Tips on eating healthy and staying active

Going away to college can be a fun and exciting time. For most, it is the first time that you are truly on your own and able to control your own life. No more mom and dad to tell you what to do. It’s all up to you and the choices you make.

Unfortunately, when many people go to college, they begin to make very poor health and eating choices and up pops the “Freshman 15,” those naughty little 15 pounds that seem to pack onto the bellies and thighs of some unfortunate college freshman all over the country. Not everyone gains the Freshman 15, in fact many people actually lose weight during their first year of college, but keeping those pounds at bay requires some good decision making when it comes to eating and exercise.

Keep the tips below in mind as you live the fabulous college life so you won’t become victim to this looming enemy:

• Stay active- When in high school, most students had gym or other another athletic class at least once (sometimes up to twice) a week and many students were also active in sport activities. Unless you have been recruited to be a star athlete for your college’s sports team, you’re in need of a replacement.  Find the opportunity to be active on a regular basis through walking, running, biking, etc.  Whether it’s a jog around campus, a walk to the student center vs getting a ride or biking downtown and back, the extra physical activity will do you good.




• Join the gym- Most colleges and universities have an athletic center on campus and membership is free or very cheap. Join the gym and take advantage. Most university athletic centers have a pool, tennis courts, weights, exercise equipment, basketball courts, you name it and most offer a myriad of classes to fit any need. But don’t just join the gym… GO. Get a workout buddy and make it a habit to work out regularly each week.
• Manage your portions- Most colleges have cafeteria eating and that means all you can eat all the time. This smorgasbord can be very tempting and it can be hard not to indulge in all your favorites when they are regularly available and in abundance. Don’t go crazy with portions, don’t keep piling food on the plate. Keep your portions reasonable, especially for high caloric and fatty foods.
• Don’t forget your veggies (and fruits)- Mom is not going to be there to remind you to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, but you still need them to stay healthy. Incorporate a salad a day into your meals and make sure you have one vegetable with your dinner each night. Try to incorporate fresh fruit as well and grab an apple, orange, or banana on your way out and keep as a late night snack.
• Keeps unhealthy snacks at bay- There will be plenty of cake, cookies, chips, french fries, ice cream and more readily available. While you may want to dive in head first and on occasion make a meal of just fries, don’t. Do treat yourself, but not all the time. Keep a treat a treat and limit your daily consumption of these items. Giving yourself a limit (like one cookie a day) may help.
• Don’t forget water- Drinking water is important in maintaining overall health. Eight glasses a day should be your goal. Drinking water helps your metabolism operate at its ideal level and that gives your body a fighting chance of burning off some of those snacks.

Going away to college will result in growth in maturity, knowledge and potential… it shouldn’t be a growth in pants size too!

Photo credit: by klynslis

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Try and consider the various areas of study carefully.
As a student, you will have to decide the occupation you wish to pursue in future.  This will in a big way help you to make your decision. There are many colleges in the US that offer unique programs of study to students that happen to be outside mainstream areas of study. You may be opting for subjects such as Agriculture, Industrial engineering etc. These are a few examples of study courses that are not found in every college or university. It is natural for you to be undecided. Do not be in a rush. Take your time and try not to make this decision based on an area of study. It is seen that an average college fresher is likely to change their major almost 5 times before graduation.

You need to compare the tuition rates of different colleges.
You will have to consider the cost to attend college as that is important. You have to make a list of different colleges and see what courses they offer and what their tuition rates are. You may have to apply for educational loans or take financial assistance from home to study. Thus, you aim should be to identify the best college that offers the courses you wish to study at a reasonable price.

How much time it takes to commute?
This is also a factor that you may have to consider while choosing the college for yourself. Do you want to stay closer to home or would prefer to move far away. If your college is within the driving distance, then you can drive down to college and pursue your studies. Or else you may have to apply for hostel accommodation.

Decide on a college where family and friends are studying.
It is always advantageous to join a college that family and friends already attend. You may feel a bit isolated in an unfamiliar environment. But if you have known faces around you it can give you the desired confidence. You will excel in your studies and spread your wings sooner than expected.

Visit the College Campus
If you visit the campus of your prospective colleges, it will help you to reach a better decision. You have to feel comfortable in the college environment where you wish to study. Facts and figures will not be able to give you enough information about a place. When you visit the college campus in person, you will see for yourself the campus life that exists there and that will help you to make up your mind. After you have considered these factors carefully, it will be easy for you to choose the right college to study. These study years are invaluable as it prepares you for the future. You will have to make sure that you are able to select the college that will help you to study the courses you want and make you realize your dreams.

