So we are in a little bit of a predicament, my friends. On the one hand, summer is almost here, meaning bikinis, boats, and (hopefully) cute boys to hang out with in said bikinis on said boats. On the other hand, summer is almost here (wah wah), meaning we are not only spending these weeks studying our little (or big) badonk-a-donks off, but any moment not spent studying (or stress eating) is spent drinking with our pals because hey, we only have a few more weeks left and we want to remember all those good times we spent drinking together until we didn’t remember drinking together. Ah, those times are the greatest. I think.

The only problem is that situation numero dos (the drinking/not remembering eating that entire pizza at 2am) doesn’t help us out with situation number one (bikinis and fitting our booties into one).

When we drink (and we all know this by now), we’re not only consuming a ton of calories from our friend the frozen marg, but much like that fabulous children’s book “If You Give A Moose A Muffin,” if you give me a tequila shot, I’m going to want some mac and cheese/pizza/other late night snack to go with it. And that means may-jor (Rachel Zoe voice) extra fat and calories.

Unless you have some healthier versions of your favorite tasty treats up your sleeve, which – yay! – I do.  I’ve spent some time playing around my kitchen and come up with a trusty arsenal of late night foods that satisfy the late night craving minus the late night calories. Seems too good to be true? Well, whip these up in your kitchen (or dorm room) and you’ll realize that it’s not! Read More »

You’ve made some big, healthy changes in your lifestyle (i.e. skipping the elevator and opting for the stairs en route to your dorm room) and you’re hoping they’ve paid off when you try on some new jeans. But don’t rely on your fave fashion store to accurately determine your size. I apologize for bursting your bubble, but chances are that your jeans might be a couple inches bigger than what the tag says.

Ladies and gents, it’s called VANITY SIZING.

In short, companies are starting to realize that when their consumers think they can fit into a smaller size, they feel better about their body image. Let’s face it: when we can fit into pants that would normally be difficult to zip, it’s super exciting. As a result, stores are thinking that we’ll keep coming back to purchase more stuff because, well, we are always guaranteed to feel good when we try on their clothes.

Personally, I think that vanity sizing is completely ridiculous, but I’m sure all you business majors know that it’s a great marketing tactic. Just as long as consumers are aware of the size differences, it’s not a big deal. But you see – that’s the thing. People are starting to believe their true size is not what it really is.

Girls are going around thinking that they are a size 6, when they really might be a size 8. For me, it sucks when I try on a different brand of jeans to learn that it is shockingly inaccurate. Plus, how annoying is it that you never really know what size to order online because every company follows a different sizing chart? Let’s face it – not every 34” waists fit the same. Read More »

Thanks to this whole 5-day dating challenge, I’ve had a pretty tiring week….and my still cheeks hurt from smiling all the time. But no pain no gain, right? And by “gain” I mean “guys approaching me and offering to buy me drinks.”

Thankfully, since all our favorite TV shows did the rerun thing this week (well, except for Jersey Shore’s lame ass finale), it’s not like there was much else going on to occupy my time. That meant plenty of time to focus on making myself more approachable, and answer the many pressing questions CollegeCandy proposed:

What are the most ubiquitous college student stereotypes?

Why is everyone making such a big deal about the Glee GQ photos?

We call ourselves accepting?

Why are people still dating John Mayer?

Why are Yale frat boys so disgusting?

What does a girl’s drink of choice say about her? Read More »

We’re well into another new school year and to honor that, we at CollegeCandy are bringing back the fan-favorite series, “We’ve All Been There.”  (We tried to get another national holiday/long weekend for you guys but it’s way harder than we thought so this will have to do.) Every week, Lauren – University of Michigan will comment on the common experiences all college women share – like blue book exams or, everyone’s favorite activity, procrastinating. Read, relate, cringe and enjoy.

Somehow you ended up with four 9am classes this semester. WTF? You can barely get up for your kickboxing class at noon on Fridays, and someone expects you to make it to class (ready to learn!?) by 8:50am the rest of the week?

Oh hell no.

You hope your professor doesn’t expect you to look presentable. Hell, he should just be happy you left yourself enough time to brush your teeth. Your morning routine is always the same: you roll out of bed at 8:30, grab the first pair of sweats you can find on the floor, throw your hair into a ponytail and run out of the house. You pop into the campus coffee shop en route to lecture and grab a coffee (“Giant, please!”) and something to munch on (“Give me the butteriest bagel you’ve got back there”).

What? It’s early and you need comfort.

