Calling all Masters Students!!!

I'm getting my Masters degree & I'm looking for anyone else who is getting their Masters or PHD. I think it's stressful time during one's life while seeking higher education. So I thought it would be nice if we could start our own group!! Let me know if anyone  interested!!

Hi Booster! I'm not really in a masters program, but I did just start law school a few weeks ago - equally stressful, perhaps? I know it has definitely presented some challenges for my attempts at a healthy lifestyle. Too many new social situations, new friends who love beer and pizza, and new stressors that are triggering major comfort food cravings. PLUS, I haven't found any time to exercise in the past month. So I think it's going to be a rough ride; any extra motivation and support would go a long way, I think!

I believe Law school is equally as hard as any!! great to have you aboard! Let's motivate each other!!! I'm just joined a gym today. I don't think I can justify time to workout either but I'm going to. This  year is the year that I put my health first even if I have to put my school to the side for a little bit. So the plan is when I have something to read for school that I will take it to the gym & read it while I workout--so that way I won't feel bad! So see, 2 with one!!

Hi Bootser and Smood!

 I'm working on my Ph.D. and I think a graduate student group is a great idea.  All that extra stress really does make it extra hard to stay on track with health goals.  I don't really have time to exercise either, but I'm doing it anyway!  Like you, Bootser, I've decided I just have to do it--even if my school stuff suffers a little for it.  I figure, in the end, it will help me be more motivated and energetic to be healthy, right? 

 My hardest thing right now is I have a hard time taking breaks for snacks during the day (I work in a lab--no food allowed in there--and it's hard to put experiments on pause to leave for a break) but if I don't I get really hungry by the end of the day, and then I lose all will power and eat whatever is fastest instead of whatever is healthy.

 Anyways, let's do motivate each other.  Thanks for thinking of starting a group up!

Yay, I'm glad to have you. I will try to leave a comment once a day & sometimes twice when I am not in school!!! Nice to have you..I hope in the weeks to come we can all learn new things about each other.

PhD student here! It's the stress and the lack of sleep that gets to me. When I went for my masters I ended up gaining about 50 lbs (and was not small to begin with). I want the opposite to happen this time. I want to reach my goal weight about the same time I finish my degree.

Bootser1  I'm so glad you started this group!  I've been thinking it would be nice to have such a group but I'm relatively new to CC and had no idea how to start it.  I'm a second year vet school student and it is so hard to lose weight.  I gained a ton of weight in undergrad and last year managed to gain only a couple of pounds.  However, my goal was to lose weight not gain.  We get free meals all the time which mostly consist of pizza or other fattening foods and it's hard to resist because it's free (and money in all grad schools is tight)!  My goal is to get to at least what I weighed before college if not lower since I was slightly overweight then.  I hope to reach it by the time I graduate (like denise07).  Let me know if I can be of any support to you guys!

Bootser1, great idea. I'm in my 4th (hopefully last) year of PhD. I'm not from the US and I ended up gaining a lot of weight the first couple of years here--for the same reasons as everyone, I guess. No time, little money and a lot of stress. I have been losing quite a lot of weight lately, partly thanks to the summer, which is always a good time to get fruits and veggies.

I was wondering if any of you has trouble with alcohol calories. Most of my social life with grad students seem to be around drinks.

Good luck this week, and let me know if I can be of help.

Hey how is everyone doing. Welp, I thought it would just be good if we could atleast try to post an update 2wice a week(Not sure) what kind of schedule you guys have. I'm glad you guys are all on here!! So today I worked out for and hour and did 30 minutes of lifting weights---I didn't plan to do it but it just fell into place! Hope everyone is doing good.

I am halfway through my masters. I am taking this year off to get married but I certainly understand.

I'm getting a masters as well. Tonight is my long day - work followed by school - I get home after 7pm. Not TOO bad...I've taken those classes that go from 7-10PM and those suck!

BUT, on my long days, I walk around the gym at work 26 times (1 mile) and make sure to take a healthy snack with me to class so I don't hit the vending machines.

It can get tricky trying to balance family, work, and school with my getting-in-shape needs!

