by Jordan Hill

Get your butt up the stairs and off the elevator.

As a full-time college student with a part-time job, it may be hard for you to get the necessary exercise to stay healthy. It is tempting to wait on the elevator in the parking deck rather than take the stairs that are right across the hall from it, but one of the easiest ways to burn a couple of calories is to make the easy switch from elevator to stairs. VSU is full of stairs. There are elevator and stairs options in nearly every building on campus.

According to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, you can burn anywhere from 15 to 90 calories, depending on how many times you take the stairs each day.

If you take the stairs three times a day for a week, that’s nearly 250 calories you’ve burned just by choosing to take the stairs. That easily burns off some of the extra snacks you consumed during the stressful week you had.

So often students do not think about the choices they can make to easily and quickly alter their habits. Students line up and wait for the elevator every day just to go up a couple of floors.

Taking the stairs from the first to the second floor takes approximately eight seconds, while the elevator, depending on the wait, can take anywhere from ten to 20 seconds. Not only are the stairs decreasing your calories, they are decreasing the time it takes you to get somewhere.

So the next time you are standing in front of the elevator trying to get to your car after a long day of classes, take a turn to the stairs and save yourself some time while burning calories.