The Fed+Fit Podcast | Nurturing a Healthy Mindset for a Healthy Lifestyle
We’re back with our 36th episode of the Fed+Fit Podcast! Remember to check back every Monday for a new episode and be sure to subscribe on iTunes!
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Episode 36 Topics:
- What to eat before a test
- Late night snacking
- Traditional Medicinals
- RxBar
- Determine your best fitness routine
- FitBit
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Ep. 36: Testing and Campus Fit (FFCS Part 4)
This is the Fed and Fit podcast starting your week off with motivational thoughts on real food and fun fitness activities with Cassy Joy Garcia and co-host, Charissa Talbot. Remember our disclaimer; the information and opinions shared in this podcast are solely those of any given individual, and not a substitute for medical advice. Here are the ladies.
TOPICS:
1. Cassy’s updates [2:01]
2. Ideas for surviving a tailgate party [3:53]
3. Staying up late and late night snacking [13:10]
4. Trouble staying awake in class [17:30]
5. Fitness Avenues [23:16]
Cassy Joy: And we’re back again! I am joined once more by my beautiful, lovely, intelligent, um, I’m running out of adjectives. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Wonderful sister, Samantha Garcia. Thanks for joining me again, Sam.
Samantha Garcia: Thank you for having me again.
Cassy Joy: Of course! We are nearing the end of our Fed and Fit college student miniseries, but I really think we’ve saved some of the best for last. This is probably the episode when, I have several speaking engagement scheduled across different colleges and universities this fall, because this is something that is so near and dear to my heart, going and speaking to college students and just really empowering them and knowing that they’ve got this, and telling them what the easy buttons are to really feeling great and doing their best in school.
So one of the reasons we wanted to put this series together was so that we had a great reference to recommend for folks to listen to for more information. And I have a feeling, Sam, that this episode is going to be the one that we say, if you can, listen to all four; and if you can’t, definitely listen to the last one.
Samantha Garcia: Yeah.
1. Cassy’s updates [2:01]
Cassy Joy: And there’s a chance that we have a bonus one if we don’t get to everything today. Just stay tuned; I think we’ve got some good stuff. So, before we get to that, I just want to play guess who’s at my house with Samantha. {laughs} Can you guess who’s at my house?
Samantha Garcia: Can I guess?
Cassy Joy: Yeah, you can guess.
Samantha Garcia: Um, Gus? That’s my best guess.
Cassy Joy: It’s your yuppie puppy.
Samantha Garcia: Aww, my yuppie puppy! Don’t call him a yuppie puppy! {laughs}
Cassy Joy: He’s totally.
Samantha Garcia: Eli!
Cassy Joy: Eli. Eli is Gus’ best friend. He’s a little miniature schnauzer, and he thinks he’s Gus’ size, and Gus thinks that he’s Eli’s size.
Samantha Garcia: Mm-hmm.
Cassy Joy: They’re pretty cute.
Samantha Garcia: They are cute together.
Cassy Joy: Anyways. He got to go on our walk this morning.
Samantha Garcia: Aww, I’m sure he loved that.
Cassy Joy: It was a blast. So that was great. And last piece of news before we jump into the meat of today’s show; Samantha and I leave, I guess tomorrow. We’re recording this on Wednesday, what is it, September 2?
Samantha Garcia: Yes.
Cassy Joy: And we leave tomorrow for my bachelorette extravaganza.
Samantha Garcia: Wo-hoo!
Cassy Joy: I’m so excited. My amazing friends agreed to indulge one of my fantasies of going to hike a part of the Appalachian Trail for my bachelorette trip. So we’re all packing our backpacks, and we’ve got our sturdy walking shoes on, and I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.
Samantha Garcia: Yeah, it’s going to be awesome.
Cassy Joy: I can’t wait. And then we’re going to spend a little time in Boston afterwards. So that will be fun! So if you are listening to this on Monday morning when the show goes live, we are still in Boston, and you’ve probably seen a lot of pictures. But when we get back, we’ll do a fun little; we can talk all about it. Maybe we’ll do a camping episode so you can hear about what we eat on the trail and things like that. So it will be really helpful.
