Jessika Vandivier
The Paw Print
Welcome back readers! I don’t even have to ask if you participated in the challenge from last issue, because I know everyone was extremely healthy these past couple weeks. I for one made sure to put my laptop across the room so I would have to get up and walk over to it every time Netflix asked me if I wanted to “Continue Playing.”
The truth is, vacation is a hard time to work on staying in shape. Breaks mean travel. A lot of students that attend school here at ASU are not locals to Alamosa. There are people from all across the country that have to travel by plane, train, and car to visit their family back home.
Whether they are rushing to catch a flight, or driving five hours on the highway, what kind of food do you think people find most convenient to eat while traveling? The answer to this question is fast food.
Stopping at Sonic, McDonald’s, Burger King, or Taco Bell is so much easier than taking the extra time to make a sack lunch for the road. This may be the easy solution my friends, but this is definitely not the healthy choice to make.
According to NYU.edu, college students eat fast food one to three times a week. This fact proves that fast food plays a huge part in the “Freshman 15,” which if you remember correctly, we are trying to avoid.
To show you how much of an impact just one meal can make on your life, let’s look at some facts.
One Big Mac contains 563 calories. The medium fry that you get to go along with that is 384 calories. Then at the end, one has to add in the few extra calories from the soda that comes with the meal. All together your dining experience cost you around 1,400 calories.
The amount of exercise it takes to burn of the Big Mac lunch is as extreme as its calorie count. A person would have to walk for six hours straight to burn off a fast food burger, fries, and coke.
Even the salads from fast food restaurants are not safe. The dressings alone are filled with so much fat that they often contain more calories than a burger. One would have to walk two and a half miles to burn off a “healthy choice” item.
College students eat out because it is more convenient and there are very good value menu deals. However, there are definitely ways to replace chain restaurants with fast food of your own.
Alamosa’s City Market has a really good salad bar that includes different toppings, along with fruit. The total cost would be a little more, however, you would receive way more nutrition and it could be saved and eaten as left overs later.
Designate one day a week to be your food prep day. Prepare all of your meals and put all of your snacks in baggies. Make sure to make enough for Monday through Sunday. Store them so whenever you are in a hurry, you can grab some chow and hit the road.
Another tip to help you avoid the drive-through is when you go grocery shopping, be sure to pick out a couple of treats for yourself. This will serve as your reward for a hard day’s work, rather than hitting McDonald’s.
You can have a bowl of the ice cream or a few cookies with milk. These little treats are a lot less calories, and in moderation they are perfectly ok to incorporate into your diet a couple of days a week.
So your challenge for this week ASU: no fast food!
This task is not impossible, it is actually going to be way easier than you think.
Good luck everyone!
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