Yes, those silly diet pill commercials do get one thing right: stress can cause weight gain. When your mind is stressed, your body is also stressed. The human body doesn’t distinguish well between fear of predators or starvation and fear of Calculus for Business Majors. Lack of sleep and excessive worry can make your body switch on its protective mechanisms. It packs on the pounds to use for extra energy stores just in case that exam turns out to have a mean set of teeth and sprinting is required.
Take advantage of your college’s free counseling services. Grab a sack of pamphlets on stress management, go for walks, or just get a ‘stress buddy’ and vent over a cup of de-caf coffee.
The biggest tool for managing undergrad freak-outs is time management. College is an adjustment. Last year you went to school during certain hours every day, woke up at the same time, had practice or meetings at the same time, and Mom had a healthy dinner on the table at the same time. Now you are in charge of your schedule, and you quickly learn a college schedule is not especially regular.
Create a routine for yourself: wake up around the same time every day, eat around the same time every day. Also, and this one’s a biggie, DO NOT put off what could be done today for tomorrow. It’s easy to slide when the sock fight in your dorm is screaming for your particular skills, but you need to buckle down. Any college vet will tell you that cramming for exams make for good war stories, not good grades, and definitely not a stress-free existence.
Finally, give yourself a break. College is a big change, and an important step in life. Some weight gain the first year may be inevitable. Hopefully you will lose the extra padding over the summer and arrive back for your sophomore year armed with the knowledge of experience. The most important thing is to keep yourself healthy, enjoy living these four years, and try your best at anything and everything.