You slide into your seat just as the Power Point appears on the wall in front of you. If it weren’t for the food, you’d probably fall right back to sleep – you’re just so comfortable. When class is over, you go to your next class, or to the library, or home for a nap. Whichever you choose, you sport the sweats for the rest of the day: through the classes, the breaks, the meals…

You spend so much time in your sweatpants during the week, in fact, that when the weekend comes and it is time to wear something that doesn’t say “Pink” across the ass you have trouble getting into them. No, not motivating yourself to get dressed; actually getting into them. After the first few weeks of classes your clothes feel a bit snug but you can still make em work (“I must have shrunk these a bit in the dryer….”). As the semester wears on, however, putting on your going-out-jeans has become a sweaty workout. Read More »

Best friends. Waiting home for you with open arms when you take that first walk-of-shame (or hip to hip, if you’re in the good fight together). Your shoulder to cry on, owner of every secret known to your embarrassing character.  A best friend is there for you when you need to decode that late night text from your crush.  A best friend is there for you when all you want to do on a Friday night is veg out and discuss the important things… like Octo-mom. A best friend will accompany you on the dance floor and be honest if you’re ‘shopping cart’ move is outdated.

And a BFF is there for you to tell you you’re fat?

OK, let me put down my Caramello Bar, and let’s figure this out. A recent survey of 3,000 women revealed that one in five women secretly think her best friend is fat but won’t dare share this information with her.  The study also suggested that the truth was a big “no no” because 1 in 5 women ended the relationship post dishing the info. Now, this seems a little extreme. You mean to tell me relationships end because your BFF tells you to put down the bread stick? Read More »

New year, new you. That’s the whole idea behind new year’s resolutions, right?

Except most resolutions get tossed out the window by February, leaving the resolutioner in the same exact place they were one year before. But it doesn’t have to be that way. There are lots of ways to ensure you stick to your goals, one of them being accountability. Simply sharing your resolution with others so you have someone there watching you along the journey will help keep you strong.

So that’s what we’re gonna do. Three CollegeCandy writers have agreed to share their big resolutions for 2010 and document their quest to success. Every month we’re going to check in on them to see how they’re doing and keep them motivated to complete the goals they set for themselves.

Did you make a resolution? Do you want help keeping it? Come along for the ride each month and share your ups and downs in the comments section below. If we all work together we can be happier, thinner, stronger, smarter, richer, whatever-you-want-er come 2011. Read More »

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it’s 2010? Where did the year go? Where did the decade go? Hell, where did my sequin jacket go? And why did I think that chasing a Jager Bomb with a bottle of Andre was a good idea? Oh lord.

Right now it’s probably hard to think about anything but a greasy breakfast sandwich, a gallon of water and how you’re going to get that rando out of your bed, but it’s the first day of the new year and you know what that means: it’s massive hangover resolution time.

This week I asked the CollegeCandy writers to share their resolutions for the new year. Most of the girls are on their own with sticking to their list, but every month we’re going to check in with a few of them on their quest for self improvement. Will they stick to their resolutions and become the best they can be? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’ve already ruined my personal resolution of treating my body well (I’ve got a stack of pancakes and a giant latte sitting next to me at the moment), so I just hope they fare better than me.

Arielle – Quinnipiac University: Stop going on Facebook and the internet, and read some books instead!

Nina – Michigan State University: I am going to stop watching brain-suckers like Keeping Up With the Kardashians and watch more health and knowledge related shows. Maybe.

Brithny – Duke:  To fit into my skinny jeans without having to do the after-laundry lunges. You know the ones I’m talking about.

Meg – University of Delaware: cut down my severe caffiene addiction

Anna R – Northeastern University: To finish paying off my credit card debt and save at least $1000 next semester… Somehow I’m hoping I will achieve this while doing an unpaid internship in NYC.

Kim – Stanford: To get a job in NYC and move there after graduation!

Jessica – Hofstra: Stop procrastinating, and start saving money by finding boys to buy my drinks at the bar!

Lauren – University of Michigan: To figure out the difference between need (healthy food) and want (Marc Jacobs handbags and vodka). Oh, and to stop convincing myself that my jeans from senior year of high school still fit. If I can’t breathe, they do not fit. It’s that simple.

Charlsie – Hollins University: To stop reading Perez Hilton. He spreads negativity around and I’m sick of participating in it.

Jackelyn – San Francisco State University: To go for what I want. There’s no better time than today to get things done!

