When I first got to campus, I had noble intentions.
I was going to be healthy and active. I ate three, well-spaced meals throughout the day, with plenty of fruits and veggies. There were no ifs-ands-or-buts about not eating breakfast. The boxes of sugary snacks my parents left with me remained unopened. I went to the gym three times a week.
My noble intentions were nothing in the face of big-time college realities. As I began to buckle down on my work and live the college life, I realized that such a tidy schedule had no place in my world.
College, I've learned, means a world where the rigidity of life that you had back in high school is long-gone. Mom and dad aren't here to tell me to come down for dinner. There is no set lunch period when I am assigned to eat. All I have is a little voice in my head that says, "I'm hungry."
Senior Michael Lee summed up my biggest problem with maintaining a healthy diet.
"As a freshman, you're like, 'This is so much better than cafeteria food,'" he said.
I couldn't agree more. In high school, all the food seems to come from wherever all the delicious food in the world dumped its garbage. Everything was more processed than a Miley Cyrus song.
This is not to say that everything in Lenoir and Ram's Head is fresh off the farm, but it is definitely a step up. Actual food-based cafeteria options, many of which have prove to be addicting, make it so much harder to drag myself to the salad bar for healthy eating.
"With the dining halls, vending machines and late-night delivery, it's hard to eat healthy," said sophomore Ellie Andrus.
So true.
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