The American College of Health surveys estimate although “59
percent of the [freshman] did gain weight, the average amount they gained was only 4.6 pounds.” But I know better than to believe the “Freshman Fifteen” is more myth than reality. I’ve seen it all too often.
Most of us definitely have been witnesses, or guilty ourselves of settling down in front of the television with a brand new value-sized bag of Tostitos.
By the end of Bridget Jones’ Diary, not only is the bag of chips completely annihilated, but the casualties include a one-pound bag of Skittles and a movie butter bag of microwave popcorn as well.
So it comes as no surprise by the end of freshman year, we find ourselves scrounging our car cushions for change, living off whatever said change can buy from the snack machines on the first floor of our dorm (Snickers, of course, seeming the most nutritionally sound option) and squeezing into our last pair of clean underwear that don’t quite fit anymore. All this is thanks to what affectionately has been dubbed the “Freshman Fifteen.”
It sneaks up on you like that funky smell at the bottom of your dirty clothes hamper. It hits you like a campus bus. And it hurts like the first time you realize some teachers really don’t care if the class average is a 27.
Freshman girls almost are expected to fall victim to the feared
Freshman Fifteen. Why? Experts attribute it to the fact that college is
usually the first time students are living away from home, with no
parental restrictions on what can or cannot be eaten. Without dinner
served nightly around the family dinner table, students consume more, more often and much less healthy.
There are ways to avoid the infamous Freshman Fifteen without strictly adhering to well-balanced meals like those back home. For one, skip the bus if you live on campus. If you live off campus, get off a stop earlier than usual and walk the rest of the way. Bonus points if you schedule a class in CEBA right after one in the Music and Dramatic Arts building and make it on time; that’s about a ten-minute power walk complete with bits of rough terrain thrown into the mix.
Don’t eat directly out of the bag or box. Put a few chips in a bowl or a few cookies onto a plate and eat from there. It’s completely legitimate to lose track of how much you’re eating the hundredth time you watch “Road Trip.” If you sit down with the bag, you’re more likely to top it off.
Choose carefully from campus food options. Salad dressings are
loaded with fat. Alfredo sauces and dishes loaded with cheese rival one
another for fat content, though often seeming completely innocent when
staring back at you from behind the Union or cafeteria “sneeze guards.”
Try keeping some easy-to-fix dishes around. Throwing some veggies and chicken, beef or tofu (whichever you choose) into a pan and whipping up stir-fry takes about one-third the time of waiting for the pizza delivery guy to show up bearing a hot, greasy, one-way ticket to the Freshman Fifteen.
And don’t be greedy. There was a girl in my dorm who would hoard
entire pizzas. Large ones. She would look at everyone with darting eyes
before locking herself in her room only to return when the pizza had been devoured down to the last crumbs and grease spots on the cardboard box.
None of us were really surprised when her ever-increasing butt and legs appeared to be exploding in her jeans.
Finally — and I sincerely don’t expect this one to be taken seriously — don’t drink so much. Beer is loaded with empty calories, and there are things far more attractive than beer bellies in midriffs (and bikini season is just a semester away). Rum drinks will get you sloshed, but are loaded with sugar, as are most “girlie” drinks like frozen daiquiris, fruity drinks, anything that comes with a paper umbrella and pretty much any beverage served out of a vat or massive ice chest at a fraternity party.
Good luck, freshmen. The Freshman Fifteen is bound to rear its ugly head. But walking to classes, being smart about what goes into your mouth and visiting the Student Recreational Sports Complex regularly can help ward off those extra pounds.