It has been my personal struggle throughout college to fit my healthy lifestyle into my college schedule. My class schedule is made up of 15 credit hours and 4 hours of internship work, as well as working 20 hours a week at my off-campus job.

Working out and staying healthy has always been an interest of mine, but I had not fully developed a passion for it until I came to college. Staying healthy in high school was easy, all I had to do was be involved in sports and come home to my mom’s home-cooked meals every night.

With my busy schedule, I spend little time at home and struggle to find time to work out some days, as well as struggle to make a meal for myself most nights, which leads me to eating out often or rummaging through my kitchen to find microwavable food.

But I’ve learned to make the most of it and have been figuring out ways to stay healthy and fit despite my busy schedule. Here are some of my secrets:

1. A little exercise is better than none at all.

I try my best to fit in a thorough workout every day, but most days that just doesn’t happen; some days I don’t even make it all. On busy days, even 30 minutes of exercise makes me feel so much better. That could be an at home workout or just some light work at the gym, but every little bit counts.

2. And if you don’t make it the gym, that’s perfectly okay.

There was a time when I struggled with great amounts of guilt if I didn’t make it to the gym every single day. Looking back at it, I realize that was definitely not good for my mental health and self-confidence. I believe that mental health is just as important as physical health, so it was only right that I do my best to stabilize my mental health to truly be healthy.

3. Stay conscious of the foods you’re eating. Not snacking so much helps tons, and if you just HAVE to snack, make it healthy.

I’m sure almost every college student would agree with me on the fact that any food you get access to in college is a blessing from God. And when you constantly feel hungry like me, it’s so hard to not want to eat all the time. But once I learned to curb my cravings and find healthy substitutes for them, I started feeling so much more energized and lighter.

4. The 3 H’s: stay hydrated, keep up on hygiene, and be happy.

Not only are these things vital to healthy living, but you’ll never feel better after you make a point to establish these habits. Staying hydrated gives you that extra energy for the day and keeps your body functioning how it’s supposed to. I believe that happiness is a key factor to being healthy and staying positive can helps tons when trying to improve physical and mental health.