Every college student's biggest fear... the freshman 15. Going away to college is a new, exciting and scary experience. You get to live on your own, do whatever you want and eat anything and everything. Some schools, like mine, have very limited dining options, while others have lots of choices. Besides the food there's parties, which in most cases means alcohol. Alcohol is full of unnecessary calories that your body does not need. When you combine alcohol, unhealthy food and no exercise you start to see the freshman 15.

You may be wondering, "What is the freshman 15?" The freshman 15 is when you put on weight after coming to college. Honestly, pretty much every single college student does it. You have all the freedom in the world and the last thing you want to do is watch what you eat.

I was lucky that in the fall of my freshman year I was running cross-country. I didn't have to worry about gaining the freshman 15 since I was constantly running and working out. But, after my first collegiate season I quit the sport I loved for many, many years. When this happened, I was still eating the same amount of food I ate during the season. I thought "oh this is fine, I'm still exercising!" I was wrong. Yes I was exercising, but it was no where near the intensity of the XC season. I slowly started feeling myself gain weight, I noticed my clothes were fitting tighter and I didn't like the way I looked in pictures. I felt all this way about myself, but I didn't really do anything about it.

I started my sophomore year and still felt the same. I had not been running for about a year and was still eating whatever I wanted. I did work out basically everyday, but it wasn't the type of working out I needed. I remember taking a family picture at Christmas and hating the way I looked in it. I felt chubby, and I thought I looked chubby. This is when I decided I was going to do something about the way I looked.

This past January I put on my running shoes and hopped on the treadmill. I put the treadmill on an 8 minute mile pace and started getting back into the groove of running. The first two minutes I was like "oh wow I got this! Taking a year off is nothing!" This thought lasted for about 30 seconds. I could hardly run. I felt so bad about myself after this happened. I was the girl who was previously known as the runner. I ran XC and track for many, many years, I ran a half marathon and I was unstoppable. This is when I hit my lowest point. I realized I needed to get back into running.

Slowly but surely I started running again. It started off as a half mile, then I slowly increased to a mile, then two and then three. Two weeks ago I ran five miles. This was the first time I ran five miles in over a year and a half. I had tears in my eyes after this run, because I finally did something that I didn't think I was able to. I finally started losing the weight I put on and started feeling good about myself. I am nowhere near the speed I used to be at with running, nor do I have the endurance I used to have but I'm putting one foot in front of the other.