6 Healthy Things To Do Before Your 9AM Lecture

Students are well-versed in eating too many takeaways, drinking too much alcohol and sleeping in until midday. University, however, can be a good time to form new habits. Habits that don’t mean leaving your washing up until the very last moment to clean.

Despite what the headlines say, it is definitely possible to be both a student and a healthy person. And making healthy lifestyle choices can do anyone good.

Here are six things you can do to health up before your 9AM lecture.

Go to the gym

There are plenty of reasons to workout early morning, the first one being that you don’t have to go after a day of lectures. Instead, in your 9AM, you can try to get to the bottom of which students wearing activewear are the real deal and which are not.

Endorphins, of course, are a lifesaver, powering you through that pesky 9AM while your friends are still half asleep. Probably the best part of it is just how quiet the gym is in the early morning. There’s no need to worry about equipment availability or arriving and feeling unmotivated by the crowds of gym goers. Before 9AM, the gym is your gym – in student halls, anyway.

Have a smoothie

Smoothies are a brilliant way to begin the day. As well as gaining portions of fruit and veg, you’re rewarded with free smug points to use up when you’re walking into the lecture hall. Or you could rock up, pre-made smoothie in hand. Now that’s healthy.

Recipe research

There is a wealth of cheap, easy and healthy recipes to scroll through on the internet. As a student, it’s a goldmine. Plan your recipes and jot down ingredients ready for an after lecture shop. Preparation is key and a quick recipe search could inspire a healthy lifestyle far beyond your 9am lecture.

Meal prep for the week

We all see those Instagrammers insisting meal prep is the way forward. Waking up an hour earlier could mean cooking up a lunch and dinner of spag bol before your friends have pressed “snooze” five times. Soon enough you’ll be the new Joe Wicks, with a whole week of food ready and waiting for you in the fridge.

Even making a packed lunch like the old days would be healthy for both your body and your pockets. Being a student can mean spending double the amount you should because you didn’t make lunch and you need to eat before your next lecture. That means overpriced and often far from healthy choices from the uni shop. Try getting up a little earlier and spending less.

HIIT up

HIIT is in right now. High-intensity interval training means you can workout twice as hard but in less time. You only need to wake up 20 minutes earlier than you normally would as well.

You can watch a video, screenshot a step-by-step or even make it up yourself. It’s convenient, its effects are plentiful, you can do it in your own bedroom and you don’t have to use any alien-style equipment.

Hydrate

If all else fails, before you eat your breakfast drink some water. Among other brilliant benefits, drinking water immediately in the morning increases alertness and fuels your brain. What more could a student want?!

You might just find having a healthy ritual a few mornings a week inspires a whole day of wellbeing. It’s important to stay healthy as a student. Not only does living healthily improve physical health but it also helps brain power. As a student, you’re going to need as much of that as you can get.

9AMs are every student’s worst nightmare. Choosing a little sprinkle of healthy before you rock up might just make them easier to bear.

Kathryn ─ known as Kat even though she prefers Kath ─ studied English Language at Cardiff University and now wants to finally write that book she’s always been meaning to write. Check out her Twitter, Instagram and blog to delve into her mind further.

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