Gradlife

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This week’s post is brought to you by Marie-Elssa, this year’s team lead for Healthy Grads.

Hey Grad Life! Now that introduction’s have been made, let’s get to the real question: Who is the Healthy Grads? Well, we’re a team of eight grads just like you who want nothing more than to make sure you stay healthy this year. That means, lots of health & wellness programming designed especially for YOU…from people who get what it means to be a grad student at U of T. And we’ve got it all: PhD experts in Neuroscience all the way to Masters students specializing in Mental Health and Nutritional Sciences; so when we say we’ve got you covered, we mean it. We’re going to be hosting a TON of awesome workshops this year to help you stay fit, physically and mentally, throughout the year, so keep your ears open.

Enough about Healthy Grads, this is a blog post right? So let’s have some real talk. This first month back has been hectic! As I’m sure it has been for many of you out there, too. You’re back from summer break, your supervisors want updates (or you’re just meeting them, gulp!), it’s orientation week, and suddenly September is gone. This is usually when panic sets in, but don’t let it. I promise you, having been there myself, you will get back into the swing of things if you take it one day at a time (convincing myself as much as you, here).

But how do we keep our “mental space” clear? It’s easy to feel like we’re being pulled in a number of different directions at once, especially when you consider the numerous projects, initiatives, and career planning tasks we’ve got floating through our brains and “to-do” lists. One way I like to help keep track and stay calm is to build into my schedule the “healthy habits” I’m going to do weekly (and daily); that way, I know it will get done. Not sure if that’s realistic? Here’s how I’ve done it:

I sometimes feel like I don’t have the time to get what I need to do for my research done, so I signed up for Graduate Student Writing sessions; just like that, I have scheduled time where I have to work on my thesis, and there’s that stress taken care of.

I know it’s not enough to take care of my school work, I also have to work on me, so I added some Mindfulness Meditation classes into my schedule, and now I have no excuse not to take time to destress and refocus. Bonus? There’s a session right after the grad writing group; perfect!

So I’ve got school and mental health taken care of, but what about my body (you know, the thing that keeps everything going)? Lucky for me, and you, Healthy Grads just started a Tuesday and Thursday morning running group (yes, before classes get started for the day). Now, if I can just make sure I get up on time, I can get my days started with some movement and blood flow.

*Email us to join the running group: healthygradcrew.uoft@gmail.com *

Being a student in Nutritional Sciences, I also feel obligated to say something about healthy eating. Again, time is an obstacle, so a regular habit for me is “Sunday meal prep”. Now, meal prep can be a lot of work in and of itself, so start small. Plan to prep two- three meals for the week, and you’ll see it making a difference in no time. Your budget, stress level, and body will thank you for doing the work ahead of time.

I’m not a pro, I’m simply sharing what I’ve learned through trial & error, so take or leave what you like! Feel free to drop Healthy Grads a line if you want to chat, or are looking for more tips on staying healthy this year.