Making healthy decisions is not always the easiest of tasks. Not everyone can make healthy changes to their lives in a matter of weeks or months. For some, it takes time, learning, and trial and error to find what works best for their bodies. Thankfully, CSU Stanislaus’ campus has various student resources to help students stay on track with their health.
Understanding How to Read a Nutrition Label 
An important part of staying on top of your health includes your relationship with food. Becoming familiar with reading a packaged food item’s nutrition label provides you with an understanding of what your body is intaking. CSU Stanislaus health educator Taylor Whitehead provides students with some useful tips towards reading a nutrition label. 

1. Understand the serving size of a package referring to the recommended amount that one should eat per serving. 
2. Check the number of calories being consumed per serving. 
3. Limit the total fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, and sodium of a food item.
4. Make sure that you are getting enough vitamins, calcium, iron, and potassium in the food item you are consuming. As our bodies need these vitamins and minerals daily to help our bodies build a stronger immune system, provide energy for our bodies, repair cellular damage, and other functions. 
5. Read the footnote to get a better idea of the number of grams you should consider based on your calorie intake. 
6. Understand percent daily values considering 5% or less to be low and 20% or more to be high. Whitehead indicates, “Daily percent values may be higher or lower based on the caloric needs of each individual.” 

Receiving help from a professional is an option available to students. “We advise anybody who is looking to incorporate a special diet to meet with a medical provider, which is an option within the Student Health Center giving access to medical providers via telephone appointments,” Whitehead explains. If you are a student in need of advice on how to make healthy food choices, you may want to consider contacting a medical provider at Stanislaus State. Remember that we each have a different body and what works for one doesn’t mean that it will work for everyone. Do what is best for your body. 
Food Recipes
Making meals that are both appetizing to your taste buds and healthy can be a challenge. The Stan State Health Education and Promotion Program has created a student website, Campus Well to help with that. Campus Well includes a section on food that provides healthy food recipes for students. Recipes include the necessary ingredients and the instructions to prepare specific meals. Ingredients can be found at any grocery store, making it manageable for anyone with or without any cooking experience. 
Campus Well offers both plant-based and meat-based options. One option is a bean burrito bowl, relinquished in flavor with a combination of its condiments black beans, lettuce, brown rice, bell pepper, avocado, salsa, cumin, and cayenne.  A warmer option for the fall weather is a nice bowl of soup, with boiling vegetable broth, diced onion, garlic, soy sauce or tamari, mixture of vegetables (carrots, peas, tomatoes, yellow wax beans, beets, etc.) lentils, leafy greens, salt, and pepper.
Next time you are hungry, consider visiting the website. Explore its recipes to find what interests you, purchase the ingredients, and get cooking. You may just surprise yourself with what you can cook in a matter of minutes, remember it’s a learning process. 
Student Recreation Center 
As we continued to face the pandemic, our Student Recreation Center has continued to provide its services to students and others through virtual Zoom sessions, which can be done from the comfort of your home. Student Instructors Andres Bickham, Noah Reese, Vincent Vargas, Ruth Morales, Nate Pimentel and Viviana Fuentes are trying to provide the best working out experience possible. 
The team offers a variety of different classes throughout the week, from high intensity to low intensity, making the classes manageable for each person based on whether they are at a beginner, intermediate or advanced level. 
The Campus Recreation Center and their Fall 2020 classes can be found on the Stan State website with the names of each instructor. 
Some of the classes they teach include a cross lifting class consisting of squats, pressing, pulling, hinging, and dynamic movements. Another option is a mobility class which guides students through stretches and mobility exercises useful in helping to reduce any stress. Additionally there is a total body conditioning class that is sure to get your heart raising with HIIT style movements.
In this time of being stuck at home, our bodies may be in need of some movement. Check out all of these options that are available to you through the Recreation Center to make your health a priority.