Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle into your College Years

One of my roommates came into our apartment the morning after her 20th birthday. Her mother had clipped an article from an old issue of McCall’s magazine on steps that young women need to take to maintain their health after they reach 20 years of age. Having survived my freshman and sophomore years of college, I already know that college brings about a drastic change in a girl’s lifestyle, from her eating habits to workout routine (or lack thereof) to something as simple as her sleep patterns. Almost every girl has heard the importance of taking a multivitamin that includes calcium to promote bone health and that it is necessary to get at least thirty minutes of exercise at least three times a week. I am interested in finding out what it really means to be healthy and to stay healthy in this time of life-changing transition. What young women heading to college need to do to prevent the dreaded “freshman fifteen” and, for those who have already experienced its wrath, what can be done to shed the pounds in a healthy way are some of the goals of my research. I am also interested in examining the effects of college life on women’s self esteem and body image, as well as the issue of eating disorders, which has become rampant on college campuses. My intended audience is the average college woman or those young women in high school who will be are getting ready for the transition into college life. I chose to target this particular audience with this topic because many young women, including myself, are interested in maintaining personal health into and throughout their college years. I hope to provide an informative resource for information from fellow students to health professionals for any girls who are wary of the “freshman fifteen” and any other lifestyle changes that could affect their health in college.

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Lexis-Nexis Sources

Web Sources

Title: Women’s Body Image and Health,
Address: www.4woman.gov/bodyimage
Summary: Contains links to pages concerning almost any topic on women’s health. This site is maintained by the government to include FDA food guidelines and other info.

Title: SELF: 8 Crucial Tricks from Women Doctors
Address: www.self.com/takecare/woman_doctor
Summary: Tips on staying healthy from women doctors. This page has calculators that allow users to find out their Body Fat, Body Mass, Ideal Weight, and many other useful dieters'’info by entering their age, height, weight, and gender. Links to other pages as well that have even more health/diet info.

Title: Step by Step: How to Change Your Eating Habits and Become More Physically Active
Address: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/chol/sbs-chol/chapter3.htm
Summary: Government guidelines on “changing your eating habits and becoming more physically active.” Contains a sample diet and food and exercise guidelines.

Title: SELF: Walking Workouts
Address: http://www.self.com/stayfit/walk/
Summary: Especially helpful for college students who spend lots of time walking to and from class and want to stay in shape. This page tells you how to make the most of your time walking while giving tips on burning calories and toning muscles doing something that most students do every day.

Title: SELF: More Energy, Please!
Address: http://www.self.com/stayfit/metabolism/
Summary: Tips on a diet that will give any student more energy and keep them awake throughout the day. This page has easy recipes for any meal throughout the day, as well as healthy snacks.

Title: Women’s Health: Diet And Exercise
Address: http://partners.nytimes.com/specials/women/whome/diet_exercise.html
Summary: A division of the New York Times website, this page contains links to NYT articles and columns on women’s diet and exercise issues.