Staying Healthy in Your 20’s
Photo credit: Rand Corporation
I was on Facebook today, scrolling through my newsfeed waiting for my next class to start when I came across a New York Times article by Tara Parker-Pope titled, “The 8 Health Habits Experts Say You Need in Your 20’s.” Though I consider myself to be a healthy person, I am in my twenties so it intrigued me to see if I do any of the habits that it mentions. The first question in the article asks something like, “if you had one piece of health advice for people in their 20’s what would it be?” Before reading on, the answer that I came up with was to drink more water than you think you should be drinking, to exercise, and to cut down on junk food. Staying healthy in your 20’s is a lot more important than most people think. I have only recently started making myself work out every day (or a minimum of 3 times a week) because I’ve always had a fast metabolism therefore I never really had to push myself to lose weight. Losing weight isn’t the only reason you should work out, it’s something that your body really needs in order to function properly, especially for later in life. For CU students, the rec center is an amazing gym, it has every type of equipment imaginable so take advantage of it! According to the article, the eight health habits are:
- Weigh yourself often: this means getting yourself a scale and keeping an eye on your weight.
- Learn to cook: it will save you money and help you eat healthier instead of eating out a lot or eating prepared foods from the grocery store. Cooking can also be really fun!
- Cut back on sugar: stop eating candy, yes, but also stop drinking soda and eating cereals (and other foods) with added sugar.
- Live an active life: work out!! Even if it’s just for 20-30 minutes, build it into your schedule.
- Eat your veggies
- Practice portion control: pay attention to the size of your plate. Studies have shown that if you use a large plate, you are more likely to try and fill the whole plate with food.
- Adopt a post-party exercise routine: it’s easy to engage in a lot of drinking over the weekend, not to mention the food you eat when you have the “drunchies,” but drink a lot of water and find time to work out to offset the intake of calories.
- Find a job you love: okay, this one is easier said than done because graduating college doesn’t just automatically mean you will have your dream job. However, research done at Ohio State University found that whatever work you do in your 20’s can affect your midlife mental health.
To read this article more in more detail, go to
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