1.4k shares SHARE TWEET SMS SEND EMAIL iStock Sometimes, exams takes a toll on more than just grades. Between sitting down to study for hours on end and the incredible amount of stress that builds up in the process, finals tend to take a negative effect on some students’ health. That’s why our friends at are here to make sure students stay as healthy as possible during the dreaded finals week. Robyn Coale, a registered dietician and founder of the online consulting practice Nutshell Nutrition, for staying active while cramming for exams. You asked: During stressful weeks of exams and projects, I wonder if eating healthy is enough. How does taking workout breaks affect our body, and should we be scheduling them into our busiest weeks? Here’s what Robyn had to say: Exam weeks can be super stressful and packed full of studying and test taking that there can be limited time for other things. Anytime we are under stress our body releases cortisol. When cortisol rises we don’t want it tocontinue to stay elevated and we don’t want cortisol to be released on a continuing basis, we want it to come back down. This is our body’s natural stress response- cortisol rises which puts our body into “fight or flight” mode and then when the stress period is over it comes back down. So when we are having a crazy week of exams that are stressful, you don’t want to be putting your body under a ton of other stress with working out or with eating poorly or not eating enough. Or other stress events like emotional stress from relationships. So when choosing when or how you will workout during a stressful exam week, you want to pick workouts that relax your body and don’t raise your cortisol levels even higher. Going outside for a walk or slow jog is a great option. Yoga is another great way to move your body and destress at the same time. But if the thought of squeezing in a workout is stressing you out, then skip it and focus on your exams and eating healthy. You can always jump backinto your workout routine when you school schedule calms down! The key is to make sure you don’t have lots of stress inducing things in your life all at once. is the first and only national college food magazine. We offer dorm-friendly recipes, campus food news, food industry career tips and more. Working with students from over 60 schools across the country, C&C’s goal is to unite the food-interested college crowd. Want to join the team? Apply . This article comes from The USA TODAY College Contributor network. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of USA TODAY. You understand that we have no obligation to monitor any discussion forums, blogs, photo- or video-sharing pages, or other areas of the Site through which users can supply information or material. However, we reserve the right at all times, in our sole discretion, to screen content submitted by users and to edit, move, delete, and/or refuse to accept any content that in our judgment violatesthese or is otherwise unacceptable or inappropriate, whether for legal or other reasons. , , , , , ,   1.4k shares SHARE TWEET SMS SEND EMAIL Related Stories Comments