By living in Louisiana, we get to experience and enjoy all of the amazing Cajun food and the wide variety of fast food restaurants. Although, as summer is coming to a close, it is time for us students to start our healthy eating diets.

One important factor to staying in shape is your metabolism. Boosting your metabolism is based on the kinds of foods you put into your body. Having a high metabolism means that your body burns calories faster than others. Boosting your metabolism is crucial because exercise will be way more beneficial if your metabolism is at a good level. Some foods that can boost your metabolism are: Cocoa, water, blueberries, sweet potato, avocado, tomato, yogurt, beans, almonds, egg whites, apples, soybeans, lemon, olive oil, spinach, chick peas, and ginger. Knowing the right foods to eat can be a valuable asset to your health!

On the other hand, there are tons of tricks to transform your eating habits. For example, eating six small meals each day can boost your metabolism greatly. Some other tricks include: Eating breakfast every day (within the hour of getting out of bed), eating healthy fats every day, drinking two to three liters of water each day, and most importantly, adhering to proper proportion sizes. It is super important to stay away from foods containing preservatives, artificial sugar, saturated fat, and trans fat. Also, try cutting back on the soft drinks, sugar-loaded beverages (including juices), which are huge DONT’s to clean eating.

If you’re not participating in a sport, my favorite at home/gym workout is something I found on Pinterest a while back. These workouts are called “One Song Workouts”, and they have a large selection of songs to choose from. For example, one of the workouts is to the song “I Love It” by Icona Pop, and the circuit is: 20 jumping jacks, 20 butt kicks, 10 tricep dips, 15 vertical leg crunches, 5 jump squats, 30 Russian twists (which is where you hold a weight in crunch position, legs at a 20 degree angle, and turn from side to side), 10 jack knife sit-ups (which is where you lay flat, legs in the air, and extend your arms from as far as they can go to your feet), 10 lunges, and finish the circuit with 30 jumping jacks.

Don’t know how to cook? That’s fine! There are plenty healthy food choices to eat in Lafayette as well. For example, one of my favorite restaurants is Zoe’s Kitchen, which I frequently visit. They offer foods such as: salad, grilled sandwiches, pita sandwiches, hummus, kabobs, roll-ups, and a wide variety of healthy sides. One of my favorites is the quinoa salad, which is super healthy for you. Quinoa is rich in protein, has a ton of fiber, contains iron, lysine, magnesium, manganese, and is very high in B-12. Some more of my favorite healthy restaurant choices in Lafayette are: Cafe Lola, Sandra’s Cafe and Health Food Store, The Whole Wheatery Eatery, and (as much as I don’t like to admit it because I’m supposed to be working out) Red Lerille’s Health and Racquet Club. These places also cater to vegans and vegetarians! Although, my favorite place of all is Bibi’s Patisserie and Tea House because they sell assorted fruit tarts, muffins, cookies, brownies and cupcakes. All of these are also gluten free, sugar free, preservative free and are non-GMO (it’s also very inexpensive!). Bibi’s is the best place to go to if you’re craving some kind of dessert.

My last tip is to keep a food diary and an exercise progress chart; it helps more than you think!

Remember, keep calm and practice healthy eating habits!