Archive - 2005 - Story

If you have suffered on the elliptical trainer and treadmill (granted, this time spent can be quite therapeutic if you have the proper reading at hand – "Us Magazine" gossip anyone?) for hours and the payoff has yet to be paid off, please, hop on board. We are on the same boat to Destination: Nowhere.

Attend three classes, study for that business test, squeeze in some reps at the gym, edit a history paper, try to eat some dinner, attend a group meeting--and train for the 2006 LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon?

It’s not the typical way to workout for most college students, but this is how Norte Dame senior Dave McCormick kept in shape at the beginning of his fall semester.

Many students opt to eat off-campus for a variety of reasons. Some students like to dine out to chill with friends or to change up the normal routine. Others simply don't like the food served in the dining halls and seek out other options. Whatever the reason a student has for diverting from the meal plan, eating out can have a serious effect on both weight and wallet size.

On a typical evening at the Fitness Center at Ithaca College, students run, bike, step and row, staring at TVs that hang from the ceiling. Half of the TVs are tuned to E! and MTV, which blare images of supermodels and celebrities flaunting nearly unachievable bodies. The others play ESPN, showing muscular athletes in action. Sweat drips down the students’ faces as they try to burn as many calories as possible before their 30 minutes are up. A line of anxious students stand behind the racing treadmills, tapping their feet to their iPods while they wait.

The Internet is home to thousands of different resources on health. Like many Web sites, some may have been assembled by some old loon with a science textbook, but others have good reputations and are known to be pretty credible - WebMD, for example.

“WebMD is for hypocondriacs!" said Chris Johnson, a student at Saint Mary’s College. “It’s basically for ailments that people either have or think they have, but for some reason don’t want to go to the real doctor."