I can't sleep. It's 4:40 am and, no, I'm not usually this much of an early bird. I don't care about catching worms, I really just like to sleep. But I can't.
I've got Freshman 15 on my mind. It's May and most of the college Freshman are home now. My friend's sister came home from her Freshman year at college at least 15 pounds heavier and a little depressed. A lady who just bought my book, Stop Overeating Today!, told me her daughter just came home from her Freshman year and is at the heaviest weight she's ever been at and that she's struggling. My aunt brought in a relative who had a rough Freshman year due to the unhealthy college lifestyle - poor sleeping, poor eating, etc.
I've googled "Freshman 15" to see what kind of resources there are out there. Not much. One site, the first one on the list, addresses the problem but doesn't offer many solutions. But, if you go to their "how to be popular in college" page you can find out all about the parties and that the girls are supposed to dress like sluts to be popular. That's great information. (Hope you caught the sarcasm).
Hearing these stories about Freshman girls struggling with weight gain hits a personal chord in me. I gained about 20 pounds my Freshman year. Before college, I had already struggled with overeating and bulimia, so that definitely contributed to my difficulty adjusting to the anarchy of college. With nobody telling me what time to go to bed, what to eat, and what time to get out of bed in the morning, I was a free bird to experiment as I pleased and make plenty of mistakes along the way that affected my health and my judgment.
So how did I get my Freshman 15 off?? The solution wasn't just to exercise more. That didn't fix the main problem, which was overeating. I'm sure if I had been exercising as much my Freshman year in college as I had been as a high school cross-country runner, I would have only gained about half of the weight I did. But then, I'd still be 10 pounds overweight. The way to avoid gaining extra weight as a Freshman, as well as how to get rid of extra weight gained, begins with making a list of at least five occasions in which overeating occurred. College wasn't that long ago for me, so I can remember at least five times I overate. Here's my list:
1) Pizza party in the girls dorm at eleven pm
2) Brownie party in the girls dorm at two am
3) Getting seconds at the cafeteria in the morning
4) Buying extra food and stocking it in my dorm fridge
5) Ice cream party in college dorm at midnight
6) Late night runs to the college dorm vending machines while doing my laundry
(See a familiar theme? If I had gone to bed before 11 pm every night, I probably could have saved myself from gaining 10 pounds.)
The next thing to do is to identify why you overate in each situation. Were you stressed about your grades and felt like indulging? Were you eating out of emotion: giddiness, excitement, nervousness, anxiety, depression, or worry? Did you need to figure out how to get to bed earlier and miss most of the late night binges?
Here's a chapter from my book, Stop Overeating Today!, that talks about my ice cream party in the college dorm at night and discusses how I learned to stop emotional eating. The tips from my book were written after I successfully lost 35 extra pounds gained from overeating, weight acquired in high school and college. Obviously, my example is an extreme one, but it shows that I really understand the challenges of Freshman 15 and I am an expert in how to stop overeating and lose extra weight gained. Read the tip about emotional eating! How to Stop Emotional Eating
For more free chapters from the book Stop Overeating Today!, please visit: http://www.stopovereatingtips.com
I gained the freshman 15 as a sophomore instead of as a freshman, and my weight crept up even more over time. I've successfully dropped 28 pounds from my peak weight. But I'm still holding onto 16 pounds over my high school weight.
ReplyDeleteOnly doing the exercises you describe is difficult to remember--I'm in my mid-40s now and although I am back down to what I weighed at 19 after that initial weight gain, I have no clue what I ate back then.
I exercise, eat a moderate amount of food (1400-1500 calories a day and I'm 5 feet tall)and don't really overeat anymore. I don't want to weigh 95 like I did in high school, but 100 sure would be nice. Would your book have any tips for someone who really isn't "overeating" but who wants to drop that last 11 pounds?
Hmmm, good question. Thanks for your comment. What type of exercise are you doing? Something I noticed after I had my baby last year and I needed to get rid of some serious baby weight was that I wasn't exercising hard enough. I was kind of being wimpy about it. I thought going on walks 3 times a week for 45 minutes was good exercise. When I started doing walking and running intervals and sweating to the point where I was in actual pain, that's when the weight started to come off? So, what kind of exercising are you doing?
ReplyDeleteAgain, thanks for the comment, it was great to hear from you, anonymous ;)