Finals week. The week where time doesn’t exist. The only thing present in a college student’s mind during the last few weeks of school are the insurmountable emotions of anxiety and pressure to complete a ten-thousand-word essay, solving of timed calculus equations, and a few in-class presentations in front of peers enduring the same mental hardships. Finals week occurs in one of the most sleep-deprived and stressed-out demographics in our society, college students. The challenges of college tasks put on students can be productive to a student’s career and life. If this psychologically and emotionally fatigued group of humans can make it through the flaming hoops college professors apply to their life, they can endure the next set of challenges when it’s time to sign a mortgage, dive into a new career, or start a family. Other than college, there are few times in a youngster’s life they are given the task to study and master content pertaining to the important sociological values advanced academia offers and then forced to demonstrate competency in the form of a timed test of a ten-page typed essay. The demanding stimuli of college students is a great way to overload a human’s life in a pressure cooker of stress.
For us adults, we know that exercise and a healthy diet improves our everyday lives. Adherence to exercise decreases physical pain, allows us to manage stress better, and gives us some much-needed time away from the daily grind. However, our young future leaders of this world, enduring the college grind, may not have the time or skills to think about foods that are beneficial to the body or the ability to manage their time to adhere to a regular exercise schedule.
A few of our post collegiate graduate readers might be able to relate to a college student’s life. After twelve hours of attending classes, listening to a PhD lecture for an hour and seventy-five minutes, debating, tinkering with test tubes filled with explosives, or solving physics equations, it’s time to go home. In a physically and psychologically fatigued state, getting the chopping board and vegetable cutting knives out to produce a gourmet healthy meal with lean proteins and fresh veggies is likely the last thing our young college buddies are probably thinking of. Top Raman, potato chips, or a pack of Oreos sounds far superior to steamed broccoli and baked salmon at this time. Might as well tap the Rockies and crack open a Coors Light as well while playing some video games to unwind. The simplicity of collapsing onto the futon, unwrapping a thin plastic wrapper, and grabbing a round, cream filled, chocolate cookie that fits effortlessly into your mouth seems much easier that using the stove or oven to cook something healthy. Who wants to do dishes anyway? There is studying to be done, friends to hang out with, texts to be answered, Tik-Toks to be absorbed, and video games to be played after a long day at school.
The development of insulin resistance, lack of activity, and copious amounts of alcohol lead contribute to diabetes, the threat of becoming overweight, and addiction to the recreational barbiturates. These habits can contribute to decreased motivation at a young age and carry over to their post-collegiate life. This vicious cycle of a suboptimal awareness of nutritional habits poses a significant threat to a population of humans with a heavily influential status of neuroplasticity. Students living the dorm life away from home don’t have their parents stacking their pantries with nutritionally dense food or having home cooked meals available after coming home from soccer practice. A solution to avoiding lackluster habits in this scenario of human independence during college is to enlighten college students to food choices that will not only benefit their lives in the future, but also improve their performance as student.
Here are a few options college students might be able to divert their attention to instead of going for those tantalizing Oreos after a long day of school:
Premade Salads: Local grocery stores have premade salads available in a variety of flavors. These packages include raw veggies, seeds, nuts, and protein such as chicken or tofu. Dishes? Not to worry. A secret trick to mix the salad dressing in solves the crisis of using a soap and sponge. Simply obtain the premade salad dressing packet included in the bag and disperse the contents into the salad bag. Shake it like a bartender shakes a Manhattan. Open the bag from the top and tear about halfway down. You now have a disposable bowl-dish. Once finished, discard the contents into the recycle bin.
Scrambled Eggs: Most college dorms have a hot plate or stove top. If you can ask your parents for any type of gift to sustain your health through the trials of college, it’s a skillet. Scrambled eggs are one of the most efficient ways to ingest lean protein into your body. Simply heat up the skillet and apply butter or oil ot the pan’s surface. While the skillet is heating up, crack an egg or two and scramble away with a fork. Pour the contents into the skillet and scramble with a spatula. The single form ingredient of protein in an egg will satiate a starving scholar at any hour of the day.
Rotisserie Chicken: Almost every store has pre-cooked rotisserie chickens available. In fact, buying one of these and utilizing the meat on the chicken for a meal will last a developing young human two to three days by supplying them with easy to consume protein. It doesn’t taste half bad either. The beauty is, clean up isn’t rocket science. Simply discard the bones and the container that came with it in the dumpster outside when finished with the chicken.
We can acknowledge when left to our own resources at a young age, we make unique decisions. College students are a population that have little understanding of how to acquire food. Perhaps a little enlightenment of what foods will benefit our future leader’s quality of life in conjunction with a successful education would help our species thrive in a healthier, stronger, and aspiring upcoming era.
Sean McCawley, the founder and owner of Napa Tenacious Fitness in Napa, CA, welcomes questions and comments. Reach him at 707-287-2727, napatenacious@gmail.com or visit the website napatenaciousfitness.com.
