How the gym helped me graduate

I started my fitness journey when I was in second year. All my friends would make their way to gym and I would stay back and study. "I don't have time for that" I told myself, "I'm too busy trying to get A's." I lived this lie for a long time, and I used this as an excuse to not treat my body the way it deserved to be treated. In high school, i was never the girl that got A's because she was smart, i was the girl that got A's because I tried wayyyy too hard. This led me to believe that I couldn't be successful unless i put thousands of hours and hard work into every assignment.

However, by second year, I knew something needed to change. I was drowning in stress, my face was in a constant state of acne outbreak, and I hated the way i looked and felt. My friends invited me out one last time to go the gym and I finally accepted. That was my BEST YES (and i promise it will be yours too). I went in to the gym feeling so stressed about some upcoming project, and despite the fact that I had 2 less hours to work on it, I felt

significantly less stressed. ??!!

After a week of gymming with my friends, I decided I needed to rearrange my priorities. I shifted my goals from: School, People Health to Health, People THEN school. I would make my schedule around what I needed health wise (regular gym schedule, time to make food, and adequate sleep), then I would schedule in time with my friends, and lastly with whatever time is left, I would fit in compartmentalized homework sessions. To my shock, my grades IMPROVED. I spent 10 less hours per week on homework and my GPA went from a 3.7 --> 4.2 in one semester.

What I learned from this experience is that homework is a sponge, it will soak up whatever time its given. I know this because I would produce the same quality paper in 4 hours than I previously would have in 10 hours. I believe this is because of focus. It is no myth that movement improves focus.

So, if you are like me, a student using the excuse "I don't have time," I encourage you to PLEASE try for one week to make the time and I guarantee you will come to the same conclusions I have.

Now, this doesn't mean that starting this journey will be easy, but here's a tip that I found most helpful:

USE YOUR MORNINGS WISELY. If you plan your workout in the morning, you wont be nearly as stressed over your assignments because you have the hope of a successful afternoon. However, i find it nearly IMPOSSIBLE to pull myself away from a half finished assignment in the evening.