In order to avoid gaining any more weight during her freshman
year in college, 17-year-old Claire Rice went down to Mexico to
have gastric bypass surgery. The procedure left her as skinny as
Kate Moss ““ and then landed her in an American hospital,
where she nearly died from complications from having her stomach
stapled south of the border.
If this sounds a bit dramatic, that’s because it is
““ it was in an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy”
that I watched last night.
Still, the point is you don’t need to go to extreme
lengths to keep the pounds off during your first year at UCLA. Any
Bruin can avoid gaining the infamous freshman 15.
The obvious starting point is to exercise every day at the
Wooden Center. But seriously, when you’re trying to master
the concept of Gauss’s law for physics or writing a paper on
the Pantheon for a history class, how can you possibly have time to
exercise?
After all, to get here you had to study three hours a day, and
to keep up with your fellow Bruins, you might as well study twice
as much ““ especially if you’re premed.
So when can you exercise?
The secret to getting exercise on campus is to walk as much as
possible. The University Health Services Web site for UC Berkeley
recommends walking 45-60 minutes, five to seven days a week if you
want to lose or maintain your weight.
The fact that you have to walk uphill both ways to get to class
and back to the Hill will make your body work even harder, and
you’ll have stellar calves in no time. Rieber and Hedrick
residents, I’m talking to you.
In fact, instead of cursing the gods when the Rieber Vista
elevator breaks for the 34th time ““ and believe me, it will
happen ““ thank the patron saint of exercise that you get to
burn some calories while walking up nine flights of stairs.
For those of us who like to take the easy way out, there’s
always the “eat healthy and/or less food” approach.
This does not mean that the only thing you eat all day is a
Nutri-Grain bar; it means eating a balanced meal. If you get a
hamburger, then also fill your tray with some corn, an orange and
milk.
Just because you’re eating a balanced diet, however, does
not make you king of the dining hall world. One guy on my floor
freshman year used to eat 10 plates of pasta in one sitting and
still have room for dessert.
If you’re an athlete, fine, you’ll burn it off; but
if you’re sedentary like me, then it’s wise to limit
the portions.
Speaking of limitation, it’s near impossible for me to
limit my snack intake while I’m studying. So instead of
denying myself the pleasures of food, I indulge my munchies by
eating a granola bar instead of Twix, graham crackers instead of
chips, or a fruit smoothie instead of soda. Or at least I try to.
That way, I can mollify my grumbling stomach while consuming less
calories than I would otherwise.
Another pesky source of calories is alcohol ““ they
don’t call it a “beer belly” for nothing.
I’m not going to tell you to stay sober every minute of
college if you don’t want to, but I will tell you that if you
want to drink and not gain tons of weight, wine is the beverage of
choice.
According to the University of Rochester’s Health
Promotion Office, 4 ounces of wine ranges from 62 calories (rose
wine) to 90 calories (white sweet wine). In comparison, you get 115
calories from 1.5 ounces of rum, tequila, whiskey or vodka.
You do the math.
If you’ve ever actually rejoiced that the Rieber Vista
elevator was broken because you could exercise more, tell Fylstra
at jfylstra@media.ucla.edu.