As Elle from "Legally Blonde" once said:

“Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t…” you know the rest.

I am no workout junkie. Nor am I a workout-Barbie-looking perfect human by any means. However, I love working out. I love being fit and eating fairly healthy. It’s just a part of who I am, and I am proud of that.

Like many other female students in college, I have endured the typical weight gain/weight loss cycle (that truthfully does not just happen freshman year). But I find that I am my happiest, most productive, and energetic self when I am working out regularly and consuming a healthy diet. This doesn’t necessarily mean I am spending hours on hours at the gym on campus or eating tofu and rice every day. I can skip a couple leg days and binge on Moe’s as much as the next gal. It means I actually enjoy being fit. I like going to the gym. Running is nearly therapeutic for me. Eating (mostly) organic and easy-to-digest food enables my body to feel its best. Who doesn’t like feeling their best?

Sometimes, this is hard. For instance when your sorority house’s chef is well known for his incredibly tasty- yet incredibly hefty- meals. Or when you are juggling a work-study position, research position, classes, sorority responsibilities, and a decent social life. Sometimes life happens and physical health slips away from its prioritized slot. But at the end of the day, physical health is just as important as mental health, and it even plays a crucial role in mental health.

Balance is key. Yes, physical health is very important, but so are all of the other things I listed above. Making the choice between having extra time to get ready for a night out with friends or going on that late night run might be difficult. Deciding to make your way to the salad bar instead of seconds at the dessert bar (for the third night in a row) may be difficult. Taking the meant-to-be-harmless comments from your friends about how you’re “crazy for going on that run this morning” or the dealing with the occasional “I hate you” after you order a salad at a restaurant might be difficult as well. Still, to feel your best is worth getting over these little difficulties. No pain no gain, right? Right.

Don’t get me wrong; I don’t feel the need to tell people that they need to workout more, what they should eat, or how to live their lives at all. I feel that you should do whatever makes you happy, and if that means maintaining a healthy lifestyle by exercising and eating right then so be it. If that means exercising mildly and eating junk food, then so be it. For me, it means staying fit. So I’ll do just that.