I got my M.A. a year ago in May.  I was teaching with classes of my own and I can vividly remember scarfing down brown-bag sandwiches between my 4-5:40 and 6-9:30 classes. 

Those 20 oz bottles of Diet Pepsi became my close friends.  Yay caffeine.

I really didn't start gaining weight until the end of my last semesters, with the late night writing (and snacking!) especially during crunch time with my thesis.  Stupid chocolate-covered raisins. 

Hey all,

 I'm just checking in for today! I hope all of you are doing great--glad to have you all. Getting a masters degree is definetly stressfull!!! I have not had any problems with eating healthy since I started my lifestyle change but the problem has been exercise. I did exercise 1 hour and 15 minutes today, I am happy to report. It would have been so easy to take a nap after I got done with my internship ( I was so tired) but instead I headed off to the gym and hopefully I will start to make that choice more often.. I hope you all have a great Tuesday!

Hi all,

My first late-night, no-exercise night of the quarter! So much for getting enough sleep and staying on my routine. It is my own fault for slacking off this weekend and putting off the work, hopefully I can catch up this week, get sleep tomorrow night and my workout.

Hope you all are asleep right now, it's good for weight loss and academics too.

 

*Good Morning*

When I first started college, the Dean came in and said "Good Morning" to all of us. When we echoed back to him, he responded "Ah, you're Freshmen." He explained.

"When you walk in and say good morning, and they say good morning back, they're Freshmen. When they put their newspapers down and open their books, they're Sophomores. When they look up so they can see the who's talking over the tops of the newspapers, they're juniors. And when they put their feet up on the desks and keep reading, they're seniors. "And when you walk in and say good morning, and they write it down, they're graduate students."

Ahaha... Here, nobody just writes stuff down. I think they would first want to know what was good about it, then argue that "good" is a subjective term, and then debate whether it is really morning or if that is a western-biased point of view... Sigh.

Good point Denise!

Happy Tuesday,

So today was  a good day. I wasn't as tired on my drive home for work. So maybe exercise is giving me more energy. I did 35 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of lifting weights. Now I'm fixing to make me a whole wheat pizza. Ok, I can't leave a long message--I have lots to do and it's already getting late. Denise! Stay strong, I'm here

Hey everyone,

 I'm just checking in too. Today was *almost* a bad day for me.  Things got super hectic, but in the end I managed to fit in a workout afterall, even though I missed the class I usually attend.  

 Also, I think I'm really getting the hang of this "portion control" thing.  I was invited to this lasagna dinner, and I was worried about the high-cal menu.  I did eat everything (even the ice cream!), but just smaller portions than my "old self" would have--and still made my calorie goal.  This is the first time I've ever calorie counted, and it's been very educational!  Before when I tried to lose weight I would (try to) stay away from "bad foods" entirely, but it's so liberating to realize that I can still eat some treats in moderation.  Yay CC!

  

I finished my work between classes, fit in an hour of cardio, and am going to bed early tonight! I am behind on reading but it can wait!

Mindalynn - I ate ice cream yesterday too! I think tracking cals and not depriving yourself of those kinds of foods is the key to long-term success! At least I hope so.

 

*How High Is It?*

An Engineering Student, a Physics Student, and a Mathematics student were each given $150 dollars and were told to use that money to find out exactly how tall a particular hotel was.

All three ran off, extremely keen on how to do this. The physics student went out, purchased some stopwatches, a number of ball bearings, a calculator, and some friends. He had them all time the drop of ball bearings from the roof, and he then figured out the height from the time it took for the bearings to accelerate from rest until they impacted with the sidewalk.

The math student waited until the sun was going down, then she took out her protractor, plumb line, measuring tape, and scratch pad, measured the length of the shadow, found the angle the buildings roof made from the ground, and used trigonometry to figure out the height of the building.

Of course, with all that was involved in getting this experiment done, they were up plenty late studying for other courses' exams. These two students bumped into the engineering student the next day, who looked quite refreshed. When asked what he did to find the height of the building he replied: "Well, I walked up to the bell hop, gave him 10 bucks, asked him how tall the hotel was, and went inside for supper!"