Health in law school Forum

[270910]

But what do you mean by existential angst?

Just that there seems to be a lot of self-questioning and doubt along the way.

When you're 20 grand+ and 14+ stressful weeks deep into your first semester of law school having received zero meaningful feedback while staring down the barrel of 3-5 exams where you'll be competing in a zero-sum game with everyone you've just met in order to determine which of you have a chance at your dream job and which of you are going to be struggling to obtain any legal work at all, you'll understand

[OperaSoprano]

But what do you mean by existential angst?

Just that there seems to be a lot of self-questioning and doubt along the way.

When you're 20 grand+ and 14+ stressful weeks deep into your first semester of law school having received zero meaningful feedback while staring down the barrel of 3-5 exams where you'll be competing in a zero-sum game with everyone you've just met in order to determine which of you have a chance at your dream job and which of you are going to be struggling to obtain any legal work at all, you'll understand

Well put. Thank you.

[Mr. Pablo]

But what do you mean by existential angst?

Just that there seems to be a lot of self-questioning and doubt along the way.

When you're 20 grand+ and 14+ stressful weeks deep into your first semester of law school having received zero meaningful feedback while staring down the barrel of 3-5 exams where you'll be competing in a zero-sum game with everyone you've just met in order to determine which of you have a chance at your dream job and which of you are going to be struggling to obtain any legal work at all, you'll understand

Ahh....I see.

[Alyosha]

But what do you mean by existential angst?

Just that there seems to be a lot of self-questioning and doubt along the way.

When you're 20 grand+ and 14+ stressful weeks deep into your first semester of law school having received zero meaningful feedback while staring down the barrel of 3-5 exams where you'll be competing in a zero-sum game with everyone you've just met in order to determine which of you have a chance at your dream job and which of you are going to be struggling to obtain any legal work at all, you'll understand

This is probably the best conceptualization of the stress of law school I have ever seen on this site (and I've been reading this site for a long time).

I worked in an incredibly stressful job before law school and I thought going in that I would be able to handle the stress fairly well. I was wrong. It is a different type of stress.

To try and contribute to the original post, one thing that helped me during finals was finding time to exercise. Once I didn't have to be in class 4 hours a day, I could typically find an hour to exercise during finals week. It really helped me focus during the time I was studying.

[A'nold]

For those of you that had full-time+ kind of jobs and think that will prepare you for law school......LULZ!!!!

You guys have no idea. It is 10:30 on a Saturday night, guess what I'm doing? Outlining the difference b/w easements appurtenant and easements in gross (doing a lot more than that but at the moment that's what I'm on). You hardly see it coming. All you do, from the moment you wake up until about midnight, it think/live/breathe law school. Every second of the day you worry about your progress, your outlines, hypos, your appellate brief, the fact that you have only put in 50 hours this week into your memo and that one sentence was too conclusory.....

But that's just the workload. I ask my wife about once a week if she thinks my hair is thinning. She says no but I can see my scalp more than ever before. I now need to wear glasses for distance. I have been sick about 3 times this semester and took my civ pro exam on less than two hours of sleep. Every exam is basically 100% of your grade and everyone is "at an A" when the exam starts. That 3 hours makes or breaks your entire law school career and legal path. I have perma-HUGE bags under my eyes. I look like a freaking racoon now. I feel like my entire body has turned to mush. I don't have time to shave my scrubby face. I have turned into an insomniac and need prescription sleeping pills to shut my mind off for long enough to get some sleep.

And you know what? I love it. I love competition (I am the anti-opera in that way, one of the only differences we share, haha). I love the mental challenge each day brings.

[awesomepossum]

For those of you that had full-time+ kind of jobs and think that will prepare you for law school......LULZ!!!!

You guys have no idea. It is 10:30 on a Saturday night, guess what I'm doing? Outlining the difference b/w easements appurtenant and easements in gross (doing a lot more than that but at the moment that's what I'm on). You hardly see it coming. All you do, from the moment you wake up until about midnight, it think/live/breathe law school. Every second of the day you worry about your progress, your outlines, hypos, your appellate brief, the fact that you have only put in 50 hours this week into your memo and that one sentence was too conclusory.....

