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How to Stay Healthy During Nursing School
The stress that accompanies nursing school can wreak havoc on our bodies in many different ways. However, one of the big results that occur from all that extra stress is extra weight.
So many nursing students report gaining weight in nursing school, myself included!
I swore I would not put on extra weight while in nursing school, but 10-15 pounds later I was proven wrong.
There is nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to putting on extra weight, and if you put on some extra lbs and you feel great about yourself, then by all means rock it! But many individuals start to feel down about themselves and may start to experience other consequences, so my goal is to provide you with some actionable steps to help prevent weight gain from ever happening.
Along with weight gain, many nursing students experience a rollercoaster of emotions while in nursing school. One minute you may be jumping with joy that you passed an exam and the next moment you are curled up in your bed crying because you made a mistake while in clinicals. This emotional rollercoaster can cause our mental health to suffer, so I will also be addressing ways to help ease the mental burden experienced while in nursing school.
My biggest tip is to integrate healthy habits into your life that are easy for you to maintain. I’m not asking you to take on some restrictive meal plan and dedicate 2 hours of your time to the gym every day. The goal is to make the efforts when and where you can.
Physical Health
Meal prepping
You may be envisioning containers full of baked chicken breast, rice, and broccoli when you think of meal prepping but unless that is what you want to eat every day, then meal prepping does not have to look like that for you.
Meal prepping is simply the act of preparing meals and snacks in advance so that you don’t have to worry about what to make, or pick up at the drive thru, for your meals.
Admittedly, meal prepping can seem overwhelming at first. And if you have a large family, then you may think that it is impossible. While it will take a concentrated effort to successfully meal prep the majority of your meals and snacks throughout the week, you will find that it is most definitely worth it.
If you are new to meal prepping, then you can check out this beginner’s guide to meal prepping.
Once you get the basics down, you can incorporate your favorite meals and snacks into your meal prepping routine.
The key is to stay organized and find a meal prepping routine that is convenient and works well for you and your schedule. If you find that meal prepping is cumbersome, then unfortunately you will be less likely to stick to it overtime.
One simple way to make a lot of food at once is to use a crock pot or instant pot! You could make a couple meals in the crock pot over the weekend to eat throughout the week. Wham bam, thank you ma’am!
Pack meals and snacks
This step pairs perfectly with the previous step. If you already have your meals and snacks prepped, then it will be no biggie to take those meals and snacks with you in a cute and functional lunch box!
Oftentimes you will find that you will spend the majority of your day away from home so you will want to pack enough meals and snacks to last you for the day.
Packing your meals and snacks is both cost effective and will help prevent you from buying unhealthy fast food or sugary snacks from the vending machine.
In all honesty, I used to be a little embarrassed about carrying around a lunchbox at school. I have no idea why, but it was a thing. However, now they have so many cute lunchboxes and lunch bags that there is no reason to feel silly about carrying around a lunchbox.
Harry Potter fan? Got you covered.
Trend setter? Look no further.
Plain Jane? No loud prints here.
Anime fan? So cute!
Cute lunchboxes aside, packing your lunch really is a no brainer when it comes to staying organized and eating healthy meals.
Snack smart while studying
It is inevitable that you will want to have a snack, or two, while in the midst of a study sesh. Your brain is working hard to comprehend and retain a lot of information and it will call on you to help fuel it by means of a snack.
Snack foods are probably my favorite foods because there are so many healthy snacks to choose from!
Some of my personal favorites:
- Almonds and string cheese
- Hummus and veggies
- Hummus and crackers
- Yogurt
- Rice cakes
- Popcorn
- Apple and peanut butter
- Fruit cup
The possibilities are endless, just be sure to choose healthy snacks at least 80% of the time.
Stay hydrated
I feel as though I mention this in so many of my blog posts but for good reason.
It is important to stay hydrated for the basic functions of your body but staying hydrated can potentially help you from eating excess calories.
Oftentimes people will mistake hunger for thirst and grab a snack or eat a meal, when all they needed was to drink a big ole glass of water.
A good practice to get into is to drink a tall glass of water when you feel as though you may be hungry. If after 15-30 minutes of drinking the water you are still hungry, then you can proceed to eat some food.
It is also important to ensure that the majority of your fluids are non-caffeinated and have no calories. Yes, it is time to ditch the habit of drinking sodas or other sugary drinks. They are empty calories that are doing more harm than good for your body.
However, since you are likely quite sleep deprived if you want to drink coffee and add some cream and sugar to it you will not see me bat an eye. Coffee is essentially essential in nursing school, amirite?
Also, ensure that you stay hydrated while you’re at school and clinicals too. Take a reusable water bottle with you everywhere you go so you never go thirsty.
Exercise
Alright, so you already know that it is important to stay active for many reasons. Not only does it help with our physical health, it also helps with our mental health (which we will get into briefly).
Exercise plays a big role in losing and maintaining weight.
Unfortunately, in nursing school we spend a lot of time sitting. We are sitting when we are in lecture, we are sitting when we are reading the 1 billion chapters we are assigned, and we are sitting when we are creating nursing care plans and case studies. There’s a lot of sitting.
So, what is a nursing student to do?
If you are new to fitness, then it may seem overwhelming to integrate 4-5 workouts a week into your already busy schedule. That is understandable, so my best advice is to start with baby steps and add on extra once you are ready.
