I received this hysterical text from Andrew last night:
Say Whaaaaat!?
For anyone to say that my blog even comes close to Facebook in the minds of college students is one heck of a compliment. As a former college student and previous Facebook addict, I felt very humbled and had to give these girls a shout out! 🙂
Andrew also told me that one of his friends had topic request that they would like to see covered on the blog: How to eat healthy in college.
Consider it done!
Healthy Eating in College
My interest in health and fitness began in college. I ate foods that I thought were healthy during my time at the University of Central Florida. My freshman year I had a meal plan, but after that my meals consisted of frozen entrees like Lean Cuisines and Lean Pockets.
These small meals wouldn’t fill me up and within a couple of hours I’d find myself snacking away on honey roasted peanuts, cereal or popcorn.
I once ate an entire box of Froot Loops in one day. (You should know that copious amounts of Froot Loops affect the colors of your bowels. My mom may or may not have received a panicked call from me due to this little discovery. Sorry for the grossness. Welcome to Peanut Butter Fingers! 😉 )
I now realize that if I had fueled my body with voluminous and nutritious foods like fruits and veggies and whole grains, I would have felt a lot more satisfied and not felt the need to snack my way through studying.
Of course I am by no means an expert, but knowing what I know now, here are my tips for healthy eating in college:
- Invest in a mini fridge. Keep it stocked with healthy snacks you can reach for when hunger strikes. Apples, oranges, peanut butter, lean deli meats and string cheese are all wonderful options.
- Take a lap around the dining hall before filling your plate. If you have a meal plan, make sure to take a lap around the dining hall to assess your options before piling a bunch of food on your plate. This way you’ll fill up your plate with the nutritious foods you want the most and not that hard roll or dry slab of meat that looked only somewhat appealing.
- Make fruits and veggies 50 percent. When plating your lunch or dinner at a dining hall, allow fruits and vegetables to take up 50 percent of the space on your plate. Fill the other 50 percent evenly between whole grains and lean protein.
Healthy Plate
- Beware of the salad bar. Salad bars are wonderful for those hoping to take in a nutritious meal… That is until you pile on gobs of dressing. Enjoy the salad bar but select lighter dressing like olive oil and vinegar or a balsamic vinaigrette rather than dressings full of saturated fat.
- Drinks add up. Shots. Lemon drops. Margaritas. They add up. Of course alcohol enjoyed in moderation can be part of a healthy lifestyle, but many college students hit the bars night in and night out, downing drink after drink and then wonder why the pounds start to pack on when they eat healthy otherwise. Hmmm…
- Make like-minded friends. Working out and eating healthy is much more fun when your friends are on board as well. Suggest trying out a new local healthy restaurant with your friends and share your latest healthy snack discoveries with each other.
I also want to add that to me, having a good time and livin’ it up with friends is a huge part of living a balanced and healthy life during college.
Though I’ve always had an interest in healthy living, that didn’t stop me from making a couple of 2 a.m. trips to Taco Bell with friends at the end of a long night.
I had one heck of a good time downing my fair share of adult beverages… Once I turned 21, of course. 😉
Eat healthy and get movin’… but take time to have fun, too!
Sip, Sip
BEEEEER
Yeehaw!
Hi Ryan!
What's In That Big Gulp?
If you are in college:
- What is your biggest challenge with living a healthy lifestyle?
If your college years are behind you:
- Were you healthy in college?
- What are your healthy living tips for college students?
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I taught kickboxing and a slew of classes in college, but I still didn’t eat healthy! That was a great learning experience – working out doesn’t do all the work.
in college, i lived in the dorms for 2 yrs & in my sorority house for 2 yrs (yeah KD!). i was pretty healthy in college- i ran CC & track- but eating healthy was difficult in the cafeteria (mandatory meal plan if you’re in the dorms) and in my house with our cook. so when i wasn’t satisfied with my options i would grocery shop to make up the difference (fruits, yogurt, skim milk, cheese & crackers, oatmeal, etc) and i did request healthy additions to the menu at our sorority house. don’t be afraid to use comment cards or just talk to someone… you never know what change you can make!
i was actually really healthy in college…but i’d say that was the first time i adopted the healthy living lifestyle, so i definitely struggled with being creative with it. i wouldn’t trade those learning years for the world though!