2. Ideas for surviving a tailgate party [3:53]
Cassy Joy: Ok, well let’s jump into it! I introduce Samantha on every episode, but I just want to make sure that you guys, if you are listening to only this one and not the previous, that you know who Sam is and why I have brought her on the show. Sure, it’s because she’s my sister, I love talking to her, I love working with her, she has a beautiful voice. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: Well thank you. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: But she is also just one of the most well rounded, balanced professionals. She has her Masters in, I’m going to say student affairs development. I know it’s slightly different words, but I think that’s the easiest way to describe it.
Samantha Garcia: That works perfectly.
Cassy Joy: Does it? Ok good. So she has her Masters in that, and essentially what her job is, and she works at a university here in San Antonio, but her expertise is really in walking students through transitions in life. That could be the senior of high school to becoming a freshman in college kind of transition, and really helping to empower them to handle that with a lot of grace and a lot of power. You know, be purposeful with that time of their life. And she’s also; I mean, the girl just has a wealth of knowledge. Of course, she’s been in college for a long time. So she’s been a student, and she can speak to that. Anyway, she’s got some really great insight and I’m excited to have her.
So, if you missed episode 3, we talked all about the Fed and Fit college student in a food plan. We covered the Freshman 15, we covered why that happens and how you can prevent it. How to eat on campus, how to eat off campus, things like that. And we have some bonus information that we kind of just want to rapid-fire go through. We’re going to call this food part 2. But these are probably some of the questions that are going to come up during the semester.
And like I’ve said from the beginning; even if you’re not a college student, some of this information is definitely relevant. It can apply no matter where you are in life, because there’s always going to be stressful times. You may not have an actual final scheduled or a midterm coming up, but you probably have a big work project, and you’re having to sacrifice sleep, and you want to know what are the best options to take care of yourself. So we’re going to cover some of that now.
Alrighty Sam; I have a question for you.
Samantha Garcia: Yes.
Cassy Joy: Let’s jump into this. I would love to know, what do you recommend, let’s say I’m a college student. Let’s say I’m a fighting Texas Aggie.
Samantha Garcia: Whoop.
Cassy Joy: Cause maybe I am.
Samantha Garcia: Maybe. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Class of 2008, and I actually just wrote. I may have already said this on this series; forgive me. We just wrote a letter of recommendation for someone who is applying for Texas A&M next fall. She’s going to be a senior in high school, and she’s going to be the class of 2020.
Samantha Garcia: Oh my gosh.
Cassy Joy: {laughs} I was like, you know, when you talk to grads, Aggie Alumni, and other alumni I’m sure is the same, but you don’t realize how fast the time goes until you hear what year people are. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: Right.
Cassy Joy: So, that’s a 12 year difference. But anyways. Ok, so, let’s say I’m a college student, and I’m dying to know, what can I eat before a test that will really help me do well? Because I’ve Googled it before, and I’ve read flaxseeds and blueberries are really good. But I want to know, what should I eat before a test that will really help. Or is there some kind of an energy pill, or should I just go ahead and drink a bunch of caffeine. What do you recommend?
Samantha Garcia: Totally, good question. It’s kind of our food for thought that we touched on last episode. What’s going to make you feel comfortable and feel good during you test, to help you focus. So really what we want to touch on is, have some calming foods, or drinks. That could be some herbal tea, healthy starches. That could be really calming as well. Healthy starches could be turnips, let’s see, what else Cassy?
Cassy Joy: Sweet potato. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: Sweet potatoes. You’re the expert on the foods.
Cassy Joy: Yeah, that’s true. I do dream about food all day long. Sweet potatoes great; starches, excuse me. Squashes; so acorn squash, butternut squash, pumpkin. Stuff like that. And I really think a sweet potato, if you listen to our food episode, we talked about how if you’re living in a dorm room, and you don’t have access to an oven, you could always take a sweet potato, wrap it in a wet paper towel, and microwave it, and make yourself a little baked sweet potato, you know. About 3 minutes, give or take, you might have to add more or subtract some depending on the size of your sweet potato. But that sweet potato, the wonderful vitamins and minerals that are found in it naturally, and the carbohydrates are really going to be soothing and really calming.
