College is known for being the place for a lot of things, but fitness is not one of them. When we think of college, we think of late-night pizza study sessions or going out to the student union to hang out and relax. All of this adds up, and the “Freshman 15” was dubbed for a reason! Students place health and fitness to the backburner because it’s not a natural part of college life as hanging out with friends on the quad, going to a free event, or a party. What if there was a way to allow students to see it as a natural and expected part college life? That is the plan I propose to promote a healthier and fitter lifestyle among students. This plan detail how students can utilize social media, college life, and a lot of the unknown free resources …show more content…
Social media, such as Instagram and Twitter, are already used as great ways to share flawless looking meals. Why not use them to promote positive examples for nutrition? Colleges can implement social media programs where students can take pictures and identify the protein, fruits, vegetables and starches consisting of their meal. Their pictures can be run through an analysis, giving quick feedback on the pros and cons of their choices. The healthier their choices, the more rewards. This program should also allow students the ability to customize “cheat days,” where they know it’ll be okay to have a couple slices of pizza on the weekend, or have an ice cream at a birthday party. The aim here isn’t to be punitive or to lecture—it’s to help students connect the dots and empower them to make their own decisions with all of the information they can get, without requiring them to do most of the tedious work of counting calories or calculating macronutrients. These pictures can be tallied on a weekly basis to a points system where students can earn a small reward or continue to accumulate their points for a bigger reward at the end of the month. The goal of this program would be to spread awareness behind eating healthy, balanced, and nutritious meals.
One of the biggest parts of college life students look forward to is to have fun. However, most people don’t think of exercise and fitness as fun. Exercise is a chore—and lots of students consider walking from one end of campus to the other as exercise! Unfortunately, that isn’t always enough as a lot of time is spent sitting and studying for hours. Students do take breaks to walk around on campus and visit at the student union, but that’s often time spend sitting down more. There is a way to make physical activity accessible at their student