This is what I did when I studied for the bar exam a few years ago, and while I didn't lose much weight during the 3 months of studying (I think I lost maybe 2 or 3 pounds), I didn't gain any weight either, which should be your primary goal whenever you're facing a time crunch.
1. I packed my fridge out with healthy snacks. I portioned everything out into 100ish calorie containers. I know this sounds like a lot of work, but it only took an hour or two after I got home from the grocery store once a week, and then it was really easy to keep track of how much I was eating, since I could just keep a running tally of how many snacks I'd had throughout the day. Also, by keeping everything at 100 calories, I was able to keep a really wide variety of snacks in the house to choose from, so I rarely fell victim to the "ohmigosh, if I see another piece of chicken I'll scream I'm so bored with it" problem. If I didn't feel like chicken, I had nuts, popcorn, graham crackers, veggies, fruits, yogurt, granola bars, cheese sticks, etc. to choose from to combat the food-boredom issue.
2. Make a schedule and stick to it. This obviously means you shouldn't blow off studying when you've scheduled it, but it will also help you avoid over-studying. If you know you've set aside 2 hours a night (for example) to study, you'll feel less compelled to try to cram in "extra" at times when you could be doing other things. And don't be afraid to do those other things - exercising, cleaning, seeing friends, etc.
3. On the flip side of #2, don't be afraid to say no to social and family commitments - good, supportive friends and family will understand that you need to place your priority on preparing for these exams, and the people who aren't supportive don't deserve your time and energy anyway. Seriously - if someone asks you to do something and it falls during a time you've set aside to study, just say no. It's much easier to stick to a study schedule when you're not constantly trying to move things around to accommodate other people. Yes, this is a little rigid, but you only have a limited amount of time to prepare for these exams, and if people can't be patient with you during these next few months, then that's their problem, not yours.
4. Include some exercise in your schedule, but don't feel compelled to go crazy. When I was in study-mode, I set aside 30 minutes a day to exercise, and I usually just focused on doing something I enjoyed, like yoga or walking. I'd done more intense workouts in the past, and I do much more intense workouts now, but during that time period, the last thing I needed was another thing to stress me out, so I focused more on making sure that my workouts were enjoyable, and less on hitting a particular calorie burn while working out.
Hope this helps!
| current weight: 141.2 |
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