But that's just the workload. I ask my wife about once a week if she thinks my hair is thinning. She says no but I can see my scalp more than ever before. I now need to wear glasses for distance. I have been sick about 3 times this semester and took my civ pro exam on less than two hours of sleep. Every exam is basically 100% of your grade and everyone is "at an A" when the exam starts. That 3 hours makes or breaks your entire law school career and legal path. I have perma-HUGE bags under my eyes. I look like a freaking racoon now. I feel like my entire body has turned to mush. I don't have time to shave my scrubby face. I have turned into an insomniac and need prescription sleeping pills to shut my mind off for long enough to get some sleep.

And you know what? I love it. I love competition (I am the anti-opera in that way, one of the only differences we share, haha). I love the mental challenge each day brings.

On the plus side, this will only last a year.

I thought I would work my ass off after 1L year because I wanted to be that special.

Nope.

Once I hit 2L, it was like I was a 2nd semester senior in high school all over again. The downside is that I have all these new painful responsibilities that's making life tough despite a serious reduction in studying.

[engineer]

Health is probably the most important thing in law school. I've paid *very* close attention to my health, since that was the one thing I didn't do during undergrad. I had mono junior year, and it was all downhill from there. Averaging 20 credits/semester and working the paramedic night shift full-time totally took its toll.

Since getting to school, I've made it a routine to go to the gym for an hour a day and eat four small meals. For breakfast, I'll usually have bread that I bake (it takes less than five minutes to put the ingredients in a bread machine and press start) and a glass of juice. During my break, I'll usually have some sort of fruit, after class I'll have a salad, and for dinner I'll usually cool some sort of meat. On top of that, I take a ton of vitamins (b-complex, multi-vitamin, fish oil, n-acetyl l-tyrosine, st. john's wort, etc.).

Usually, I feel great, and only need 6-7 hours of sleep per night. Oh, I guess it's worth mentioning that I've kind of adjusted my sleep schedule to where I sleep from 6pm-midnight in order to avoid getting distracted by facebook. I just lack self-discipline, and can EASILY throw away three or four hours on that dumb site. When I need to pull all-nighters, I usually use caffeine. I'm going to try the 5-hour energy stuff out, since espresso just makes me feel awful (and the people at starbucks look at me funny when i ask for ten espresso shots in a cup).

I know the sleep schedule sounds horrific, but if you are just incapable of blocking distractions like facebook and aim, it's the only way to ensure that you're not throwing away 20 hours a week chatting with friends.

[A'nold]

Health is probably the most important thing in law school. I've paid *very* close attention to my health, since that was the one thing I didn't do during undergrad. I had mono junior year, and it was all downhill from there. Averaging 20 credits/semester and working the paramedic night shift full-time totally took its toll.

Since getting to school, I've made it a routine to go to the gym for an hour a day and eat four small meals. For breakfast, I'll usually have bread that I bake (it takes less than five minutes to put the ingredients in a bread machine and press start) and a glass of juice. During my break, I'll usually have some sort of fruit, after class I'll have a salad, and for dinner I'll usually cool some sort of meat. On top of that, I take a ton of vitamins (b-complex, multi-vitamin, fish oil, n-acetyl l-tyrosine, st. john's wort, etc.).

Usually, I feel great, and only need 6-7 hours of sleep per night. Oh, I guess it's worth mentioning that I've kind of adjusted my sleep schedule to where I sleep from 6pm-midnight in order to avoid getting distracted by facebook. I just lack self-discipline, and can EASILY throw away three or four hours on that dumb site. When I need to pull all-nighters, I usually use caffeine. I'm going to try the 5-hour energy stuff out, since espresso just makes me feel awful (and the people at starbucks look at me funny when i ask for ten espresso shots in a cup).

I know the sleep schedule sounds horrific, but if you are just incapable of blocking distractions like facebook and aim, it's the only way to ensure that you're not throwing away 20 hours a week chatting with friends.

Yeah, posting on TLS is much better than wasting your time on Facebook.

