The four years you spend in the university will be some of the best and worst years of your life, so you have to make them count. Your undergraduate life can be filled with sleepless nights, sometimes because you’re out partying with your friends, but more often than not because you’re buried up to your neck in assignments.
It could also be a time for you to rediscover yourself away from the people you’ve known your whole life, which means that you’re free to explore and break out of your comfort zone. You’re constantly reinventing yourself in the university because you’re growing into the person you’re supposed to become.
But it can also be a time when you’ll forget to prioritize your health and well-being. Because you’re too focused on meeting your deadlines, attending your classes, and making sure that you’re present in every social gathering, you may start prioritizing all those over your wellness. And it can hurt you in the long run.
This can happen gradually; in the beginning, it would be pulling all-nighters to study for exams. Then, it would be pumping caffeine into your veins because you’re too strapped for time to get a full meal before your 10 am class. And since you won’t have enough time between classes, you’ll be tempted to get fast food because it’s quicker.
So if you want to implement changes to your undergraduate lifestyle, here’s how you can do it:
Proper Nutrition
Understandably, it can be challenging to focus on good nutrition in college. After all, not everyone has their own kitchens in the dorms, unless they live off-campus and in their apartments. But since that’s unlikely, most people would have to make do with the amenities that their dorms offer, like a communal kitchen.
But if you consider meal-prepping in college, it might become easier for you to watch what you eat and make sure that you’re at least getting enough vegetables every week. If you don’t think you can sustain this, you can start by preparing one meal a day until you adopt the habit.
But if you still think that’s a long shot, then the least you can do is stay away from fast food or takeout because those are chock-full of sodium, sugar, oil, and empty calories. Instead, you should find local restaurants that offer healthy meals for low prices, so you’ll have options if you’re too tired to make your own food.
Good Time Management
No university student is a stranger to cramming to meet deadlines. It’s like a rite of passage at this point because almost everyone experiences this at least once in their whole undergraduate lives. But while it’s thrilling to know that you can submit a requirement a minute before the deadline, it will be much easier if you don’t have to rush anything.
After all, you wouldn’t want to deliver anything to your professors half-baked because it will affect your final grades. Fortunately, time management is a skill that can be learned over time. But of course, to acquire this skill, you’ll have to constantly practice it and make sure that you’re putting in the work.
However, if good time management skills are out of the picture, then you should at least leave enough time to squeeze in a good night’s sleep every day. It will be difficult to function when you’re sleep-deprived because your brain doesn’t get enough rest, and it will affect your decision-making skills. So, do yourself a favor and prioritize your sleep when you have to.
Regular Activity
Between schoolwork, socializing with your friends, and possibly, your part-time job, you may no longer find the time to fit exercise into your daily schedule. This is acceptable when you’re too busy, but it shouldn’t be something that you succumb to during your entire life at the university because it can affect your health.
This is not to say that you should get a gym membership or whatnot, but it won’t hurt if you do. The point is that you should consider including opportunities to be active in your schedule, whether it’s quick jogs around the campus when you have free time or playing sports with your friends on the weekends.
It could even be opting to use the stairwell instead of the elevator when you’re only going up a few flights. Or if you need to clear your head, you can walk around campus to breathe in the fresh air and take your mind off of your requirements, even if only for a few hours.
Getting good grades and maintaining your social life are also crucial to your college life, but they shouldn’t come at the cost of your health. If you don’t start taking care of your body as early as now, you might come to regret it in the future. So, always choose to do what’s best for you.
