(HealthDayNews) -- For many students, the freshman year of college is notoriously associated with weight gain. Temptations are everywhere for people who are living away from home for the first time, and food is bound to be one of them.
Harvard Medical School suggests how students can deal with the desire to pig out on campus:
- Become aware of your habits; it's the only way to break them. For example, once you know you eat even when you're not hungry, you can try to stop yourself.
- Plan your meal before you enter the cafeteria. Once you walk in and smell the high-fat items cooking, you may not be able to resist.
- Time your meals. Set a limit of 20 minutes to eat, then leave. Don't hang around the cafeteria.
- If you know you eat when you're stressed, for example, find a substitute activity. Talk to a friend or a counselor, go for a walk, or head for the gym.
- If your dorm has a small kitchen, prepare your own healthy meals on occasion.
