As a freshman coming to college you are excited and eager on your new found journey in life. You are excited on finally leavng the nest and become independent.
Finding this newly found independence comes with a price; rather it is excessive amounts of food intake to cope with stress or even excessive partying and consumption of alcohol amounts is equally a factor in the price of gaining weight.
“It’s easy to pick up weight, especially with the food service at Grambling campus, the things we have here are what most students are not looking for and are simply going off campus to obtain the food they want,” said senior Keisha Ricketts.
Most freshmen are aware of the “freshman 15” and some believe that they will not gain the 15 pounds until they first experience the café and the express – the cafe being a buffet style and the express being fast food on the go. Nevertheless their food and alcohol intake increases and their work out habits decrease, that newly found roll starts to develop.
“Well it depends, some people come to college and change their lifestyle and they are not as active because maybe they were in sports or whatever in high school and then they get here because they are not affiliated with a club or organization that would cost them to work out they tend to gain weight, said the Director of the Recreational Intramural Sports, Terry Lilly.
“Then you have the other students who come already out of shape and try to lose the weight they gained in high school. I look at it in two ways: some gain the weight and some lose the weight.”
Lilly wants students to know there are people in the intramural center to help them maintain or lose the weight.
“I had the weight before Grambling, my weight was 267.6 pounds my freshman year at GSU, I went to Terry Lilly’s aerobic classes, walking more and the weight started shredding off,” said Kevin Thomas a junior social work major. “You have to live in reality, some people still wear the same clothes that clearly do not fit anymore, you have to be able to look at your self and take a ‘selfie’ and say ‘I clearly gain weight and I need to do something about it’ and jump on it before it becomes the freshman 30.”
We all have those few unwanted or excess pounds therefore why not take advantage of all of the different and unique classes the Intramural Center offers throughout the week?
It is important for the students to take advantage of the opportunities to lose weight and to stay fit.