Sarabeth – University of Texas: To legitimately work out this year, no more of this “walking to class counts” crap.

Noa – CU Boulder: To learn how to make Thai food. I swear I spend half of my money on Pad See Ew.

Zahra – Northwestern University: To choose one or two resolutions and stick to them! I always end up with, like, ten. I’m still not sure what the actual resolutions will be but, hey, it’s a start!

Caitlin – University of Alabama: To stop letting people take me for granted! I deserve some thanks for all of the things I do dammit.

Emmy- Loyola University Chicago: To focus on academics and own all my classes next semester.

Erica – Kent State University: To be a better friend. And to find shoes like this.

Ricki – University of Michigan: I will stop buying so much overpriced coffee and learn to make it myself. I will also not count coffee on my parents credit card as “me not paying” because I am actually just fooling myself.

What do you want to do better this year?

If there’s one thing I know about Americans, it’s that we’ve got our priorities straight. We choose McDonald’s over home-cooked meals, use plastic over paper (an attempt to “Go Green?”) and love fitting into our old jeans more than having sex.

Wait, what?

According to a poll of 2,200 women conducted by (who else?) Special K cereal, more than a quarter of women, 29.1 percent to be exact, said that “fitting into an old pair of jeans” would feel BETTER. THAN. SEX.

Let’s be honest here. I’m in college – I drink copious amounts of alcohol. I eat bad food..and a lot more of it than I should. I would love to be able to shed a few pounds and pull my high school pants over my muffin top. But, better than sex? I don’t know about that one. Maybe if I was somehow fitting into my leggings from middle school. Or that awesome 98 Degrees baby tee I picked up at a concert.

Other responses included 28.9% who said squeezing into those skinny jeans would “beat a promotion,” (being thin > being rich??) and one in ten who said it would “beat a marriage proposal.”

WTF?

Read More »

So that time of year is creeping up on us. The time when we must throw some clothes into duffel, fill the rest of the bag with dirty laundry, kiss our roommate and our bottle of vodka goodbye, and head home for fall break.

Yes, there are many up-sides to this little trip: we get a break from all the homework, we get to eat something other then cafeteria mystery meat for a change, and we get to curl up with Scruffy on the couch for a couple of days.

But with the comfort of being home comes a few downers as well. And I’m not talking about being woken up at 9am on a Saturday or having to empty the dishwasher. It’s those little comments from mom and dad that really get under your skin. And no matter how hard you try to be nice, you just can’t help but snap, say something mean and beeline to the car/airport (clean clothes and leftovers in hand, obvi) as soon as humanly possible.

Here are a few of the worst offenders:

“Honey, your pants look a little tight”
Yes mom, I realize that drinking 5 days out of the week and eating delivery pizza has done a number on my waistline. Am I happy about it? No. Do I know it is there? Yes. Is it helping that you pinch the muffin top and poke the underarm flab? Absolutely not!

“Have you found a nice boy yet?”
If by “nice” you mean “a tall pre-med student who considers hanging out in the library fun,” then no, dad, I have not found your ideal son-in-law quite yet. But I have hooked up with a couple of the guys on the football team who can barely form coherent sentences but have 8-pack stomachs you can bounce a quarter off of, if that counts for anything. Read More »

In case you’ve been locked in a soundproof, internet, cell phone, and calendar-free room for the past week, let me be the first to remind you that there’s a holiday happening this Saturday. A wonderful holiday full of tricks, sweets, and more grown-up treats. A holiday that lets every girl unleash her inner sex kitten, vixen, or Beyonce—provided she’s old enough. A holiday that makes it okay to wear anything, even glow in the dark pants. (Um… unless you’re a dude who wants to wear leggings. That’s never okay.)

But Halloween’s not all candy and luminescent trousers. You’ve got to be careful that you know how to get rid of full-face makeup before you make a move on that chubby but hilarious cutie in the SuperJew costume. You’ve also got to remember to watch the volume after taking him home. And try to manage your expectations about the encounter—this isn’t a movie, after all.

It’s also important to make sure you don’t accidentally raise the dead. Of course, if you do have any encounters with a zombie, it’ll be easy enough to find another final resting place for him—just stop into your local Walmart .

Either way, you’ll definitely have a ton of sweet pictures to add to your Facebook on November 1. And if your overindulgence on Saturday gives you a little bit of extra cushion for the pushin’, you can always call your friendly neighborhood plastic surgeon and get that flab turned into something fabulous.

Transformations: they’re not just for Halloween anymore.