Fitness involves being agile and mentally alert; a rewarding college experience demands these two things. College is rigorous due to the need to get to the college itself, being able to move from one classroom, laboratory, theatre, library etc to the other. It also involves mental activity that comes with learning. The need to keep physically fit is no less challenging than the need to remain academically sound. Though unreported it is widely believed that less than 20 percent of the entire American college students utilize the gym which has been paid for in their tuition. Overall, less than 60 percent of college students find the time to keep physically fit and the high consumption of “on the go” foods with high fat content has not helped the college student either.
Living two blocks away from the university is of tremendous advantage. I walk to school every day which should take ten minutes. Do I just walk? No. I have chosen to cut the walking time to five minutes and if this has to be achieved, then the style of walking would be far different for that of a ten minutes journey. I engage in what I call “power walk” and this brings with it some perspiration by the time I get to the university. I am not done yet; my research laboratory is located on the 4th floor of the Biology building. I have chosen to walk the stairs everyday instead of using the elevator going up and coming down as a way of keeping physically active. Given my extremely tight schedule, utilizing the gym consistently has not been a practice I could sustain without losing valuable study time. I go to the gym twice in a week spending not less than two hours per visit. I start my Saturdays by taking long walks of five miles and my Sunday mornings with an average of fifty pushup routine. To ensure proper balanced diet, I have reduced to the barest minimum my intake of high fat content foods. I prefer having light to medium breakfast in the morning which usually comprises of toast bread, cereal, eggs, bacon, cheese and coffee. For lunch, I go for medium calorie foods with adequate protein content and for dinner I go light sometimes on salads. Fruits accompany all my meals.
I have discovered that dancing to high activity music and swimming are of great benefits. I relieve mental stress and keep physically fit by doing these two; sadly I am unable to engage in them daily. Health and fitness is not complete for me without adequate night rest. I make sure I go to bed latest 10pm every week day and wake up 6am during school period. This allows my body to recover from whatever physical strain it had been subjected to the previous day. Beside the physical gains of night rest, I profit also in mental alertness for rigorous academic activities. For me, Health is Wealth!