What can we do to get rid of the extra weight that college life has given us? Well there are hundreds of ways to lose weight, but the most effective way is through a healthy lifestyle that includes proper nutrition and regular exercise. It may be hard to imagine a very healthy, well balanced meal as you skim the Dalton menu, but it's possible if you put a little effort into it. There is always the salad bar and sandwich bar, and they usually have some kind of vegetarian dish available. There are also plenty of opportunities to get some exercise. Take a jog or walk around our beautiful campus or take advantage of the facilities at the Dedmon Center. Get a friend to join you, so you won't have to be alone and you can motivate each other as you go.

If you need extra encouragement and also need help creating a fitness plan, you can take the Millenium Challenge. This is a program that was created through a partnership between Crunch Fitness and Asimba. They want to help people achieve their fitness goals for the year 2000. It is a totally free program you join online. You register and give them a little info about yourself and what your fitness goals are. They use that info to create a plan that will help you meet your goals. You can tell them that you want to lose weight, get in better shape, try a new sport or improve in a sport, or train for an event or adventure. After you set your goal, you can join a program that will help you achieve it. You can choose a program like "Very Easy Walking" for anyone who is not very athletic, or you can join a more intense program like marathon running, skiing, cycling, swimming, and more. There are beginner and intermediate levels for most sports and activities in the program.

After you have chosen your goal and selected a plan that you like, you will get daily emails giving you encouragement to go out and work on your goal. Each email will also tell you what you should be doing to achieve your fitness goal so you won't have to guess what the best thing to do each day will be. The email also acts as a current reminder that you are on a mission to achieve something. This way, you'll be thinking about it everyday, even on the days when you don't have to exercise.

If daily email instructions aren't enough to get you out the door, then you can go to the Millenium Challenge website. Read about other people's attempt at the challenge, record your fitness log, get extra encouragement, find a training buddy, ask an expert a question, read recent medical news about health and fitness, learn proper workout techniques, or change your program if you want to try something a little more or less challenging.