Among the many struggles college students face, maintaining good health is high up on the priority list. Everybody has heard of the infamous “freshman 15.” The combination of high stress, newfound freedom to choose what to eat, lack of sleep and occasional laziness do not help in the fight against the freshman 15.

There are many side effects of falling into unhealthy eating, exercise and sleep habits. However, there are also ways to prevent these side effects by taking measures to remain healthy.

Many students complain about being tired all of the time. They pull all-nighters and drink coffee or sugary energy drinks in the morning, then sleep in on the weekends. The logic is that they’ll “catch up” on sleep that they lost during their caffeine-filled study sessions. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work quite like that.

Of course, your body becomes tired from lack of sleep, but it eventually adjusts so you don’t feel all that tired after prolonged sleep deprivation. This sleep deprivation is unhealthy, will decrease your energy during the day and even increase your chances of getting sick.

When you don’t have energy, you lose motivation to study and do well in classes, as well as perform in other aspects of life. If you get sick, you may end up missing classes, which will only make the problem worse. And trying to catch up on sleep every weekend won’t fix the problem, as your body has to adjust once again to getting a different amount of sleep.

To combat this, a consistent sleep schedule should be formed. No matter what day it is, you should generally go to bed around the same time and wake up at about the same time. Of course, you might stray from this schedule a bit if you go out on the weekends or if you’re especially busy. As long as you make the commitment though, you will feel more energized during the day, which will help you make better and healthier choices.

Eating healthy foods is a very important part of these healthier choices. You can get extremely busy while in college, and this makes quick, easy, delicious fast food an appealing option. In the moment, it may seem like a great idea. However, you have to think long-term this kind of spending will get expensive. If you instead by lots of low-cost healthy food like rice, frozen veggies and pasta, you can save a lot of money.

Besides hurting your wallet, frequent consumption of fast food can also hurt your health. Pizzas, burgers, french fries and other common fast food items can quickly cause that dreaded freshman 15. Not only that, but these highly-processed foods can zap your energy as well, leading to the same sort of exhaustion and consequences on school work and other aspects of life caused by lack of sleep.

There’s one final piece to the puzzle of staying healthy as a college student, and that is regular exercise.

I’m not saying that you have to be an Olympic athlete, but having a regular exercise regimen of some kind has huge benefits. One of these benefits is energy, just like a healthy diet and sufficient sleep provide. In my experience a workout in during the morning, can make you feel energized for the rest of the day.

Physical fitness is another awesome benefit of an exercise routine. I’m not just talking about looking good; being physically fit means you can have more strength and endurance. There’s no harm in being able to pick up more things and carry things farther with less effort.

Lastly, exercise can combat the constant stress of school and life. Running or lifting off your worries is a very healthy habit to have. You don’t have to even hit the gym to exercise either. You can run, swim or play sports outside. The internet is also full of exercises you can do with just your own body weight so you never even have to leave your own room.

These three aspects of maintaining a healthy lifestyle are all very possible when combined with some good time and money management. In the process, you learn how to better balance tasks you need to accomplish during the day.

While it may seem hard to study, work, participate in extracurricular activities, sleep well, exercise and eat healthy, the benefits definitely outweigh the costs. All you have to do is make some changes to your lifestyle and stick with them.