Finally, the days of registering, packing, loading up, and moving in are done.  Classes have started and college days are a reality.

Here’s another reality, most freshman, and please note, men and women, gain around 15 pounds the first semester.  Here are a couple of ideas that may help you not become one of the statistics.

1.)  Science has shown that our bodies actually crave the food we need.  After living at home with even just a few good meals a week with Mom’s cooking it was fairly ease to control the craving for good food.

 But college is different.  With so many choices and most of them not with nutritionally sound, we are constantly searching for what our body is craving.  We keep eating to get rid of the “crave”, but eat the wrong things which doesn’t satisfy the “crave”. Very quickly it becomes a vicious cycle, with the end resulting in extra weight.

2.  College food may taste good, but it’s usually packed with more fat and carbs than you normally eat and served invitingly at the endless buffet of the dining hall.  The goal of most cafeterias is to fill you up.  Add in the abundance of lots of chocolate milk and free sugar packed sodas at every meal, and you see that it’s very easy to consume too many calories at each meal.  You learned the food pyramid in Health Class, now is the true test as to whether you were listening.

3.  College life is busy, you wake up late, just in time to make class, run from class to class and then all of a sudden it’s the afternoon and you’re starving.  Breakfast was skipped and lunch too most likely, so the most expedient thing to do is start getting food.  By the time you start feeling full, which is in approximately 20 minutes, you’ve consumed a huge amount of calories.

Late night studying and the munchies right before bed are also there to help you put on the pounds.  And before you know it, exams and all night studying with lots of food to keep you awake will be here.

Here are a few guidelines to help you in controling the "Freshman 15".

1.  If allowed, keep a few snacks in your room. Cereal bars, fruit and grain bars and those types of things are good to eat on your way to class. Or grab a container of low fat milk from the cafeteria.  Even better is an apple or piece of fruit.  With something to start out the morning your body isn’t starving and you may even feel a little more awake.

2.  This one is really easy to do, walk, in fact walk everywhere.  Walk to your classes; take the stairs instead of the elevator and walk downtown to get coffee.   

Make time to use the gym that you’ve already paid for in your fees at least 3 times a week.  Meet your friends there to make the exercising more interesting or take study cards and learn while you use the treadmill or rowing machine.

3.  For late night studying, eat some good food.  Have Mom send a care package with homemade cookies, they are far better than store bought.  Eat popcorn, but go light on the butter.  Baked chips with low fat dip or baked tortilla chips and salsa are better options than French fries and milkshakes. Avoiding too many huge meals right before bedtime also helps.

4.  Since most freshmen are under 21, this is not really a problem.  But remember, alcoholic drinks are loaded with calories, a couple or three of those a day, and even eating right all day long won’t help keep you slim and trim.

With a few considerations in what you eat and how you exercise, you will not only feel great, but look great, and the "Freshman 15" will be a myth in your life.