2.4.2. Grit

The 8-item short grit scale (Grit-S) was used to measure grit, defined as perseverance and passion towards long-term goals [34]. An aggregated score was divided by 8 to determine total grit scores ranging from 1 (not at all gritty) to 5 (extremely gritty). The Cronbach's alpha for the current study was 0.76.

## 2.4.3. Diet

Dietary behaviors were assessed via the Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants Short Version (REAP-S), a 16-item questionnaire including 13 items addressing first part frequency of food choices (i.e., In an average week, how often do you: Eat less than 2 servings of fruit a day?) and 3 items addressing the will to change dietary behaviors [35]. Higher summation of the first 13-items were indicative of healthier diets. Participants reporting <5 scores of 1 were categorized as having good diets and participants with ≥5 scores of 1 were categorized as having poor diets. The REAP-S questionnaire has good test-retest reliability and is a valid instrument when compared with the Healthy Eating Index (r = 0.472, *p* < 0.001) for measuring dietary behavior [35]. The Cronbach's alpha for the current study was 0.71.