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Planning ahead is probably the biggest key to lessening the stress and amount of time you’ll have to spend in the books. Keep up on your course work and schedule hourly allotments of studying before the big test. This won’t leave you opening your book at 11:00 pm the night before your test.

Studying in groups or with a partner always helps out. We learn information better by teaching the material to someone else. It causes us to use the information in new ways and forms better memory circuits in the brain. This can also make studying more enjoyable than slaving away by yourself. Make sure to study with someone who is going to reciprocate the effort and not just goof off the whole time you hang out.

Review your material at night before you go to sleep. Studies have shown that we commit most of the information gathered throughout the day primarily during sleep, so reviewing before you hit the sack will give you an edge up on those flashcards you’ve been looking at all day. On top of that make sure to get plenty of sleep, at least 6-8 hours. It’s unhealthy for the brain to go without much needed sleep, and you perform worse under less sleep. Caffeine helps you relieve the feelings of grogginess but it doesn’t erase sleep deprivation and won’t help your brain perform at maximum capacity.

The study aides you choose can be powerful tools, so find out what works best for you. You can rewrite your notes or outline the book, make flashcards, read, or just review your old work. Always try and use the information you’ve learned in situations outside of the classroom. Reusing information given in lecture in new and novel ways helps you understand it better and commit the concepts to memory. Caffeine is great in moderate doses, as is chewing peppermint gum which will actually boost your cognitive focus, but no matter what testimonials your friends give you, stay away from ADD and ADHD medications because they are not only illegal to take but they are highly addictive and can cause serious complications.

Take it slow and divide your study load up into manageable bunches, be healthy, stay calm and your studying will prove to be productive and easy going instead of stressful and unsatisfying.

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Han Chen is a student from American University of Washington D.C. and recently had the opportunity to study in Cairo, Egypt.  Her trip overseas has given her the experience of a life time.  Here is a sneak peak of Han’s experience in a new country.  Look for the full interview in Al Jamiat’s fall issue!

About Studying Abroad
What helped you decide to study abroad?
I had funding through my fellowship with the Institute for International Public Policy. Some previous fellows had studied in Cairo, and HIGHLY recommended it. If any other students of color want to study international relations, they should definitely apply to IIPP.  Also, many people had told me that Arabic was a tough language, but I am pretty good at picking up patterns/syntax, so I thought Arabic would be a fun thing to learn.

Were you living on campus or did you commute?
I commuted; it was about 1 hour from campus in New Cairo to get to my apartment in downtown Cairo. Bless etisalat for making an internet USB stick that works while commuting IN THE DESERT!

About Crew
How did you first hear about the crew team?
I walked by the Student Activities fair at the beginning of the semester and it seemed like a good idea. It was perfect timing because I was looking for something to join at school to meet more people.

What was the key factor that made you decide to join?
I was always going to be free at 6am so why not go ahead and try it out, right? And it was a 5 min cab ride from my home. On the first day, everyone was really nice and helpful to the new students, so I really liked everyone right away.

About Friendships
What was the best way you made new friends?
Find an activity I would enjoy even if I were still at school in the US, and keep doing it! Since I’m studying in a foreign country, I will inevitably meet locals, and doing it in the context of something I already enjoy (or learned to enjoy, like crew) makes it easier to find people I liked, rather than trying to make friends with all Egyptian people simply because I was in Egypt and felt like I should prove that I could befriend all local people. Because then that inevitably attracts people who are more appreciative of the novelty of having a ‘foreign’ friend from America compared to anything else.

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While I went to Cairo to experience a new culture and a new way of life, I think a part of me really believed I would just be an observer. It is, however, important for us travelers to realize that there is no such thing as observing your surroundings. We are all active participants of the world around us, even if we are quietly sitting at the outskirts. At first, I didn’t believe that I would be treated badly, even as a woman. After all, I was only an observer. How wrong I was.

