There are new challenges every now and then. First, there is a need to adjust to new rules at college, make new friends, and get used to dorm life. Then, there are assessments on each subject, strict teachers and classmates, and finals and midterms.
As the new study year begins, one may think they have nailed it all, but then new teachers with other quirks appear. No one needs your nicely written essays anymore – they want proper research papers, but you’ll get this only after several rejected drafts.
On top of that, there are personal issues or the need to get a job. In short, there will always be problems, but they are part of everyone’s life. Their presence doesn’t mean you need to forget about your primary needs and burn the candle at both ends. It means that you need to learn how to not give a hang about some issues or at least how to not exaggerate their importance. The cooler your attitude is, the more chances you will handle the situation.
However weird it may sound, some problems go away before one starts resolving them. For instance, the teacher who said something mean about your paper may forget about it the next day. In turn, you may have a sleepless night trying to understand why they said so.
In most cases, there is nothing personal. They were simply in a bad mood and had nothing against you. Had it not been you, it would be another student or colleague. So, unless you can do something about your concern right now, overthinking may not help but only add more stress.
To Sum Up
These are the four main ways that will help you stay healthy during your student years. Of course, there are many other tips you may be advised to follow, like meditating, doing sports, staying away from alcohol or sugar, and other stuff health nuts are obsessed with. All those things make sense and are effective in a way. However, there is no need to ration your food or other drastic measures.
Sometimes, it is about developing good habits. And we have described the core ones that you must adopt to make sure you become a stress-resistant person who cares about their body and mind!
