All Students

How many calories in that pint?

You may be drinking more units of alcohol than you think.

And you’re almost certainly drinking more calories than you think…

photo by jenny downing

A study at the University of Sussex asked participants to pour measures of alcohol and asked how many units the measures contained. Nearly two-thirds of the participants underestimated the total number of units in the drinks they had poured.

If you think that’s worrying, wait until you read how many calories each drink contains.

Emily Clark says in Student Direct that her housemate, “drank 511 calories; 6 units – the equivalent of 1.7 burgers”. Clark says that would need a 51-minute run to burn those calories off.

I hope those 6 units of alcohol have been accurately counted, because the calorific content may be even higher, if the Sussex study is anything to go by.

One bottle of WKD or a single pint of lager contain roughly 250 calories. That one drink alone is 10% of the recommended intake of calories per day for an average man (12.5% for an average woman). Three drinks later and you’ve enjoyed a third of your daily intake.

It’s easy to forget that drink is part of your daily intake, just the same as food. When you’re trying to maintain a balanced diet, remember the impact on your body when you enjoy a few pints out.

You may have heard people say that a pint of Guinness is like a meal. Maybe all alcohol is like a meal. How many portions will you enjoy tonight…?

7 Ways to Feelbetter – Review

University is a time when you can experience great changes and do all sorts of amazing things.

Sometimes you need a bit of focus and direction to make the most of what’s available.

So as I was going through my Google Reader, I noticed a promotion for a new book, “7 Ways to Feelbetter“. Written by the team behind the website FeelGooder, I thought I’d give the book a read and review it for you.

7 Ways to Feelbetter (FeelGooder)

As the title suggests, “7 Ways to Feelbetter” focuses on seven themes to help people feel and be better:

Exercise
Save
Connect
Eat
Act
Play
Think

Sounds pretty straightforward, huh? As with most things, though, it requires a leap on our part to make it something big.

“7 Ways to Feelbetter” gets you started in making that leap and thinking ‘big’.

Although the book is a quick read, it is meant to be read and actioned over seven days. If you interact with the book (i.e. work on your own actions and complete the exercises) the week long digest will help you take on board the ethos of the book, as well as your own focus.

The book “isn’t about giving you all the answers – rather it’s a springboard into the next week to help you more intentionally explore 7 ways to feel — and be — better”.

Each short chapter contains:

a set of questions about yourself;
an introduction to getting started;
simple tips to inspire you;
resources;
motivational quotes;
space to expand upon your plans going forward.

As you can see, you’re given a platform to help you focus on improvement. That requires dedication and a sense of responsibility, but that’s how it should be.

Take anything seriously and you do assume a certain amount of responsibility. The book offers up advice on how you could start, but the main thrust is that you can find a course of action to suit your individual circumstances. I definitely prefer something that lets you call the shots.

By making your own choices — perhaps with a bit of help from the inspiration — you can make each step as big as you like. Prefer small baby steps? Fine. Want to take a huge leap? Go ahead.

Much of the advice given in the book is to help you start forming new habits and practices. The aim is to get a new view of the world and return to past views that you once valued but thought were lost.

This doesn’t automatically require hard work or a lot of planning. For example, chapter 6, ‘Play’, helps you open up in fun ways. Sometimes you just have to do something unusual or something you haven’t done for a long time:

“Tap into the solitary play you used to enjoy as a child.
Haven’t drawn a picture in years? Give it a try. Remember your old train set? Get it out! That cute miniature barnyard? Set it up!”

The final chapter, ‘Think’, somehow manages to focus a lot on relaxing, letting go, and removing all the noise from everyday life. By doing this, you’ll hopefully be able to hear yourself think!

The chapter states, “Meditation and philosophy are just two studies that have resulted from the human need to make sense of your own thoughts”.

The final page of the book closes with a social/community feel. The hashtag #FeelGooder7 is used for readers to share their experiences and personal tips through blog posts and tweets. Since the FeelGooder team are set to share the best tips at their website, it’s a good hook to get more people in on the brand.

If you’re feeling reflective and want a boost of inspiration for life, give this a whirl. The book is written with a wide audience in mind, so not everything relates to students. Nevertheless, there’s plenty you can do and a lot of scope to find stuff to suit your lifestyle.

At the time of writing, some copies are still available for $4.99 (around £3.00) and the usual price is $9.99 (around £6.00). I may ask Darren Rowse if I can give away a copy or two on here…

Darren is the main name behind FeelGooder and is best known online for ProBlogger. Darren offers a full money-back guarantee on the book, so you don’t need to worry even if the content doesn’t fit for you.

In summary:

Pros

Easy to read;
Quick bursts of inspiration to get you thinking and acting fast;
Nicely presented;
Focus is on *you* and the way *you* want to do things.

Cons

Requires some responsibility on your part. Simply reading it won’t change you;
Web links aren’t all relevant to UK. Mostly fine though.

This isn’t a sponsored review and I’m not an affiliate for the product. I just wanted to bring “7 Ways to Feelbetter” to your attention as a tool to help you focus on making the most of being you.

You are special and unique. So is everyone else. Work with this book and let those unique qualities shine even brighter.

Why blogging is no popularity contest

Is blogging really on the decline?

More importantly, does a decline in blogging matter?

Blogging Tips examined data from a study by Pew Internet that found very few people blogging themselves and fewer than half of respondents saying they read blogs.

But a blog is just a type of website. Past surveys have discovered that some people who say they’ve never read a blog don’t realise when they are. After all, it’s just surfing the web and finding content that you like.

