How to Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle in College

As college students, we have learned to navigate the ups and downs of college life. Maintaining both mental and physical health requires conscious effort and self-discipline which can be difficult and is something we have both struggled with. We’ve learned that staying grounded comes from creating healthy routines, finding balance, and giving ourselves grace. We want to share with you the things that have helped us throughout these past few years and hope that incorporating these habits can help you too!

Creating a routine and finding a social balance that works for you

In college, we are constantly faced with external pressures, whether its social pressure, academic and career expectations, family obligations, etc. Much of this is out of our control, which shows the value in taking charge of the things in life that we can control such as our routines and the decisions we make each day. Something we ask ourselves before everything we do is, is this serving me? This can be applied when it comes to social pressures, healthy eating and lifestyle, or something as simple as scrolling on social media. At the end of the day we should prioritize ourselves and make conscious decisions that will serve us. We are both creatures of routine and our individual routines help keep us grounded through all of the chaos. Below are some of the non-negotiables we have incorporated that help us stay balanced.

• We take the time each evening to create a rough schedule for the following day. Additionally, we love planning our workouts and meals ahead of time to help us stay accountable. This takes the guesswork out of our day so we can focus our energy on showing up and getting things done.

• Staying hydrated and starting each day with a large glass of water. We love to enhance this by adding the Trace Minerals Power Pak electrolytes which includes all of the essential vitamins. 

• We have started opting for tea over coffee in the morning to help eliminate jitters and is a gentle way to wake up your body and mind while still feeling energized and focused.

• Choosing a day (we usually do Sunday) to deep clean your living space, restock on groceries, and get re-organized for the coming week.

• We do our best to stay off of social media for the first few hours of the day. This helps us stay grounded and limits mental clutter throughout the day.

  
  

At the end of the day, it's all about balance. We try to live by the 80/20 lifestyle meaning that 80% of the time you are staying healthy, prioritizing sleep/good meals/workouts, but the other 20% of time it is ok to indulge, stay out late, and enjoy college. College is the time to make memories and lifelong friends, so it is also important to put yourself out there and make the most of your time in college before life becomes even busier.

Creating a peaceful and organized living space

We have found that the state of our living space impacts our productivity throughout the day. Every night we take 10 minutes to make sure the dish washer is loaded, the counters are wiped down and everything feels organized before going to bed. This starts the following day off on a positive note, setting the tone for a productive day. This carries into the atmosphere you create in your living space. We almost always have a candle burning and music playing to make the space inviting and homey.

Prioritizing Sleep

Not everyday is perfect but we prioritize getting in bed around 9:30-10:00 during the week and getting 8-9 hours of sleep. We both tend to be most productive in the early morning hours so we love getting up early to go to the library, coffee shop, or on a walk to start the day. We want to preface that as college students, getting a full 8-9 hours is not always realistic so it is important to maximize our sleep quality. We both track our sleep using the Oura ring which has given us a better understanding of the impact of our sleep quality. 

Mouth taping is something we've both incorporated into our routines. This helps encourage nasal breathing which has several physiological benefits and fosters a deeper sleep. We try to avoid technology right before bed but we have noticed a huge difference in our ability to fall asleep after wearing blue light glasses in the evenings. Red light supports our natural circadian rhythm and increases the natural production of melatonin so we have been loving the Hatch alarm for its red light and white noise feature. Finally, we love to end the night with a cup of tea. Recently we have been taking magnesium and L-Theanine at night which calms the nervous system, making it easier to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night.

Making your own meals 

One of our favorite parts of the day is cooking dinner together. It feels therapeutic after a long day of classes. Taking the time to cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner is such an easy way to slow down and do something for yourself. It doesn’t have to be complicated, some of our favorite meals, like morning yogurt bowls or quick wraps and salads, come together in just a few minutes. Living in a place like Dallas with unlimited food options, it can be tempting to DoorDash or eat out. However, as college students this gets expensive over time and we have found that making our own meals helps us make much healthier meal choices. When you cook for yourself, you know exactly what’s going into your food. We love experimenting with new recipes (which we will be sharing on our blog:)) and we make a point to cook with friends a few nights a week.  

Moving your body and getting outside 

We try to get some form of movement each day. Some days this is a 20 minute walk or a quick at-home mat pilates class and others it is a longer walk or a more strenuous workout class. We have been loving mat and reformer pilates. Moving your body and getting outside daily is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to reset and boost our overall wellbeing. Walks are our favorite time to catch up with loved ones or listen to music, an audio book, or a podcast. This is time we are consciously taking to better ourselves, which we have found helps us make healthier choices overall. 

XOXO,

Avery & Bliss