Being 10 weeks into our 15-week semester, I have begun thinking what I should be changing in how I run my life here at college.

My New Year’s resolutions were that I wanted to exercise more and I wanted to spend more time studying for my classes. So far, I’ve taken more time studying for tests and I’ve done all the typical things that are supposed to get you to remember things better. However, I have not yet convinced myself to take the time to exercise.

I think this is a widespread problem. A large amount of my peers have told me they’ve wanted to exercise more but never end up getting around to it.

There are many benefits to exercise that I think should be more well known.

As most of you probably know, running is good for the heart. To be more specific, running and other exercise can reduce vascular diseases, reduce risk for diabetes and metabolic syndrome and it can reduce one’s risk for cancer. It might not seem like a huge problem to most college students, but getting into a good, healthy exercise routine now will hugely benefit you later in life when some of these medical issues become more prominent.

Along with that, doing some kind of daily activity has been shown to improve your mental health and mood. For college students, especially during midterms, doing 60 minutes of some kind of daily exercise can make you feel better, remember more and sleep better.

Exercise is something everyone should be doing once everyday or every other day. Even if you are comfortable with your body or how you look, there are so many other benefits to working out than weight loss.

“More than 60 percent report not getting enough physical activity (three or more days of vigorous exercise for at least 20 minutes or five or more days of moderate exercise for at least 30 minutes a week),” according to Northwestern University.

We can do better than this. Even though being in college makes everyone extremely busy, we all need to put some time aside to take care of our minds and bodies.

Whether you want to exercise because you want to lose weight, be healthy, relieve stress or be more productive, it is something everyone should do more than we do now.