And I’m fine with that. Definitions don’t matter. Neither does the popularity. A blog is a published part of you and an opportunity to shine.

Writing – photo by JohnONolan

What if nobody else is doing it? The main question to ask is: “Am I making or can I make good use of my time and resources by publishing my content online?”

If the answer is ‘yes’, it doesn’t matter how many other people are doing it. You can still make good use of things, so go ahead and be brilliant.

A blog is a way of building up a portfolio. You don’t even need loads of readers and traffic. Once you’ve written something, you have achieved something. There are all sorts of ways you can flag up those achievements.

Before I started writing on TheUniversityBlog, I didn’t have a huge portfolio of writing on higher education matters. I hadn’t started publishing advice for students.

Fast forward three years and now I have an archive of articles for all to see. I did it in my own time and in my own way. Not only is this portfolio now visible, it also demonstrates my genuine interest in a particular field.

Before I went to university myself, I was interested in higher education. That interest has never gone away. It only grows. Yet before I started this site, got tweeting, and generally took things public, I was never able to show the true extent of what’s important to me.

Anyone can say they are passionate about a subject. Anyone can feign interest in a topic. But not everyone can highlight a growing example of work as a clear indicator that they care and know what they’re talking about.

You’re not just blogging…

You’re writing. You’re communicating. You’re creating.

In the film Julie & Julia, office worker Julie starts a blog and it becomes a hit. In less than a year, the character is getting offers of book deals, TV shows and the like. In response to her surprise success, Julie tells her husband, “I’m going to be a writer!”

Julie’s husband replies, “You ARE a writer!”

And that really is the point. Even if blogging declined until you were the only person doing it, the decline would be irrelevant.

Do stuff because it works for you; not just because it’s popular.

Mind mapping to help study

A mind map is a great aid to exploring subjects and concepts. From the initial word or outline, you take a creative journey to uncover many links and associations.

Example of a Mind Map (from Wikipedia)

Mind maps help you produce a more visual representation of linked ideas, allowing you to dig deeper without losing sight of your original purpose. You can take the research journey full circle by using your sub-links to find more information, then by re-associating your new findings through the key concept you started with.

If you’ve not seen them before, or want a recap of the basics, check the video at the bottom of this post for an example of a mind map in development. For remembering key facts and forming a basic, overall awareness of something, they’re great. You can easily add more to them and shape them in a way that benefits you.

There are a huge number of services for creating mind maps on computer and online. Chuck Frey has put together a huge resource list of all the mindmapping tools currently available. There are so many tools out there, you’re spoilt for choice.

But be warned. Mind maps aren’t a perfect study tool: “A disadvantage of mind mapping is that the types of links being made are limited to simple associations. Absence of clear links between ideas is a constraint.” (Davies)

In other words, mind maps don’t hold all the information in themselves. They can be used for stepping beyond the basics, but they require your effort to do so. It is only through your own work before and/or after compiling a mind map that you can gain greater insight in your area of study.

I’ve used mind maps in the past to help me gain an overview or to prize basic ideas from my mind. But, as I mentioned above, I cannot rely on them to give me a complex understanding or a range of differing views.

I used mind maps in two different ways:

To explore where I needed to go next in order to make learning leaps;
To highlight key elements of prior learning to serve as a simple reminder or as a way to visually link what I was studying.

Mind maps took me beyond linear thinking. They were a way of getting linear thoughts and creative processes working together. I still had a structure in the mind maps, but it was less restrictive, allowing me to play with ideas more freely.

The use of this technique serves to benefit your study. Davies explains:

“Learning simply by reading textbooks, or listening to a presentation (incorporating linear-structured Powerpoint slides) is far more likely to result in non-learning or rote learning (Hay et al. 2008). However, if students are asked to study, draw or manipulate a map of what they have learned, this may yield improved learning because it is more usable. This is because maps aid in linking new information with what they already know.”

When faced with a visual representation of key concepts and thoughts:

You are no longer limited to a linear way of thinking. You gain an extra dimension to what you’re learning;
The text is placed in a more visual representation (possibly with actual pictures), which aids learning further;
Links are more obvious and it’s easy to drill down to sub-topics.

Mind maps are also great for making rough plans for an essay or dissertation. You can take all the ideas/concepts you wish to write about, branch off to different areas of your essay (introduction, methods, references, conclusions, etc.), and add to your mind map as you see fit.

Jumping between unrelated elements of the same overall topic is much easier in this visual form. You don’t risk losing your place or making so much mess on the page.

And if you use Wikipedia to get a grasp of topics, WikiMindMap brings the data to you in a mind map style. It helps most when you’re exploring a subject and want to find related items to research further.

I’ve already quoted twice from a new journal article by Martin Davies. His paper looks at differences between different types of mapping, including ‘concept maps‘ and ‘argument maps‘. These other types of mapping are less likely to be used in an everyday study scenario. Davies says that “students will have to do a considerable amount of initial reading and thinking and struggle with key concepts before coming to an understanding of the exact task they need to complete. It is only after this process that the student can map an argument.”

Nevertheless, Davies moves on to discuss the future of ‘mapping’ in education and suggests that different types of maps can benefit at different stages of research and writing. New, “as yet unrealised and potentially complementary functions” may help students greatly once software can provide the relevant links.

The possibilities have potential to be pretty impressive. If you want the academic lowdown, the paper is in the journal ‘Higher Education’, which is free to view until December 31st 2010. The paper can be viewed here.

More Mind Map Help: