Eating healthier, eating less, working out more, having goals and a positive mind set: guidelines like these may seem hard to follow, but some South students stick with similar requirements in order to follow their own personal diets to lose weight or stay healthy.
Junior Chloe Coletta is currently following a raw food diet.

“I am trying to eat foods that are not processed and don’t have too many chemicals,” Coletta said.

According to Coletta, this diet was a New Year’s resolution that requires her to eat natural foods that have no more than six ingredients in them. So far, she has found it difficult.

“My family only goes shopping around once every two weeks, so I have to live on all the food that we get every two weeks, which isn’t easy on this diet,” Coletta said.

Freshman Noah Kerwin also finds his personal diet difficult to follow.

“I eat 1,500 calories max per day and low carbs, low sugar and low saturated fat,” Kerwin said. “It’s not easy.”

According to Kerwin, he has lost 20 pounds in the last three months and has had motivation along the way.

“My boxing coach is my role model,” Kerwin said. “He is pretty buff and in good shape, so I wanted to be like that.”

Junior Maggie Smith* also has people motivating her to follow her diet.

“My mom and sister are on the South Beach Diet so I decided to do it with them and just eat healthier,” Smith said.

According to Smith, the South Beach Diet requires one meal a day from the South Beach cookbook and two smaller meals to be chosen by the dieter. It also requires breakfast to be eaten before 9 a.m. and dinner to be eaten before 7 p.m., with no food following dinner.

“Although I can’t eat some foods that I want to eat, I have been losing weight and my health is much better,” Smith said. “Overall, it has been beneficial.”

Both Coletta and Kerwin’s diets have positively affected them.

“When I look at the scale, it makes me feel good to know that I am making progress,” Kerwin said. “It makes me want to work out more, eat healthier and be active.”

According to Coletta, she has lost weight, become more energized, and feels better about herself because of her diet. Similarly, Kerwin has achieved more than just losing weight through his diet.

“Being on a diet helped me to win matches in boxing,” Kerwin said. “I am second place in Illinois, and I owe it to the new shape that I am in.”

According to Smith, being on a diet simply makes her feel good.

“My friends will sometimes go out to McDonalds for lunch or somewhere unhealthy like that, and I just bring my own lunch, and I feel so much better about myself and what I am eating,” Smith said.

According to Kerwin, it is important to keep up with one’s diet and not get off schedule, but it is also unhealthy to deprive oneself of the things that make a person happy.

Coletta agrees and takes small breaks from her diet every Friday.

“Fridays are called fat Fridays for me,” Coletta said. “I won’t pig out, but I do let myself go a little bit. It’s Friday, I am done with the week and get to relax.”

According to Smith, she also takes small breaks in her diet and doesn’t follow it as strictly on the weekends.

“Training yourself to do this when you’re younger is great because when you’re older it won’t be so much of a hassle to change your diet,” Coletta said.