I dreaded walking to the school bus every morning, a dread that arose from knowing I must keep my head down and wear my sunglasses so to avoid making eye contact with any men. I always dressed conservatively, often wearing jeans and tank top with a cardigan, never showing my legs, shoulders, or cleavage; however it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference if I had been naked: my blonde hair and white skin attracted attention everywhere I went. As I walked down the street, I would hear the police officers and bowabs begin to whisper and feel their stares begin to penetrate thorough my shirt. I was constantly angry at this situation; Angry that I, and every other woman, could not smile and converse freely with others in the street. Angry that I had to put on a façade, and a rude one at that, in order to get by without any mushkelaat (problems).

For all the disconcerting looks and comments I got, I always felt ten times safer in Cairo than I do living in downtown Los Angeles at USC. I felt safe even walking alone at night in Zamalek, which I would never do near my apartment in the States. I never feared being robbed or raped, which has a lot to do both with the pride Egyptians have in themselves, as well as the high degree of religiosity that dominates all aspects of their lives.

What does lack towards women in Egypt is respect. I taught refugees once a week in a an area of Cairo called Ain Shams, which is about an hour and half away from my house in Zamalek. The cab ride can get pricy (less than $10, but pricy when you have adapted to the currency), so usually I took the metro home since it costed 1 Egyptian pound (less than 20 cents). Each train on the metro has a car specifically designated for women. Men are not allowed in this car, although if you are a woman you are welcome to ride in the men’s car. My first time on the metro, I did not know about the women’s car, so I hopped onto the first car I found open. The train was so crowded; men, only men were pressed up onto me like sardines. And the smell, oh goodness. After a few minutes, I felt someone’s hand touching my butt; since it was so crowded, I assumed it was an accident and started to move to another wall of the train. I realized the man who had been grabbing me was following me as I moved around the train, his hand on my butt the whole time with the most innocent look on his face. Had this happened at the end of my residency in Cairo, he may have received a good punch in the face and some rude Arabic words; but since I was new to the city and unsure of my boundaries, I remained quiet, and his hand remained on my rear.

From then on I rode in the women’s car.

Rachel Tobias is a junior at the University of Southern California, majoring in International Relations and minoring in Entrepreneurship. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, Rachel has had the privilege to travel to many different regions of the world, and is fluent in Spanish with a developing proficiency in Arabic. She is interested in working in international development in sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East once graduated from college. Stay on the lookout for the fall issue of Al Jamiat to hear more about her experience abroad.

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One of the greatest perks about studying abroad is the experiences students receive for the first time. Whether it would be your first time eating an apple pie, attending a rock concert, or seeing an amazing landmark.  Here at Al Jamiat, we are interested in hearing about your firsts and what they were like!

Shaheed Sabrin is a senior at USC School of Theatre, majoring in Theatre and minoring in Entrepreneurship with the USC Marshal School of Business. He was last Spring’s recipient of the Jack Nicholsan Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Actor and hopes to one day open a restaurant for his mother.

My first… time seeing the great pyramids of Giza

My first time seeing the great pyramids of Giza was such a rewarding and educational experience. I arrived in Egypt on my birthday, August 22nd, which was also the start of Ramadan. I contemplated not going with my University mates for the trip, but then realized the best time to go was with my school’s guided tour. I braced myself and overcame scorching summer heat in the midst of keeping my fast. As our bus approached the raised area of Giza, I stared in awe, wondering what genius went into constructing this massive structure of and all the history behind it. As soon as I stepped off the bus I was bombarded my children trying to sell me postcards for 5 Egyptian Pounds. Then, as I approached the entrance of the pyramids people tried hustling me into getting a 250 Egyptian Pound camel ride for only 2 minutes. I dismissed everything and headed straight for the pyramids.

Since the guards could tell I had some Egyptian in me, they rushed me to the front of the line where I approached a dark and humid entryway. My whole way up was extremely claustrophobic as the passage was narrow, but when I reached one of the areas that one of the tombs were held in, I took a breath of excitement. As I headed back down the pyramid, I made a promise to myself that I would not leave Egypt without knowing the significance behind Egypt’s fascinating monuments. Most of all, the great pyramids of  Giza inspired me to not just live in Egypt as a tourist, but as a student of the land, journeying into the unknown and educating myself all throughout the semester.

Interested in sharing your first experience?

Email allizon@al-jamiat.com with your story and see how you can contribute to the “My first…” feature!

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cc nimble photography

The idea of not being prepared or not knowing can be frightening. The world today relies heavily on Internet resources and it’s crucial to know them. There are multiple online sites that can really make your life easier. And while you’re transitioning into a new country and school, anything that could possibly make life simpler will be needed!