Awesome Possum- yeah, I hope I don't get 2L senioritis, but I have been fighting it this semester and it's taking a lot of self control to get crap done.

engineer- you need to eat more protein dude. You should at least fry some eggs or something to go with that bread and juice. Your blood sugar is probably pretty freaking spiked and you could even out your energy supply better if you just added like 15 grams of protein to that meal.

[mac.empress]

For those of you that had full-time+ kind of jobs and think that will prepare you for law school......LULZ!!!!

You guys have no idea. It is 10:30 on a Saturday night, guess what I'm doing? Outlining the difference b/w easements appurtenant and easements in gross (doing a lot more than that but at the moment that's what I'm on). You hardly see it coming. All you do, from the moment you wake up until about midnight, it think/live/breathe law school. Every second of the day you worry about your progress, your outlines, hypos, your appellate brief, the fact that you have only put in 50 hours this week into your memo and that one sentence was too conclusory.....

But that's just the workload. I ask my wife about once a week if she thinks my hair is thinning. She says no but I can see my scalp more than ever before. I now need to wear glasses for distance. I have been sick about 3 times this semester and took my civ pro exam on less than two hours of sleep. Every exam is basically 100% of your grade and everyone is "at an A" when the exam starts. That 3 hours makes or breaks your entire law school career and legal path. I have perma-HUGE bags under my eyes. I look like a freaking racoon now. I feel like my entire body has turned to mush. I don't have time to shave my scrubby face. I have turned into an insomniac and need prescription sleeping pills to shut my mind off for long enough to get some sleep.

And you know what? I love it. I love competition (I am the anti-opera in that way, one of the only differences we share, haha). I love the mental challenge each day brings.

Our experiences are so similar! We are the same.


...but I have girl bits .

[A'nold]

For those of you that had full-time+ kind of jobs and think that will prepare you for law school......LULZ!!!!

You guys have no idea. It is 10:30 on a Saturday night, guess what I'm doing? Outlining the difference b/w easements appurtenant and easements in gross (doing a lot more than that but at the moment that's what I'm on). You hardly see it coming. All you do, from the moment you wake up until about midnight, it think/live/breathe law school. Every second of the day you worry about your progress, your outlines, hypos, your appellate brief, the fact that you have only put in 50 hours this week into your memo and that one sentence was too conclusory.....

But that's just the workload. I ask my wife about once a week if she thinks my hair is thinning. She says no but I can see my scalp more than ever before. I now need to wear glasses for distance. I have been sick about 3 times this semester and took my civ pro exam on less than two hours of sleep. Every exam is basically 100% of your grade and everyone is "at an A" when the exam starts. That 3 hours makes or breaks your entire law school career and legal path. I have perma-HUGE bags under my eyes. I look like a freaking racoon now. I feel like my entire body has turned to mush. I don't have time to shave my scrubby face. I have turned into an insomniac and need prescription sleeping pills to shut my mind off for long enough to get some sleep.

And you know what? I love it. I love competition (I am the anti-opera in that way, one of the only differences we share, haha). I love the mental challenge each day brings.

Our experiences are so similar! We are the same.


...but I have girl bits .

Lol, yeah, a kindred spirit.

[Snooker]

Since entering law school I can lift about 20-30% more weight than at the start. Pump iron!

[legends159]

sheesh I never realized how competitive it can be at some schools.

[270910]

sheesh I never realized how competitive it can be at some schools.

Said legends159, lest anybody momentarily forget his/her presence at Stanford

Reminds me of the Yale poster who tried to give us this "I have so much sympathy for the plight of my law brethren!" crap in the 'waiting for 1L grades' thread...

[ddp]

I lost weight last semester - like 8 pounds but I'm already pretty thin. My curves disappeared and then I gained it all back in the wrong places during winter break. Trying to fight it off at the gym. My vision also got worse and I think my teeth are turning a shade of yellow from coffee. My hair def thinned. I pull at it constantly while studying. I'm also slightly more cynical and stare enviously at other grad students out and carefree on Saturday nights. Fortunately I love the law

[legends159]

nevermind

[rebecko]

Fall semester I got swine flu.

