By Jacqueline Hlavenka
By the end of the fall semester, my body was absolutely spent. Dark circles formed underneath my eyes and my skin grew languid and pale-I looked and felt exhausted after many sleepless nights working at The Chronicle, maintaining good grades and working whenever I could in-between.
Come spring, I needed a change. I wasn’t looking for academics. I wasn’t looking for another editorial position. I wasn’t looking for a freelance photo job. I needed a challenge that pushed my body and mind to their limits. For me, this would be the ultimate test of personal strength.
So I flipped through the pages of the University course offerings book under “Physical Education and Sports Sciences.” As I browsed through the various classes, nothing seemed to catch my eye (bowling seemed blah, yoga was just eh)-until I spotted a two-credit course called Fitness for Life. It seemed like a perfect way to ease myself into exercise again, since the class already required a two-day commitment on Mondays and Wednesdays. Like many students, since my transition to college, my level of fitness has slipped drastically from my days in high school. Still, I carried some preconceived notion that the gym was for “jocks,” not people like me. There always seemed to be an invisible line separating me and the Recreation Center.
But that’s not the case. On the first day of class, there were a bunch of different students from various different departments on campus, some were business majors, others were English majors and there were a handful of physical education majors and athletic trainers. There was no invisible divide between “jocks” and anyone else-everyone was equal and came to class with the exact same desire: to live a healthy lifestyle.
I remember clearly that my professor, Steven Frierman said “exercise needs to fit you like a glove” during the first week of classes. At first, I must admit, I was skeptical, but I decided to stick with the class.
I kept a journal of everything I ate for four days straight. When Dr. Frierman returned the paper to me, all the unhealthy foods I consumed were circled in pen. Let’s just say my paper was bleeding with ink.
I knew I could improve. I started replacing fatty foods with healthy alternatives, like egg whites instead of egg sandwiches with cheese, salad instead of pizza, pasta and veggies instead of fried chicken.
Soon after, I discovered the joy of jogging.
As I continued to do cardio, my body soon became hooked on exercise. I would look forward to class so I could put on my headphones, tune out the rest of the world and just move. I went from exercising two days a week, tothree days a week, now three to four days a week. That’s a big difference from zero.
Exercise was an escape. It’s the one part of the day where my phone wasn’t ringing off the hook, I didn’t need to check e-mails or sit in a long, drawn-out lecture.
It’s true what they say: exercise will give you more energy, and you will feel better. It’s the natural equivalent of a shot of espresso at Starbucks. Without it, some of the habits developed in college-like drinking, smoking or leading a sedentary lifestyle-can have dangerous effects on your health down the road.
Researchers look at lifestyle illnesses, like smoking, poor diet and inactivity as the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), 60 percent of American adults do not get enough exercise. I, for one, do not want to be a statistic.
And I won’t be. At the end of the semester, I ran a 1.5 mile for the final exam and beat my old score by a whole minute. During the test, I locked myself in and felt completely focused. Though my feet began to hurt and my nose turned pink from seasonal allergies-as I crossed that finish line, I learned the most important challenges in life are not the tests we take, but how we apply ourselves in the long run.
I think I passed.
Jacqueline Hlavenka is a junior print journalism student. You may e-mail her at [email protected].