You know why we crave really carb-dense foods when we’re stressed out is because those carbs are calming. So when you’re stressed out already and getting ready for a test, it’s a really great idea to surround yourself with calming foods that are actually healthy for you. So don’t just go run for the pasta stand. Try not to go just eat a really light salad and big cup of coffee, because that’s probably going to leave you feeling extra shaky.
Samantha Garcia: Exactly.
Cassy Joy: So those are all great. Proteins and fats that you know you handle well is another really good option. So if you know that you handle tuna salad with a little mayo in it, you know, then that would be a good option. If you know that’s not going to upset your stomach. This is not the time to go experiment and try out that new Chinese food restaurant in town {laughs} right before a test. And some really good safe alternatives are going to be eggs; there’s wonderful fatty acids and other really important nutrients found in an egg. The whole egg; we’re talking about the yolk and the egg whites. Eat the whole darn thing; it’s so good for you.
Sardines are another great option. Wild Planet Foods has pretty good sardines. They’re wild caught, as the name implies, and you’re going to get some of those omega-3 fatty acids along with other ones that I won’t bore you with right now. But you could think of them as brain food; it’s really going to help you focus. It’s great for you to learn on, so take those throughout the semester, but it’s especially great when you’re trying to perform.
Samantha Garcia: Perfect. So, Cassy, I’m going to be going to a bunch of Fighting Texas Aggies football games.
Cassy Joy: Whoop!
Samantha Garcia: This coming fall, and I know I’m going to be going to tailgates. And I remember in college, you go into tailgates; well, it was very rare that I went to them.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: But, when I would go to them, it was, there were kegs of beer, there’s all the fixings. Of course there are yummy meats and maybe some veggies, things like that.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Samantha Garcia: And typically there is some water, but mostly the focus, obviously at a tailgate, is to drink some beer. But what do you recommend, if we’re going to tailgates, and we want to keep on track as far as making sure that we’re taking care of ourselves and that we’re not going to feel terrible the next day.
Cassy Joy: Oh, that is a great question Sam! {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: Thank you. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Ok, well my number one recommendation for you crazy tailgaters is to make sure you bring your bottle of water! We are berating the issue here. We cannot stress it enough. Episode number 2 of this series was all about water and hydration and why it’s so important. So if you want to know why, go give that a listen. But here we’re just going to say, go get yourself a bottle of water. You will be so thankful you did. Because tailgates are usually, there’s a long period of time before you’re ever going to go home again. Water might be hard to find, and then you’re going to a football game, and that’s another 3-4 hours of hanging out in the sun in the outside. So please bring yourself some water, it will really help.
As far as food goes; go for those grilled meats. Whatever doesn’t have any kind of sauce on it. Let’s say they’re grilling up some chicken poppers; those are great, and then try to snack on some raw crunchy veggies. Don’t go for the beans, and try to avoid the rolls. Stick to the veggies and the meats and you’ll be feeling good. And then; I put in another bullet point, stay hydrated {laughs}. So apparently we really, really mean it.
If you are looking to drink alcohol, the beer is going to be everywhere. I recommend that you stick to wine or drinks mixed with clear liquor. So this is talking to you, those of you who are going to be of age, but you’re probably not going to find wine or other mixed drinks at a tailgate. So what you might do is go ahead and bring yourself some. Bring yourself a bottle of wine, and make some friends, and share. But that way you make sure you’re not getting a major gluten exposure from the beer, because that’s what’s available. And then you’ll be paying for that come Sunday and Monday when classes are starting up again, and you have foggy head, and you can’t quite wake up, and you can’t quite focus or it’s probably because of some of the foods you ate over the weekend.
3. Staying up late and late night snacking [13:10]
Cassy Joy: Ok, next question. Hey Sam; I’ve got a question.
Samantha Garcia: {laughs} Yes?
