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 A best friend will accompany you on the dance floor and be honest if you’re ’shopping cart’ move is outdated.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.

Halloween is inching closer and closer, and each day there are new preparations to be made for your costume(s) and more invites to accept on Facebook. Luckily, this year Halloween falls on a Saturday, bringing out the true whackjob in all of us.

But just because Halloween happens on a weekend – allowing us to go balls to the wall without fear of vomiting in class the next day – it doesn’t mean you should disregard the basic No-No’s of this very religious holiday:

Walk of shaming- Everyone and their sister knows what you did last night when you’re walking (or even worse, biking) down the street in a sexy devil costume at 11am on November 1st.  Not that I’m condemning any Halloween nookie, but the blatantly obvious evidence the next morning ain’t so flattering.

Trying to conjure up spirits in the cemetery: Pretty sure they used to hang people for that, just F.Y.I.

Not dressing up: Don’t be that guy.  Besides, you don’t want to regret not dressing up because you’re a giant party pooper.  Yeah, times are tough; create something!

Dressing like a complete prostitute: To the point of people not knowing what the hell you’re supposed to be.  You don’t want to spend the night hearing, “Oh you didn’t hear? You were supposed to wear a costume.” Read More »

Who doesn’t want to have their cake and it eat too? Well what if you could have your cake, eat it and up your cup size all at the same time without doing permanent damage to your figure? It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it?

In Miami, a plastic surgeon is sucking out the fat in women’s unsightly muffin tops and injecting it into their breasts. Talk about killing two birds with one huge suction device. Minimize the love handles, maximize the love jugs. If that’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Now that I think about it, it seems so obvious. Women have been getting liposuction for years. Why waste all that precious fat when it could be put to good use and make you look slammin’ in a halter top?

Honestly, I can see the appeal of this type of procedure. It’s essentially rearranging the fat on my body until it’s in its rightful place… my bra. Plus, just think of the days leading up to the procedure: “Sorry guys, I have to eat this entire pint of Ben & Jerry’s by myself. I have surgery tomorrow.”

So the next time the dreaded drunk munchies hit, I won’t hold myself back from ordering the large Domino’s pizza with breadsticks. In fact, bring it on. I’m really lacking up top and I’ve got some new skinny jeans to fit into.

So the fall semester is rolling round again. For you freshies that means the dreaded “Freshman 15.” For the rest of us it means the shame of gaining an undisclosed amount of weight even though we are supposed to be “adjusted” and know how to stay healthy while we’re away from home.

It’s not like we don’t know what is healthy and what isn’t – we do. And we all vow that the next year will be different – that we’ll stop getting seconds at the caf and drinking 6 nights a week – but then classes start, beer pong ensues and it all goes out the window right to our asses.

To most of us calories are just confusing; who the hell knows how many calories we actually consume on a daily basis. How much work we need to do in order to burn off dollar pitcher night.  How many calories we burn walking to the library? But those things definitely need to be figure out if we want to steer clear of the not-so-attractive muffin top.

So, I thought I’d break it all down in a way everyone could understand: comparing the things we love to eat to our daily activities.

There’s always going to be that day when you have two tests to study for and an essay to write, which means zero time to cook yourself a healthy meal. But perhaps those days will be a little further in between knowing that you’ll have to wash dishes for five hours the next day to burn it off:

Two Slices of Domino’s Cheese Pizza (540 calories)= 3 hours of vacuuming (which is probably 1,214 laps around that 10X12 box of yours)

One Order of “General Tso’s Chicken” From Your Favorite Chinese Place (844 calories)= 2 hours of running on the treadmill at the gym

One Grande Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte (330 calories)= 3 hours of taking notes in class

One Plain Bagel With Cream Cheese (436 calories)= 1 ½ hours of dancing at a party

One Bowl of Ramen Noodles (296 calories)= Walking around campus for an hour

One Subway 6” Philly Cheese Steak (520 calories)= 4 hours of doing laundry Read More »

So. Tempted. To. Give. Wedgie.

By now, we’re all familiar with the fashion atrocities committed by the male population.  No, sweaty dude, that mesh tank top does not look good on you.  Or anyone, really.  But women are not free from errors – actually, considering our traditional involvement with fashion, we make rather more mistakes.

In fact, that is the entire reason I read People magazine – the photo spreads that come out after major awards shows are priceless.  I mean, these celebrities have stylists!  How can these awful things happen??

Luckily, when I make a fashion faux pas, it usually goes undocumented.  However, it doesn’t always go unnoticed (thank goodness for my friends…the ones who truly care about me will tell me if I’m looking like a blind hooker as I’m walking out the door).  In the spirit of keeping our fellow ladies informed and aware (or end the unprovoked assault on our eyes as we walk down the street), we’ve made a list of the top five fashion faux pas’.

If you or any of your friends have done/are doing any of these…just stop.  Seek help.

Read More »