The first semester of college does a number on your body. Your digestive system has to adapt to new kinds of food, your sleep schedule gets wrecked and it’s expected that you will get sick at least once in the first few months. Staying active is a great way to keep yourself from getting sick, but if you’re not a student athlete, it’s difficult to stay healthy and find motivation to work out. Honestly, if I didn’t have practice every day, I doubt that I would make the daily hike to the gym or make sure that I was eating the right kind of food.
Clothes affect your mindset more than you think. Â It’s far easier to work out if you’re wearing athletic-wear that you love and feel amazing in. If you feel like a pro athlete in a Nike advertisement, most likely you will run a little farther, push a little harder or go for one more set. When your gym outfit is on point, you feel like your life is together and like you can do anything that you put your mind to. If you wear old sweatpants and a T-shirt to the gym, you’ll want to climb into bed rather than climb a mountain.
If I could give advice to my pre-college self, I would tell myself not to spend so much money on fancy blouses and dresses because I would live in my running clothes. I feel my best when I’m in my favorite Nike Windrunner and leggings, an outfit that’s cute enough to wear right from the track to the classroom.
You don’t need to empty your bank account at the Nike store to feel like an athletic-wear model either. A pulled together workout outfit can be as simple as matching the color of your headband to the waistband of your shorts. I’m not saying that you’ll be the next Gillian Michaels if you look cute in your gym outfit, but it doesn’t hurt to look good while you’re working hard.
