I can’t believe that my son is starting college and in anticipation of this life-changing event I created this list of what I think to be the the most important health tips every college student must know. I still have vivid memories waiting in the nursery school library. I’d try to catch the eye of any teacher that walked by for reassurance that my baby wasn’t a crying lunatic in class. Guess who is the crying lunatic now? I’m going to try hard to not become that meme. The one that depicts a mom with her arms around the legs of her “so-ready-for-college-it’s-not-even-funny” freshman. I am determined that he leaves as fully prepared as possible and staying healthy is at the top of the list. I hope you share this list with the college student you know as well.
- Eat a healthy diet. A diet comprised of whole, non-processed, foods, a ton of veggies (8-11 servings a day), a bare minimum of sugar, low caffeine and no alcohol is imperative to staying healthy. Sugar competes with vitamin C receptor sites and can reduce immunity significantly.
- Don’t skimp on sleep. Nine hours of sleep. Yes, nine! If you have time to zone out on your phone you have time for sleep. The restorative, resilience boosting and stress reducing effects of sleep are priceless. If you have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep try 300-400 mg of magnesium citrate or glycinate before bed.
- Wash your hands…often. Nothing prevents colds and flu better. Just make sure you are not using antibacterial soap since it can increase antibiotic resistance and you definitely want antibiotics to work when you need them. If you want to send them something funny and healthy in their care package click here. How can they not use it???
- Drink plenty of water. Dehydration prevents us from eliminating toxins and waste material. Try to drink around one half your body weight in ounces of water a day.
- Exercise daily. Exercise produces cell in our body that help to eliminate bacteria and viruses. Being sedentary decreases this production. Even if it’s walking, get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day.
If they only do these 5 things the chances of them getting sick reduces significantly. A healthy college kid means happy and sane parents who can spend less on therapy for themselves and more on college tuition for their kid.
I’ll be sharing this with my HS senior. It’s never too early to (reinforce) share healthy living tips. If they hear it often enough, I hope it will sink in before it’s a desperate back peddle to fix less healthy choices. If we all enforced these ideals, it would be less of an anomaly (“mom, no one else…”).