The best place to start, in my opinion, is just by going for walks frequently throughout the week. There are many benefits to walking, and they are also optimal for nursing students because they are perfect for multitasking!
Unless you are speed walking, you likely will not be out of breath, so it is feasible for you to be able to take care of any phone calls while on your walk. You can also listen to your school lectures or educational YouTube videos if you want to study while walking.
Or you can simply take the time that you are walking to clear your mind and forget all about your responsibilities and schoolwork. Whatever works best for you!
Once you are ready to start incorporating workout routines into your schedule, then you will ideally aim for 20-40 minutes of physical exercise 4-5 days out of the week. It may sound like a lot, but I promise that it is manageable! Even if it means that we have to get a little creative.
Although the gym is considered the place to be if you want to be fit, I personally find at home workouts much more time efficient and just as, if not more, effective. I have been working out from home for more than a decade and it has never led me astray.
There are SO many workout videos on YouTube that you can access for FREE!
You can choose any workout that you want. Even if you only have 10 minutes to spare, there are workout videos that are just 10 minutes long!
My personal favorite YouTube workout channels are HASFit and TheTeamPlans, but I have also heard great things about FitnessBlender.
Again, the idea is to incorporate exercise and movement throughout your day that is easy for you to maintain. You don’t have to commit hours of going to the gym to be healthy.
You could even incorporate exercise into your study sessions if you find that you are struggling to get in much exercise during the day. If you plan to study for around 2 hours, you could take a break every 30 minutes and exercise for about 10 minutes during each break. By the end of the session you will have exercised for 40 minutes and achieved the studying you planned to do.
It’s all about moving when you can and trying to stay as active as possible.
Mental Health
The emotional rollercoaster of nursing school is no joke. It has grown men and women shaking in their boots on the regular.
There is a lot of stress and uncertainty while in nursing school and it oftentimes takes a big toll on our mental health.
In all honesty, the stress is not easily avoidable while in nursing school. Even the most relaxed and calm individual will experience some degree of stress in nursing school and that is not particularly bad. Stress is a part of life and is part of the process of nursing school. However, it is how we deal with that stress that makes the difference.
We all have different coping mechanisms, and it is important to identify and examine the coping mechanisms that you use.
Are you the kind of person who copes by binge watching shows on Netflix?
Are you a stress eater?
Do you obsessively clean your house?
What are the things that you do when stressed? And are they healthy or possibly maladaptive?
If you find that you have some habits that may be harmful, then it would be beneficial to find an alternative coping mechanism.
There are a lot of different techniques out there to help with stress, and I wanted to briefly touch on some of the techniques that I used during nursing school to help me get through.
One thing that I did while in nursing school that I feel really helped is that I took a break when I needed it. If I was exhausted and needed to take a nap, then I would take a nap! If I just couldn’t fathom the idea of reading one more chapter, then I would take the evening off and spend some time with my family.
We want to succeed in nursing school but not at the sacrifice of our mental well-being.
Meditation
Meditation has been gaining popularity in recent years and for good reason. There are many benefits to meditation and it is a great technique to have on board while in nursing school.
If you are new to meditation and you aren’t sure what to do, you can begin by trying out this 10 minute guided meditation to help you get started.
Guided meditation is perfect when you are first starting out in meditative practice. There are plenty of other guided meditation videos you can check out over on YouTube.
If you are just starting out with meditation, then I would personally recommend trying to meditate for at least 10 minutes in the morning and in the evening. And don’t worry about the meditation sessions being perfect. It’s all about intention and eventually making progress in your meditative abilities.
Once you get the hang of meditation, you can call on its calming benefits when you are out and about and start to feel overwhelmed.
I would often engage in a meditative state before a big exam or practicum while in nursing school, and it made such a big difference in my ability to maintain focus and stay calm.
Yoga
Another activity that can help relieve stress is yoga.
Really, engaging in any form of exercise will help reduce stress. But if you aren’t one for running, jumping, or weight lifting, then you could think about doing some yoga.
There are many benefits to yoga and the only equipment you really need is a yoga mat and a little space to move around.
Try out this 20 minute full body yoga routine for stress and anxiety relief to see if it is something you’d be interested in doing a few times a week.
Rest
Another important part of maintaining your mental health is to rest whenever you need to. You don’t have to grind 24/7 to be successful in nursing school. It’s ok to take a break.
Rest may look different for different people.
You might find rest in simply spending quality time with your family or friends.
Or you may actually need to lay down on a couch, kick your legs up, and take a rest.
Be sure to engage in restful activities frequently and allow yourself time to be free from school.
Conclusion
I hope all this information doesn’t seem overwhelming because, as I mentioned, you don’t have to adopt all of these habits at once.
If you are new to fitness and healthy eating, then it’s great to just start with the steps that seem easiest for you to incorporate into your routine. Again, focus on the steps that you can make that are going to effortlessly blend into your life. I don’t want you adding even more stress to your life by trying to master all the subjects in this post all at once.
I hope you found the topics of this post helpful though and I hope that you are able to stay healthy throughout nursing school, especially given the current climate of our world.
As always, feel free to reach out to me to chat or if you have a question.
You can reach me over on Instagram or here on the website.
Until next time,
Happy Nursing!