One of the most important parts of getting into the swing of things in college is developing a routine for your daily personal care.

One thing you can do to help with this includes establishing healthy habits that become easy tasks to complete. Another thing you can do is develop rewarding practices, such as getting enough sleep, eating healthy and finding exercises that you enjoy.

Sleeping right is one of the most important things you can do for your physical health.

It’s exciting to be back to college with the temptations of fun and late nights full of sweaty basements or sweaty boyfriends. The start of the school year makes establishing a sleep schedule difficult if you’re not actively planning it.

Try to keep track of your sleep cycles and shoot for approximately eight hours each night.

Eating right is another tough habit to establish, especially when the freedoms of college life include 4 a.m. mozzarella sticks that no one will dissuade you from eating.

Having a meal plan often times causes you to lose the concept of money itself, which makes it crazy easy to justify those late night snacks and super greasy, but fast meals.

Try, try, try to keep an eye on what you eat, because that freshman 15 will sneak up on you — I promise.

Lastly, finding an exercise routine that you like will help with your overall physical and mental health on a day-to-day basis.

Personally, I found a recent interest in different types of yoga, which is awesome for flexibility, muscle strength training and for a sense of general peace of mind. And who doesn’t need that?

Finding some kind of workout that both fits your needs and is enjoyable will make your daily routines much more beneficial to your overall personal health.

College is a fun and exciting time for everyone with newfound freedoms, independence and responsibilities. Taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can remember to do. If you don’t, it’s unlikely that someone else will do it for you.

Be there for yourself and you’ll be eternally grateful in the long run.

Mica Pflug is a columnist, contact her at [email protected].