Cassy Joy: {laughs} So, I think I always secretly wanted to be an actress, so this is {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: You’re doing a great job. I would hire you. {laughs}
Cassy Joy: You would? This is fulfilling one of those dreams of mine. Ok, so let’s say that I stay up pretty late, and I eat dinner and I listen to your Fed and Fit college series, and I know now about 3 square meals and to avoid snacking. I know why, because I really want to make sure my energy levels are nice and high throughout the day, but I have dinner at 7 o’clock and sometimes I’m up until midnight or sometimes even 2 a.m. if I’ve got a major project I’m trying to work on, and that’s a long time and I get kind of hungry, and I kind of just want to snack on something. What should I snack on when it’s late at night?
Samantha Garcia: Right, and that’s a problem some of you are going to run into a couple of times within your college career; maybe more than you would really like to. I know some of my students are telling me; they’re like, Sam, I was up until 4 a.m. last night studying, and then I had class at 8 a.m. that morning. I’m just like, wow. You need to go to bed.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: So it’s going to happen, and you’re probably going to be hungry during those times, or you want to snack on something that is going to keep you awake. So, we don’t recommend that you do some late night snacking if you want to have your energy levels up and you’re feeling good throughout the day. But if it’s kind of a thing that you have to do, you need to study for that test a little bit more than you have the next day, or you have the test in a couple of days, whatever the case is. Drink some herbal teas. Traditional Medicinals is a really great brand; that’s my favorite. I always like, you don’t want to drink this before you go to study, but there’s sleepy time tea.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: It always calms me down, makes me feel good, and ready to go to sleep. But, obviously you don’t want to do that before you study. So drink some herbal teas that will really calm you down and help you focus. Something nice and warm and soothing will kind of let you focus in on what you’ve got in front of you.
Also, if you’re really, really up late and you need something to eat because you legitimately get hungry, then have a protein bar. A healthy protein bar is a really good option. RxBars are really delicious, and they’re pretty squeaky clean. So go for a protein bar, and kind of avoid the more crunchy, snacky things. Like some people may think, oh I’m going to have some baby carrots and just crunch on those. While those aren’t terrible, it’s just a lot of snacking that is, again, not something that Cassy or I recommend as far as what you’re doing if you’re up late or just during the day.
Cassy Joy: Totally. You know, and just to touch on that, that’s a really great point about the carrots, Sam. The reason I don’t recommend crunchy vegetables like that for snacking is just because mindless eating like that feeds more mindless eating. So even though you’re just crunching on carrots; that seems pretty benign, right? Carrots aren’t really going to hurt you. But the next thing you know, the munchy carrots are over with, and you’re like, well I finished those, what else can I have? And then you start looking around and you find some Cheetos, and some nuts, and the next thing you know, you’ve just eaten a Thanksgiving dinner of junk food.
Samantha Garcia: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: {laughs} So try to be really purposeful. If you are going to snack, make sure it’s really purposeful. You’ve thought about it. The RxBars, for example, that really good protein. And we’ll link to all of the brands that we’re talking about in the show notes just so you can have quick easy access, it will be in one spot. But those RxBars are a really great option, because it’s giving you the protein, the sugar, and the fat that will help give you the nourishment to help get through that night. Right, get through that spell if you are up actually really late and you really do need an additional small meal. But mindless crunching and mindless snacking doesn’t serve you very well. And if you do want to mindlessly do something, like Sam said, mindlessly sip on caffeine free herbal tea.
Samantha Garcia: Mm-hmm.
4. Trouble staying awake in class [17:30]
Cassy Joy: Ok, let’s see. Is this your question? {laughs} I’m losing track.
Samantha Garcia: Yes it is!
Cassy Joy: Ok.
Samantha Garcia: Hi Cassy!
Cassy Joy: Hey Sam!
Samantha Garcia: I have a question for you.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: {laughs} Wow, we would never be hired if we tried to be actors.
Cassy Joy: I know. {laughing} It’s a good thing we both found other professions.
Samantha Garcia: Oh man. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately; I’m listening to Amy Poehler’s Yes Please, and I was like, I could do that. I could be Amy Poehler.
Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh. She made me think the same thing! And then I went on and I listened to Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me, and I was like, oh my gosh, we’re the same person. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: {laughing} Oh my gosh, they’re just so relatable. That’s why they sell so many copies.
Cassy Joy: They are, they’re great girls.
Samantha Garcia: It’s a good thing.
Cassy Joy: Mm-hmm.
Samantha Garcia: It’s a good thing. Ok, so my question, Cassandra, is if I am falling asleep in class, or I’m having trouble focusing, which happened a lot for me in my undergrad. And grad school, sometimes. I would either have a late class, or I would have an early class and didn’t get enough sleep beforehand. But I just can’t stay awake, and the professor is throwing things at my head to keep me up, or he’s marking off points on my grade and that’s just not a good thing all around. What can I be doing to help myself out before hand, and do some troubleshooting maybe?
Cassy Joy: Ooh, that’s another great question Sam. So, what I say, and I totally suffered from this you guys. Please know, I was one of those students, and I didn’t realize I had major food intolerances. That’s really what it boils down to. But I thought I was narcoleptic. I really did. I would sit down in class; and I love school, you guys. I love learning, I love homework. I am such a nerd. I like sitting in the front row, I like getting there early. I take all the good notes. And I had the hardest time staying awake. It was a sincere struggle. And then sometimes I had a really hard time focusing if I was awake.
So, what I recommend that you do. What’s actually probably going on is you are probably eating, drinking, or having a behavior that is not conducive with what makes your body thrive. And the distinct answer; the really detailed answer is, well then, what is it bothering me? That’s going to be different for every person. So if you really want to fine tune an answer, you’re going to have to figure that out for yourself. However, we can give you some very broad-range advice that will help you get you 80% of the way there.
So, what I recommend you do, if you are falling asleep in class and having trouble focusing. Take yourself on as a little homework project. I want you to, right there, in that class, if you’re falling asleep or right after the class, whatever it is, write down on your notebook what you ate, everything you ate earlier that day, and if it’s your first class of the day, what you ate the day before. How much sleep you got last night, and how much water you’ve been drinking. And, if when you read through that you see that you have not been getting enough sleep; there’s your easy button. You need more sleep, and I promise you will start to feel better in class.
If you were like, oh my goodness I can’t remember the last; the water in my water bottle that I’m carrying around in my backpack right now is the same water from yesterday. Well there you go; you need to be drinking more water. Listen to episode 2. And then if you’re looking at your food of what you ate, and you see, I want you to circle anything or highlight anything that includes grains; so that’s wheat, corn, rice, pasta, bread, all of those things. Circle anything that includes grains, circle anything that includes sugar, so cupcakes, what else has sugar? Ice cream, or just an excessive amount of carbohydrates. Right? So let’s say you went to McAlister’s and you got one of those enormous potatoes. I love potatoes; I’m a potato girl, but those are really, really big. So circle anything that has an enormous amount of carbs, grains, or sugar.
And then the next day, again as part of your own homework project, taking on yourself. I want you to get more sleep, I want you to drink more water, and I want you to try not to eat those foods that you ate before, and then go back to your notebook and write how you’re feeling. Are you staying awake in class all of a sudden? You know? Are you finding it easier to focus? Well there’s your answer. You can get there, so do not think that you’re always going to be sleepy in class. You can really get there. You can thrive in your studies, and you can feel like that awesome with-it student that does not have a hard time staying awake. I know that you’re a good student and you’ve got a lot of potential; you just need to set yourself up so you can do your amazing work.
Samantha Garcia: Awesome. Good answer.
Cassy Joy: Oh good. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: That was just, you know, shooting from my hip {laughs}.
Samantha Garcia: As always, you’re a natural.
Cassy Joy: I’m just kidding. Samantha and I have notes that we prep. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: Don’t tell them our secrets; we’re magicians here.
Cassy Joy: We are. We are word magicians.
Samantha Garcia: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Next up. Ok, so that’s pretty much it with food. If you guys have more questions; especially all of you college students listening, please comment on the blog posts, and I will definitely get to your questions from there. You’re welcome to email me; I’ve got a contact form on my website that’s FedandFit.com, so you can find everything there. You can find the show notes there, and I’d love to start a dialogue. I’m here for you. As is Sam; so if you ask me a question I don’t know, I’m going to go run to Samantha and ask her for advice.
Samantha Garcia: Wohoo.
5. Fitness Avenues [23:16]
Cassy Joy: Ok, next up. I think this might be the last section for today, but it’s a really, really good one and I know that it’s probably one that’s on a lot of your minds. So we’re going to talk about fitness. This is the last pillar. So of the pillars of health to be the Fed and Fit college student; we first and foremost, and this is also by priority, we have sleep, second we have water and hydration, third we have food, and fourth is fitness. So just to show you; sleep and water are even more important than your food choices. And your food choices are even more important than your fitness, but all 4 will kind of help hold you up and make you feel your best.
So, moving on to this fourth pillar. We’re going to spend the least amount of time talking about it, because it’s something that you can personalize. But we do have some tips that are going to help empower you. So what you need to do, is figure out who, or what fitness activities do you want to do in college. Because the world is your oyster. You can do anything you want to do. This is an awesome, pretty rare opportunity where you can just; and anybody else listening who is not a college student, you can redefine what kind of an athlete or what kind of fitness avenue you want right now. You can make a totally different decision and go do something you want to do.
But that’s what we want. We want you to essentially audit yourself; think about the activities you did in high school. What physical activities did you really enjoy; what did you not enjoy, and then choose something in between those that leans more towards something that you know you’re going to like doing, and then plan on doing that in college and that being your fitness outlet.
So let’s review some of the options. Ok, so one of the options for a fitness outlet in college could be the gym bunny. You could be one of those people that goes to the rec center and likes to work out on all the machines, and stay on all those things, and that’s great. A way to really make that work for you is, Sam and I recommend that you can look up workouts online and find something to follow that way. That would be great. You can also start; they usually have personal trainers there, so you can pick their brains, and say hey, you know what, I’m really looking for a 30-minute workout because I’ve got to get to class in an hour, but what do you think I can do. That’s an option.
Intramural sports are a great option. Maybe you’re not a collegiate athlete, but you’re pretty good and you want something fun and you really enjoy team sports, that’s a great one to go for. That’s not me; I’m actually not a gifted athlete. {laughs} But I really admire the people who were really talented on intramural sports.
Let’s say another fitness avenue could be collegiate sports. This is the legit, ESPN, Fighting Texas Aggies football type athletes, and you probably don’t need our help, but we’re here for you if you do. {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: Maybe post-grad.
Cassy Joy: Maybe post-grad. Post-grad come knocking. I have worked with several people who did play college ball and life and food and nutrition needs and physical fitness things all changed a lot, and that becomes a whole nother riddle. Maybe we’ll talk about that on a future podcast.
Ok, another fitness avenue could be running. If you love to run, or that’s something you want to do, that could definitely be an avenue. Encourage you to find runs, sign up for them, join campus organizations that are centered around running. You can really make some friends around that.
Adventure sports could be another avenue. If you like the idea of mountain biking. Every single college and university; I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that they probably have some kind of mountain biking club that you can join. Sam brought up a good point; rock climbing is another really good one. That’s an adventure sport you can do. The Texas A&M rec; sorry we talk about Aggie land so much; it’s just my most distinct point of reference.
Samantha Garcia: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: That’s where I got my under-grad. But rock climbing is a great one. They have an enormous rock climbing wall there at the rec center.
Samantha Garcia: Mm-hmm. A lot of universities, colleges and universities have rock climbing walls now in their rec centers.
Cassy Joy: Oh, good.
Samantha Garcia: It’s kind of more of a standard thing now, so definitely check those out and jump on, and have some fun.
Cassy Joy: Jump on it.
Samantha Garcia: Jump on it.
