Stay healthy while studying

When you’re studying, every day of the week tends to be different.

Some afternoons may be packed with classes, or you might have one lecture in the morning and be free for the rest of the day.

Not to mention, you’ll have study breaks and holidays messing with your rhythm, and your entire schedule may change in the second half of the year.

The constant change can make it hard to stick to an exercise routine, have a regular day for grocery shopping or commit to cooking for your flatmates twice a week. And when the assignments start piling up, it's easy to let other areas of your life slide in favour of full-time stressing.

So how do you get the balance right? Try these ideas to help keep your health on track while you're studying.

Stay fit

Join in

There are so many clubs and events to join when you’re at university, so make the most of it by seeking out activities that will help you stay healthy while you get involved in student life. Join the tramping club, find an on-campus yoga class or sign up for a fun run with your flatmates and train together after class.

Exercising as part of a group is often more fun and more motivating than working out on your own, and by joining clubs you’ll meet like-minded friends who hopefully also have healthy habits. It’s much easier to stay healthy if your friends would rather meet you for herbal tea than head out for pizza and chocolate sundaes every week.

Have a home routine

You probably can’t exercise with other people every day, and if your friends bail or your car breaks down it’s good to have a home workout routine up your sleeve. Map out a running route in your area, get your own yoga mat or look up workout routines on Youtube for ideas.

Make the most of breaks

If you’ve got a gap between classes where you’d normally head to a coffee shop or laze in the park, consider working out instead. This builds exercise into your routine and you can fit exercise in when you’re just waiting around anyway, leaving more time for other things once you get home. If you wait until all your classes are done for the day, it’s more tempting to skip your workout in favour of heading home and lazing on the couch in your pj’s.

Keep your balance

Create a mini-routine

Develop a short, healthy routine that you can do almost anytime and anywhere.

This could be five minutes of yoga followed by a few minutes of meditation. You might jog around the block for 10 minutes, or enjoy a cup of green tea while you write in a journal to get your worries out of your head.

It doesn’t matter what it is, so long as you enjoy it and it supports your health. Make sure it’s short enough that it’s easy to find time for it in your schedule almost daily – 20 minutes or less is about right. That way, when your schedule changes it’s easy to find a new slot for your healthy routine.

Take time out

When life gets busy, it’s hard to make time for yourself. But looking after your own needs will help you stay healthy and study more effectively.

You can't concentrate for hours at a time, so remember to take breaks throughout the day. Even a quick stretch break for a few minutes will help you feel more refreshed. Sleep is also crucial to staying healthy and being at your best, so try to get to bed at a decent hour so you don’t fall asleep during lectures!

Be organised

Exams and assignments can really mess with your routine, so if you’re not careful it’s easy to neglect your health until the holidays roll around. Luckily, a bit of organisation goes a long way towards helping you keep a balanced life and keep stress to a minimum.

Get a wall planner and diary, and write all your assignments and tests down. Then try to start early on your assignments or study, so you avoid all-nighters and there’s no last-minute panic trying to find reference books for an essay when they’re all checked out of the campus library. At the very least, do a bit of reading on the subject and make some notes or jot down an essay plan to help you later on.

There’s also a lot to be said for reviewing your notes as part of your routine – such as while you’re travelling home on the bus. That way when exams roll around, you won’t be starting from scratch and the material will have had time to really sink in.

By doing your work ahead of time, you’ll be able to plan days off and make sure you’re not glued to your computer on the same night as the big party you’d love to go to (and yes, you’ll probably get better grades as well).

Eat well

Have a budget

If you’re flatting, it’s important to decide whether you’ll shop and cook individually or as a group. It will usually be cheaper to split food costs. If you have special dietary requirements it can be difficult to eat what your flatties cook, so if you can’t get them on board for meat-free Mondays you might have to go it alone – but see if you can share those basic items you all make use of, to help keep costs down for all of you.

Plan your meals

Make time each week to plan what you’re going to cook. This will help prevent last-minute trips to the corner store for ingredients you forgot to get at the supermarket. Try making meals where you can freeze the leftovers so you have something healthy on hand for when you’re too tired to cook. It’s also a good idea to have some staples available so you can throw together a decent meal when you really don’t have the time or energy to spend ages in the kitchen.

If you’re living with your family, you may be lucky enough to get a home-cooked meal every night without much effort on your part. But it’s a good idea to pitch in and cook a few meals yourself, even if you don’t have to. That way you’ll be well prepared for when you do move out of home (and you’ll have good ideas for the menu when you go on holiday with friends).

Experiment

Is there one night a week where you have more time for cooking? Take the opportunity to try out a new healthy recipe. You’ll grow your recipe collection and develop your cooking skills at the same time – and you might discover a few recipes that you want to add to your regular rotation.

To help you stick to a student budget, look for recipes that use seasonal produce and find a reasonable substitute for any expensive ingredients.

Boost your energy and improve your mood by spending more time outdoors.