Drinking is definitely the biggest challenge to a healthy lifestyle. It’s easy to make the right choices food-wise and get to the gym, but it’s REALLY hard to turn down a drink when it’s such a huge part of the college experience. I’ve found that sticking to light beer really helps- it takes longer to drink than a super-sweet mixed drink, doesn’t get you as horribly drunk, and has way fewer calories than a long island iced tea or rum and coke!
i think i got a headache just reading the word “long island iced tea!” 🙂
I was not a healthy eater in college. That is when I first started picking up cleaner eating habits, but I also binged because I had such an all or nothing mentality.
I wish I had examples on balanced living and truly healthy eating before then!
I lived in the dorms with a meal plan my first year, so between that and Papa Johns across the street I packed quite a few lbs on!
Sophomore year I lived in the KD house, but it was comprised of apartments, so we all had kitchens. That could have made eating healthy easy, but I was brain washed by atkins and snacked on pork rinds (EW!)
Let’s just sum it up by saying I got healthy AFTER college 🙂
I lived in the dorms with a meal plan my first year, so between that and Papa Johns across the street I packed quite a few lbs on!
Sophomore year I lived in the KD house, but it was comprised of apartments, so we all had kitchens. That could have made eating healthy easy, but I was brain washed by atkins and snacked on pork rinds (EW!)
Let’s just sum it up by saying I got healthy AFTER college 🙂
I have to admit, it was great to see some pictures of you and time machine back to baby pbfingers!! college was definitely a low in terms of my eating, but the wakeup call I got afterwards was important to changing my life!
lol! 🙂 i’m afraid of what my mom will think!
My college cafeteria had an awesome salad bar, so I was set. I think I ate healthier during college than I did my first year on my own. (It didn’t hurt that my parents funded my meal card.)
I actually ate the same in college as I do now. I weighed less, too. Hours of swimming everyday will do that! My tip is to not replace good calories with empty ones (like alcohol). I know a lot of girls tend to eat nothing so they can drink a ton. It’s important to still consume quality foods!
I spent a lot of time in the gym, taking fun classes. A few of my friends also got together on a weekly basis to play some type of outdoor sport. It was a lot of fun and a good bonding experience for our group. Oh how I miss college. Great post! 🙂
I tried to be healthy in college, but I didn’t know nearly as much about it as I do now. It was definitely a lot of lean cuisines and processed food and junior hamburgers from fast food places. I see young bloggers that are in college and I’m in awe of them. They prove that it’s possible to have fun AND eat real, nutritious food.
I’m really proud of my “legacy” to my college (aside from my boring senior thesis). I got the ball rolling and was the first member of the newly created Dining Services Committee. We helped to completely overhaul our dining options – veggies not in oil, more salad dressing options, turkey burgers, grilled chicken, omelet station, whole grains. When I started as a freshman it was nothing but pizza, bacon cheeseburgers and pre-made eggs. If there is something your school isn’t offering, ask for it and keep trying. Your money funds dining services!
that is awesome! do you mind sharing where you went to school so others may look into it as an example if they’re interested?
I went to Brandeis outside of Boston. This is what the school writes:
The Dining Services Committee challenges our committee members to recommend viable changes and help support and communicate our efforts at implementing new programs. This will hopefully be an interactive and dynamic system-one that encourages collaboration and demonstrates change to meet the diverse demands of the community
As a college student, I’d say lack of TIME is my biggest struggle! Between working and a full load of classes, it’s often hard to squeeze in good workouts AND eat healthy when I get back late from a whole day of class, work, errands and other shenanigans.
It’s hard but SLEEP is a huge help and I try to squeeze in my workouts in between classes or whenever I have a chance! Is it bad that I consider my health a much bigger priority than my education?? 🙂
I like to personally blame my college weight gain on Devaney’s… And the Taco Bell in their parking lot…. annnnd the Push Back Room… 🙂
oh lord. remember when pi kapp had those GIANT pizzas waiting for us in the PBR after devaney’s??? it was like heaven.
the best tip I can give college students is TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE GYM!!! It might be the only time you’re able to have access to a gym and workout classes absolutely free, I definitely started going to the gym and sampled all of the group classes while at college! Now I pay for my gym membership :/
My biggest challenge is having the time to cook. So to make it easier I cook one big healthy meal on the weekend and then eat it for dinner the rest of the week. I also always pack my lunch
I’d say the biggest challenge is definitely the drinking aspect. Last year, I often opted out of going out with my friends because I didn’t want the drinking to ruin my “healthy habits”. But this year I’m trying to take a more relaxed view and going out 1-2 nights a week with my friends. But the drinks really DO add up.
hahahahaha I love that last picture of you! Good tips 🙂
lol – not my best.
