Freshman Firsts: Figuring out Eating and Exercise

While older siblings and friends are often eager to offer advice, first-year is overwhelming. All of a sudden, every choice and decision is up to us. What we eat, when we go to sleep, and when we study. But for our bodies to keep functioning, we must take care of them. And when most students come from houses where their meals are prepared for them and their sports and sleep are more inflexibly structured, this can be a monumental task.

As freshmen try to find their footing, their health often falls down on the priority list. It’s time to help them take control and build habits that will help them for the rest of their lives. Lizzy Duffy, a BA major, and Ashlyn Wood, a Forensic Psych major, have been living on campus for one month and describe having to navigate lifestyle choices they haven’t faced before, and these are just two instances of what every first-year student is dealing with to some extent.

So much is new in the first year of university. One of the most significant is sudden freedom. Choices abound. You can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Most students lacked this option before, and now presented with the ultimate freedom of choice, they are experiencing consequences from changes to their diet and activity levels. What has the biggest impact, though?

Anyone who’s taken one step into Meal Hall is struck with the realization that you can now eat whatever you want whenever you want! But are students realistically pulling out a Canada Food Guide? Often, students struggle with making uneducated food and drink choices that are not always best for one’s body. For some, the sudden freedom is detrimental, especially when they come from a more restricted food household. As freshman Parker Anstey said, “The way you deal with university food is super dependent on the way you grew up.” Parker found that with a job and making her own money, she was able to learn the ways of making smart food choices while in high school. But when meals are made for you for most of your life, one doesn’t know the dos and don’ts of healthy eating. Freshmen living in dorms are required to have a meal plan. While healthy options are available, many students gravitate towards comfort food, for example, the “always-open" pizza bar. Ashlyn Wood agrees, “The food is always mediocre, so pizza is a usual.” This common habit increases the intake of less-than-balanced meals (more carbs, less veg), which can be a new change for students’ bodies.

You may ask, but can’t first-years supplement their diets with a little “fresh” from off-campus? When it comes to dorm food, it usually isn’t vegetables or fruit. More likely, it's potato chips, ramen, and KD for those industrious enough to boil water. And, if students go off-campus for a midnight snack, their student net worth usually limits them to options consisting of fast food. First-years must work harder than any other age group to control their diets.

To top it off, Freshmen are going through one of the most stressful times in their lives, adapting to entirely new environments, roommates/social groups, and schedules, and without the rigor of past routine and parental guidance. With stress and midterm season imminent, comfort food comes first, and eating clean is the last thing on a freshman’s mind. But Morrison Hall is not just greasy food heaven. One of the highlight features, one that was a part of my acceptance decision, was the open kitchens. They allow students to create whatever they want and give them the resources to do so. One of my friends and I’s favorites is making smoothies and eggs in the morning. Not to mention the infamous salad bar right as you walk in. Stocked with fruits and vegetables and a variety of dressings, there is something for everyone. Don’t want to make it yourself? Every day, there is a different pre-made salad!

There are healthy options, but they require one thing: making an educated choice. Food is one piece of the puzzle. Another is the fact that the human body eats to fuel its movement and metabolic systems. The body is controlled by what it consumes versus how one burns that consumption through movement. Brady Skinner, a first-year in Engineering, stopped playing organized sports when he came to university. With more regular movement and exercise being less common, he feels that he is lacking the exercise that he once survived on. Students have their plate full in their first year (yes, that was a pun). Making friends, figuring out how to study and what works, and discovering who they are leaves little time to get outside for purposeful calorie burn. But here is where the freedom of choice at St.FX comes to the table. St.FX understands the students need movement even if they don’t realize it. Intermural sports organized through the university are a great way to make friends, move your body, burn off anxiety, and have some fun. With a variety of sports and games, it’s an easy way to move your body and get involved. If you are unable to make a commitment to a sign-up sport, some sports societies, like the Volleyball Society here at St.FX, run open courts for all levels a couple of nights a week. These are only a sampling of the plethora of resources available to all students as they balance the elements of their new lives at X.

With freshmen experiencing so many changes in their minds, bodies, and souls, it makes sense that dietary and physical health habits are lowered on the list of priorities, slotting in after friends, academics, and the comforts of pizza and unlimited ice cream. After informally surveying St.FX first-years, I would report that the siren call of comfort food and the relegation of organized sports and movement with the excuse of “if I have the time” are the two crucial factors when it comes to student health. For first-years, the reality of change, academic pressures and social stresses are only the beginning of managing adult life.

It is time to break the cycle here at St.FX, and it starts with reaching out to friends and St.FX resources like the health and wellness center and our brand-new Saputo Centre. It is time to love what you eat, move like you love, and take control of your choices.