Seriously.

It sucked.

same.

[lordbaby]

i gain plenty of weight.. mostly because i eat late and dont exercise
make sure you exercise and dont over eat or eat late if you are not going to exercise.

[awesomepossum]

i gain plenty of weight.. mostly because i eat late and dont exercise
make sure you exercise and dont over eat or eat late if you are not going to exercise.

so is this eating late thing real or a myth? I keep hearing eating late is bad but I can't figure out what difference it makes when you eat if you're eating the same amount.

[sprezzatura]

Awesomepossum: It doesn't matter what time of day you eat; it matters what, and how much, you eat. The reason why a lot of people declare the kitchen off-limits after dinner is because they're more prone to mindless snacking at night and that increases their daily calories by a lot. But if you're eating your third square meal of the day at 8 or 9 at night, there's nothing wrong with that.

[OneKnight]

i gain plenty of weight.. mostly because i eat late and dont exercise
make sure you exercise and dont over eat or eat late if you are not going to exercise.

so is this eating late thing real or a myth? I keep hearing eating late is bad but I can't figure out what difference it makes when you eat if you're eating the same amount.

This article sums it up pretty well, actually:
--LinkRemoved--

"If you are eating healthful, regular meals and snacks during the day, a late meal probably won’t be a problem if you keep the meal size sensible. If you feel stuffed by the time you are crawling into bed, you may have gone too long without eating, then binged."

[A'nold]

I eat way too much way too late but have been trying to correct this bad habit.

Yeah awesomepossum, it's bad for you, unless you don't have any issues with weight control, then you can basically do whatever you want as long as you don't start seeing negative results.

Also, to legends- Yeah, this has happened to a lot of my classmates. A lot of them aren't getting the best of grades so maybe they just have to work harder to get the same info. Maybe you are that much smarter than me that you can get crap done and better in like half the time. All I know is that what I said above is true, although w/ the amount of time I've been spending posting on here lately, I could be working out, but who wants to work around the clock and use your break time to workout?

[Helmholtz]

i gain plenty of weight.. mostly because i eat late and dont exercise
make sure you exercise and dont over eat or eat late if you are not going to exercise.

so is this eating late thing real or a myth? I keep hearing eating late is bad but I can't figure out what difference it makes when you eat if you're eating the same amount.

It depends on what it is. Most people I know who take fitness seriously eat a couple tablespoons of peanut butter and a cup of cottage cheese and/or a casein protein shake before bed, and stay the hell away from carbs.

[bass08]

Hey guys--I understand the competitive nature of law school and the rigors of the work, but it is so so so important to make time to take care of yourself. Eat breakfast every day, hit the gym in between classes, eat enough (and healthy) food, and try to keep your sleep schedule relatively normal. You will be sedentary for long periods of time studying, which makes exercise even more important. Your mood will also improve if you take care of yourself. And you will have a better chance of not getting sick.

Healthy mind and body go hand-in-hand.

[sprezzatura]

It depends on what it is. Most people I know who take fitness seriously eat a couple tablespoons of peanut butter and a cup of cottage cheese and/or a casein protein shake before bed, and stay the hell away from carbs.

Most people you know who are fit don't eat carbs? I think you mean dieters. If you're doing any significant amount of cardio, you need carbs for fuel; otherwise, your body starts feeding off your muscles. Of course, when I say carbs, I'm talking about bananas and oatmeal, not chips and candy.

[A'nold]

It depends on what it is. Most people I know who take fitness seriously eat a couple tablespoons of peanut butter and a cup of cottage cheese and/or a casein protein shake before bed, and stay the hell away from carbs.

Most people you know who are fit don't eat carbs? I think you mean dieters. If you're doing any significant amount of cardio, you need carbs for fuel; otherwise, your body starts feeding off your muscles. Of course, when I say carbs, I'm talking about bananas and oatmeal, not chips and candy.

Actually, you are very, VERY wrong and Hemholz was right on. He is talking about bedtime here. Casein protein is the best thing you can do for your body at night as it more slowly digests and gives your body a longer window of protein consumption. You do not need carbs late at night.