My intro psychology class taught me a lot of things. One of those things was painstakingly obvious today - literally it hurts as I type. When someone is on a diet (restricting themselves from having certain things) they just want them more.. and they begin to crave them. Thats why so many diets fail. The key is controlling the uncontrollable urge to eat everything in sight. Today was a bad day for control for me. Blame it on being female, the time of the month, the over-abundance of completly unhealthy food, and lots of social activities that came with the abundance of food. I can see that being home is going to be A LOT harder on my diet. Living alone (well, with a roommate) is completly differnt than living with a family that can't eat healthy if their lives depended on it (and yet, most of them are thin - how does that work, who knows!).

I cracked today.. and I cracked hard. I ate more today than I would like to eat in two (or maybe three) days. I feel sick to my stomache. At least that tummy ache is a punishment - and psychology also taught me that punishments make a behavior occur less oftan.

But hey, its just one day. Its not going to kill my diet.. and I'm not going to feel bad about it. I read about a study that showed that when you slip like this your body works to catch up with you and to correct your slip, if you've been healthy in the past. With that in mind, I am stil going to get up early tomorrow to go for a long run. But hey - thats something I'd like to do everyday anyways. I really can't wait until I have time to go sign up at the gym for the summer.

I just got home tonight, and I am already so much happier. I got to see a bunch of friends (one of which went to school in New York, so I was haven't seen her in forever!) and just "hang out". It feels great to be with a group of people who really know you. That you don't have to feel out of place with. I didn't have that at school, and home just makes me feel like nothing can go wrong. It seems like there is just too much to do. I love it, and I love summer already!

I hope everyone else is having a great weekend too! =)

Well the boxes and duffel bags are all packed around me. Miscellaneous things are scattered across the room that I just didn't feel like packing yet. My mom gets here in a couple hours - and the craziness of moving out begins. I'm going home! I'm so excited. It seems as though the year has gone by so fast. My grades from this semester keep coming in, and its looking like I might just get my 4.0 that I was hoping for. Only one more to hear from (thats straight A's to those of you who don't understand the number).

And now its time to get everything ready to go..

Classes ended on Friday, and man did that feel great. But alas, finals start tomorrow. Being the lucky student I am - I have my two hardest ones right away on Monday. Psychology and Biology. Tons of detailed oriented information, terms, and concepts to remeber. I don't know if I will survive. I've spent my entire weekend "in the books".. well at least I'd like to think I did. No doubt I took a few breaks: to watch Top Gun with my roommate, to go to the gym a few times and get the blood flowing again, to run to Noodles & Co. for an amazing dinner, and to call my parents (their birthday was today - and yes, they share the same birthday.. weird right?). If I survive tomorrow, then I get to jump into Tuesday for my Journalism final.

.. but I should really get back "in the books".

You hear about it all the time. Its in the newspapers, it filters through the rumor chain, and sometimes when you see someone just out of their freshman year you can see it. If you don't know what I'm talking about.. its the "freshman fifteen". The fifteen pounds that all college students tend to gain during their first year away from home. I see friends and acquaintances I went to high school with, and I can't help but laugh at some of them. They definitely hit the stereo-type head on.. some even manages to exceed it.

But like I said before, nothing in college has gone according the stereotype for me. Instead of gaining that dreaded fifteen pounds, I've lost at least 20. I tend to avoid that evil little scale - because I feel great, I don't need a number to tell me that.

It all started during the middle of October. After dealing with an extremely hard break-up when I left for school, I started to get angry/frustrated. I had a lot of tension. I went to the gym one day, and started to run some of it off. I've never had a gym membership in my life, but its one of the perks college comes with. It felt good, and it only started to feel better each time I went. During first semester I went about twice a week - when I could work it into my schedule. When I started to notice the difference it was making in my body, I started to diet. And by diet, I mean by no means that I stopped eating. I still ate about three meals each day. I just watched what I ate a little more, and paid a little more attention to my serving size.

By winter break, I had lost ten pounds. I went home, and the slew of compliments made me feel wonderful. I went into my second semester feeling great - and with a whole new wardrobe (yet another perk of losing weight!). Now that I'm almost done with my second semester, I know my weight loss is somewhere around twenty pounds.. I haven't made it onto the scale. Who needs it anyways?

The "freshman fifteen".. it just wasn't meant for me. =)

As the year draws to a close and summer aproaches, I've thought a lot about my first year.. It wasn't what I thought it would be. When I think of college a lot of things come to mind. Crazy parties, pulling all-nighters to feverishly put together a last minute paper or project, the "freshman fifteen", stumbling in at all hours of the night, and making amazing friends I will never forget.

It hasn't been like this for me, not at all.