Cassy Joy: {laughs} Last but not least, another fitness avenue is walking to class. Do not underestimate the power of walking to class. That’s a great one; you’re going to get in a lot of steps. And that takes us right into our tips to get there. So, best ways to get to your best fitness avenue. Sam, you want to just run through these real quick?
Samantha Garcia: Yeah! Totally. Ok, so you want to invest in a pedometer. FitBits are our personal favorites, but that’s really going to help motivate you to say, oh! I got my 10,000 steps today because I had about 5 different classes and I walked all around campus and did all the things today.
Cassy Joy: {laughs}
Samantha Garcia: And that really happens. I have students that have their FitBits; typically they’re being sold now in your university book store, so mom and dad may have left you some money to use in the bookstore, to use on campus, and you have some leftover, so go buy yourself a FitBit. It’s totally worth the investment, and the motivation to continue walking and continue moving. Sign up for classes that are offered in your rec center, or in your gym. Texas A&M had a whole banquet of different classes you could take, group exercise classes, that are typically free or at a very low cost. I think I maybe paid $5 a semester to do yoga every day. So that’s a really good thing to jump into and get involved with.
If your campus doesn’t have those group exercise classes, or you’re having trouble finding them; one, go ask your rec center. Get a person; I love talking to humans, they can probably tell you more than a website can, at some points. Or, if they really don’t have anything, then look for places off campus. If you want to get involved with Crossfit; that’s a really great place to build a community, and feel like you have some accountability with people who really care about you and want to see you reaching your goals. Or go find a yoga studio off campus. Find some places around where you’re going to school that you can maybe do some trail running if that’s what you’re into, or do some hiking. Whatever the case is. Do some things, find some places that can get your off campus; especially if you live on campus, to where you can recharge and feel more like yourself. So that’s really important, to get off campus when you can, and doing exercises can be a really great part of that.
And then also, if you want to go to the gym but maybe you’re a little bit afraid. I was that way in undergrad. I had a friend; she was a gym bunny, and she loved going to the gym, and finally I was like, hey Kelly, can I go with you? And she’s like, yeah totally! She her and I were gym buddies for a little while and I absolutely loved that.
Also set yourself a schedule that you will honor. Always try new things; especially if you are in a singular sport. So, running; that’s all you want to do. Running definitely needs yoga, and some kind of strengthening in it if you really want to be well rounded.
Schedule hangouts and study breaks that are active! At A&M sand volleyball was really, really popular. So if you have a sand volleyball court, or your group of friends are into something else, schedule those things. There are typically arenas or gyms or fields that you can go rent during the day, or even in the evening from your rec center or somewhere on campus, maybe off campus too, and you can get your fitness in that way. It’s also a really good time to hang out with people.
Over-exercise is a thing. If you’re going to be doing a lot of exercise, maybe you should definitely take some breaks. So give yourself at least 2 rest days each week. You can work out multiple times during your on days; but take those rest days. They’re really, really important to help your body recharge and get to where it’s feeling really, really good.
So that’s about all the little tips I have.
Cassy Joy: Those are great Sam. I really think that’s really well-wounded. “Well-wounded”.
Samantha Garcia: {laughs} Well-wounded.
Cassy Joy: Oh goodness. Well, that was pretty much it you guys. We might do a bonus episode coming up in the middle of the week; we’ll just publish a mini one about mindset in college, and how to, if you find yourself feeling down, how to get back up again, because that’s something that a lot of people really struggle with and we really want to address it head on. But in the meantime; I encourage you to go back and listen to parts 1, 2, and 3 for more information about how to be a Fed and Fit college student and know that Samantha and I are always here for you. You can definitely email me, and if you have questions for her, I can forward them on to her.
Thanks again for joining me on this series, Sam, it’s been a lot of fun.
Samantha Garcia: It has been, thank you so much.
Cassy Joy: Oh my gosh, yes. So much fun! Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again sometime.
Samantha Garcia: {laughs}
Cassy Joy: Ok, everybody, you guys have a great week, and we will be back again with some more goodies. Talk to you soon.
