FitSugar

Healthy Read: The Doctor's Complete College Girls' Health Guide

FitSugar — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:15:00 PDT

The worst part about college for me was the ~~classes~~ ~~dorm food~~ fact that whenever something went wrong with my health I didn't have my mom, who is a nurse, to tend to my every need. The slightest drip of my nose sent me in a crying frenzy.

Since there truly are so many things that can go on with a girl who's off to college for the first time (or seventh year), it never hurts to educate yourself (if you're that girl) or anyone else (if she's your daughter, sister, niece, etc.) on the health of a young woman. For this reason, I definitely wish I had The Doctor's Complete College Girls' Health Guide: From Sex to Drugs to the Freshman Fifteen ($11.25) when I was in school because it covers everything from dealing with the common cold, to navigating the college health center, to getting a tattoo.

While the book is definitely written for college girls, it would be a handy addition to the bookshelves of anyone from high-school girls to mothers- even fathers who want to know what the heck is going on with their daughters.

Weekend Reading: The Dorm Room Diet

FitSugar — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 02:30:00 PDT

If your dad was a famous cardiologist and had co-authored one of the most successful books on dieting to come out in recent years, chances are high you would have some insight on how to avoid the dreaded freshman fifteen. Daphne Oz, daughter of the famous Dr. Oz (You On a Diet), has written a really great and quite practical guide to surviving the first year of college.

The Dorm Room Diet is fun to read and helpful, even if you are as far from your freshman year as I am! It is equal parts diet advice and survival guide written specifically for her peers - college age gals who want to stay healthy without daily parental guidance. The book doesn't tell you exactly what to eat (with weekly meal plans) but really how to eat, and how to eat intelligently and fit in exercise. Oz has first hand experience with these issues since she has struggled with her weight and following her own advice has been able to slowly and surely drop pounds. Yep, this book will help fresh(wo)men learn to be healthy while living in a dorm and create habits that they will hopefully carry with them through life.

Order a copy for $11.53 from Amazon or better yet walk on down to your local bookstore (every college town has tons of them!) and pick up a copy there. I am sure that is an exercise strategy Oz would approve!

How I Gained 30 Pounds in College (and Then Lost It)

Jenny Sugar — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 03:08:40 PST

In college, I was no stranger to the "Freshman 15." In fact, all that newfound freedom to eat whatever and whenever combined with the all-you-can-eat dining hall and late-night pizza runs made it the "Freshman 30." Now that I've been at a healthy weight for a while, I can look back on all the mistakes I made. I'm sharing these mistakes now in the hopes that I can help someone else avoid the sadness and insecurity that comes with weight gain.

Good-bye, Home-Cooked Meals
With no one to cook me healthy, balanced meals, or tell me to eat my broccoli and not a brownie sundae for dinner, I quickly made my own - unhealthy - meal decisions. This included ordering take-out, devouring junk food, and eating way more food than I did when home.

Is That Cookie Vegan?
My school population was 90 percent hippie, and I was already a vegetarian, so it's no surprise that becoming vegan was my next move. I didn't miss milk or eggs at all. Why miss it when there's decadent vegan ice cream, dairy-free cheese, and even a pizza place downtown serving vegan pizza? I was a total junk-food vegan and must have gained 10 pounds on vegan cookies alone. The late-night candy runs for Swedish fish didn't help either.

No, I Don't Need a Bowl - I'll Eat Out of the Bag
Chips, cookies, crackers, cereal; I ate a lot of my snacks with no plates or bowls because I was too lazy to do the dishes, which often meant polishing the entire package in one sitting.

Carrot Cake Counts as a Vegetable
I may have been vegan, but I hardly ate vegetables, unless you count tomato sauce on pizza, carrot cake, and greasy french fries. My diet was based around these four food groups: pasta, bagels, cereal, and cookies. Come to think of it, I hardly ate fruit either since it wasn't that easy to find on campus (or rather, not that appealing).

Continue reading to see the other reasons I gained weight, and more importantly, how I lost it.