Here is a list of the top two sites for online calendars, music players, photo editors, and scholar search engines, all of which were resources I used non-stop as a college student.

Online Calendars: There is no option, you need a calendar/planner in college is you want to stay onto of your game. I suggest using an online calendar to organize class schedules, office hours, due dates, and meetings. It can start getting confusing if you don’t remember when and where you are supposed to be.

Google Calendar

30Boxes

Scholar Search Engines: Students write a lot of papers in college, so be prepared for tons of researching. Using a scholar search engine will provide you with scholarly literature that is more trustworthy and reliable than articles found with a normal search engine.

CrossRef

Google Scholar

Music Library/Player: If you are not the type of person to buy multiple songs from iTunes but still want to listen to good music, I suggest using an online music library or player. Playing music can do wonders for you. It helps some students work more productively and get in a better mood.

Grove Shark

Pandora

Photo Editor: Taking pictures is second nature while in college, and uploading them to Facebook is the obvious next step. Having an online picture editor is always handy to have around. You can use it for adding a fun effect to a picture of you and your friends, hiding that pimple you wish was never there, or straightening a tilted picture because your mom can’t hold the camera right.

Picnik

Phixr

Do you have any websites you can’t live without? Share what sites are the most helpful for you!

Allizon Munoz is a junior at Ohio Dominican University studying Public Relations and minoring in Marketing. She serves as the 2010-2011 Ohio Dominican PRSSA President and Vice President of Professional Activities for Delta Sigma Pi Omicron Tau.  Connect with her here: http://card.ly/allizonmunoz

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cc Menlo Photo Bank

Reasons to drive

There is poor public transportation at your university
You can be reliable on yourself
Having the leisure of going places on your own time and schedule
You plan on traveling to nearby attractions (road trips!)
You just love driving

Reasons NOT to drive

It will take time to study and take all tests
Paying for the actual license
Paying for a vehicle
Paying for gas
Paying for school parking
Basically, a whole lot of paying for things
The public transportation at your university is reliable and efficient
It is environmentally better to be car-less

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Allizon Munoz is a junior at Ohio Dominican University studying Public Relations and minoring in Marketing. She serves as the 2010-2011 Ohio Dominican PRSSA President and Vice President of Professional Activities for Delta Sigma Pi Omicron Tau.  Connect with her here: http://card.ly/allizonmunoz

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cc Alexandra Campo

The time is drawing near to begin preparing for school to start.  One of the best ways to make your transition to school enjoyable is by actually being excited about your plans!  Some may say they are about to leave everything they know, their comfort zone, but great things are coming their way.  One of the best things students can do is channel their nerves into excitement, and having school spirit is a great way to do just that!

School spirit is the pride you have for your university.  It shows others where you attend and why you are so proud to be there.  Having school spirit will provide a more positive atmosphere not just for yourself, but for your campus as well.  You form a special connection with your school and other students when you truly have school pride.

So how can you have school spirit?

Wear the gear. Get t-shirts, sweatshirts, lanyards, etc.  You can usually find these at your school’s book store and sometime they are even available for purchase online.  If you would rather not buy them, make them!  A great idea is to have a get-together with friends, maybe before a football game, and make your own shirts with iron-ons or fabric paint.  You’ll be creating something to wear all year long and great memories at the same time!

Display the logo. Make posters, buy stickers, or keep fliers with your school’s name or logo on them and add them to your desk, car, or dorm walls.  Simple and easy!

Tell the people you meet. It is effortless to say, “Hi! I’m (your name), a student at (university name).”  If you really love your school and want to represent them well, make them part of you.  When you mention what school you attend in your introduction, the other person will know you must be proud to be there.

Add it online. Post it, write it, blog it, or tweet it.  It is simple to add to your “About Me” sections on social media pages where you attend school.

Families can show spirit too! Get your family into the school spirit.  When they support you, it will help ease the nerves and fears of moving away.  When they have school spirit too, it really makes a difference!

And remember your loyalty and pride to your university should also reflect on the organizations you become involved in.  Whether it be a fraternity or local school organization, always be proud of everything you involve yourself in!

Allizon Munoz is a proud junior at Ohio Dominican University studying Public Relations and minoring in Marketing. She serves as the 2010-2011 Ohio Dominican PRSSA President and Vice President of Professional Activities for Delta Sigma Pi Omicron Tau.  Connect with her here: http://card.ly/allizonmunoz

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