You remember in your recent undergraduate years how you were warned about the Freshman 15…the 15 pounds you would put on in your first year? If this wasn’t true for you, maybe you noticed it amongst some of your peers as they frequented the cafeteria and snacked a lot during late night study hours. And finding time to workout seemed difficult unless you were a student athlete. Well, similarly in graduate school there are some serious pounds that you stand to gain unless you have a super crazy high metabolism, great genetics around weight, or are already disciplined with your fitness.
The reality in grad school is that time will slip away from you so easily if it’s not managed properly. Your time will become easily consumed with courses and studying and reading and research and late nights and this cycle on repeat all over again. It will be tempting and easy to eat out for lunch because it’s a nice break to vent with your friends and the coffee breaks will be necessary right to keep it going. However, it’s critical for your health and your well-being that fitness gets incorporated into your daily routine. It’s critical for your health and your well-being that fitness gets incorporated into your daily routine.
Yes, I said it twice hoping that that statement will resonate with you. I remember going into graduate school living my best life at my fittest size. I was healthy and had no health problems. And as I’ve shared before, it happened to me that I ate out way too much, worked way too late, had way too little sleep, and barely fit any time in for fitness. Three years later I woke up to health problems, self-esteem issues, bad habits and all for the sake of being stuck in the trap of just doing what I needed to do to get out of graduate school.
However, the critical thing I realized was that this pursuit of a degree wouldn’t serve me well if I wasn’t around to see and reap the benefits of it later in the long-term. And also, that I was a full-fledged adult so if I wasn’t capable of discipline in my early 20s how on earth did I expect it to magically happen in my late 20s when I was going to be a professional career person. I also looked around at my peers and realized that we all were sunken into this trap of getting work done no matter what, even if it was costing us our health. Really?!!!! What kind of higher educational system would ask its most valuable assets to not care for themselves? After all, the benefits of being fit and healthy are directly related to improved brain function and productivity right.
So, I recognized that while it seemed the system and culture of graduate school was to neglect myself for the benefit of my research, I regained control of my own health. My challenge for you as you navigate your graduate journey is to find time daily throughout this journey to incorporate fitness into your routine. This doesn’t have to look the same for every person at all but here are a few suggestions to get you going.
- Grab your gym bag, get to campus 45 minutes earlier and have a 30-minute workout before heading over to your first class or lab.
- Instead of taking a full lunch break to eat at Mellow Mushroom, bring your lunch, and spend 20 minutes of that time briskly walking around campus wishing you could trade places with the undergraduates.
- Enroll in a group fitness class at the student rec (you or your department is paying for your activity fee so it’s likely free) in the evenings and meet a new group of people while you break a sweat in the process.
- Sign up for a hiking or rowing intramural club, and spend some of your weekend getting an intense workout in that’s sure to last a few days.
- Ask a few of your departmental peers and maybe some faculty to get together for basketball, soccer, or a running group one evening a week. Your workout will then only become as intense as you are competitive.
- Sign up for a 5K or a half-marathon each semester and use your weekly training schedule as a way to ensure you’ll get some level of fitness into your routine.
- Leave your car at home if you stay close enough to campus and bike into work. There are many options in most cities to ride for free with city bikes or campus free bike rental programs.
- Park on the other side of campus, and walk to your destination instead of taking the shuttle.
You see, your fitness routine doesn’t have to be so extreme or unachievable that you will never be able to commit to it daily. It just needs to be intentional. Your health is valuable. Your well-being is important. Fitness is one sure way to ensure that you can do your part to be at your best physically, mentally, and emotionally which will be absolutely necessary to you making all those ground-breaking discoveries that the world needs.
Until next time,
Renã Robinson, PhD
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels
