Amidst the workload and stress of classes, work, and your social life, maintaining healthy habits can seem like a challenging feat. Although life as a UGA student can be demanding, staying healthy in both mind and body should be of the utmost importance to you. The state of your health can have a major impact on your performance as a student, so it's important to establish healthy habits now; the earlier you start, the more benefits you may see in the long-term!
How to Maintain Your Physical Health as a UGA Student
Get Enough Sleep
Many people underestimate how impactful sleep is to overall health, especially college students. Unfortunately, most college students do not get the proper amount of sleep–whether that's due to pulling all-nighters to cram for a midterm or staying out late to party with friends. While deliberately losing sleep occasionally is unlikely to have long-term damaging effects, making a habit of it can result in serious adverse health effects–including high blood pressure, depression, and lower immunity. Most young adults need at least 7-9 hours of sleep. To ensure you're getting the proper amount of sleep, I would recommend choosing a bedtime and adhering to it every night. Your body operates on an ingrained sleep cycle, so once you condition yourself to go to sleep and wake up at a specific time, your body will naturally acclimate to that.
Eat a Balanced Diet
Maintaining good nutrition is incredibly important, but it can also understandably be difficult to achieve for the average busy bulldog. Eating out is the easy option but you should avoid making a habit of it. It's important to have a daily balanced diet of fruits and vegetables. Some simple adjustments to ensure this could be making daily smoothies, eating a banana or any other whole fruit, and adding some greens as a side to your chicken dinner. In addition, the great thing about off-campus housing is that you now have access to your own kitchen where you can make delicious and nourishing meals to your heart's desire!
Exercise
A total of 150 minutes of physical activity per week is recommended by health specialists. Exercise not only can benefit your physical health, but your mental health as well. You only need 30 minutes of exercise 5 days out of the week to reach 150. Exercising could include walking, going on runs, biking, or even dancing. If you're viewing apartment listings on ApartmentsforAthens, I would recommend looking for apartments with fitness centers. Having an accessible fitness center near you can make achieving that daily exercise goal significantly easier, and many apartments in Athens have theirs open 24/7!
Ways to Improve Your Mental Health as a UGA Student
Take Breaks When Needed
It's a known fact that college can be mentally tolling. The pressure to maintain a good work-life balance is intense. However, it is so important to not neglect your own needs. It's okay to take breaks. Suffering from writer's block while writing an essay and stressed out? Go take a 10-minute walk and get some fresh air. If you live near Five Points, this can be a great area to take a walk. Perhaps you could even treat yourself to a coffee from Jittery Joe's before heading back! In addition, meditating, 30-minute power naps, or even a quick work-out session can be great ways to get your mind in a better place.
Utilize Your Resources
If you ever feel that your mental health struggles are getting to a point of unmanageability, UGA has several resources that students are encouraged to use. The #BeWellUGA page on the University Health Center Website has multiple links and information about the various free mental health resources offered by UGA–including resources for those in crisis and in need of immediate assistance. Sometimes simply talking to someone can make a huge difference in how you feel, so I'd highly recommend taking advantage of these resources.