I think it’s so important for college students to understand that eating healthy at school is possible. This understanding didn’t come easily for me though, and it took me 3 years of struggling to finally get a grip…
Starting with freshman year: Going from a 3 sport Varsity athlete to a…5-night-a-week party animal and drunk eater…made that freshman 15 (+20) come FAST. I didn’t understand the need for a gym (I had never been to a gym before and didn’t associate sports with exercise), and didn’t understand why I couldn’t just keep piling on the french fries in the dining hall. Everyone else was doing it?
The next two years were full of experimenting once I realized just how much weight I had gained. I tried various eating strategies and had a few bouts of intense exercise until I found the right path for me. Taking advantage of group fitness classes and a gym that is already part of my tuition was really important. Also, getting off a meal plan and learning how to shop and cook for myself was key.
In my last year, I’m finding that I struggle most with prioritizing. Eating healthy and exercising is very important to me, but so is socializing with friends and enjoying my senior year. It’s hard to go out without drinking, and even harder to have just one drink when everyone around you is drinking 10! It’s also nearly impossible not to take part in the 3 AM drunk eating that goes on. Staying healthy in college is a pretty difficult task, but I think it is manageable once you figure out what works for you!
i completely agree. it isn’t easy. you want to have fun and enjoy drinks & 3 a.m. pizza, but it’s hard to make that something you only do every once in a while when it seems like it’s something that happens EVERY NIGHT in college.
I was so far beyond healthy in college, it disgusts me. If I knew then what I know now, getting through the day would have been a lot easier! I worked out daily, but only ran! And I ate well enough during the day, but at night the late night pizza runs and gallons of icecream called our names. Ugh. And the Friday AND Saturday night parties, every.single.weekend. really take a toll on your body! So gross.
I totally agree with your tips! Thanks for the help. BALANCED is definately the key! There’s nothing wrong with having an unhealthy snck now and again, but eat only a small amount and don’t do it day after day.
My best tip do NOT replace skim milk with soda. If you are drinking regular soda, skim milk has fewer calories and much more vitamins and nutrition to it.
I was definitely NOT healthy in college. I tried–I’d workout at the rec center, but never pushed myself and ate really unhealthy 🙁
vodka/water 🙂
the key to our success! 😉
Thanks for this post!! I am in my last year of college right now and your blog has definitely helped me come up with so many great healthy recipes. I’m already a big runner, but this blog has for sure helped me strengthen further! That text is hilarious because I always hit up facebook after class, and then your blog!
The worst part is that eating becomes a social activity! Luckily this year I have a kitchen so its not as hard to eat healthy, but when eating becomes a fun activity to do with your friends its gets dangerous!
Now I pack my own healthy food when my friends want to get junk food and just tell them I’m trying to save money, which is true but I also want to save myself from the junk they are all going to eat at Cici’s Pizza 😛
My biggest challenge is all the sweets my school has. I have money loaded on my card so when I pick up my coffee before class it is just SO easy to get a muffin, too. I try to pace myself, though. If I really want the muffin I let myself get it but I try nto to do it every day.
Btw, thanks for the fruit loops advice. lol
Nope, I totally wasn’t healthy in college.
I went from eating WAyyyy too much (a little too excited about the dining hall options and ice cream machine)
to eating Wayyyyy too little. (getting sucked into the college/sorority dieting obsessed crowd)
I felt like things got better when I got my own apt, but I really didn’t know how to cook, so that was hard. Too much packaged stuff.
I would advise college students to buy some cookbooks or take down their family recipes for quick and easy meals. If I had been able to cook in college, or at least understood ingredients, I think I would have made better choices.
Walk every where you can! I know a lot of people do, but my friends in my dorm would drive everywhere they could and then complained about gaining weight. Get a friend and a few of those reusable bags and walk to the grocery store if you can!
Also, if the vinaigrette at the salad bar gets old, create your own! Mix your favorite regular dressing with balsamic or red wine vinegar! Red wine vinegar and honey mustard dressing tastes uh-mazing!
I too, graduated from UCF! Class of 2008, woohoo!
I was a little TOO healthy in college, as in, I took it way too seriously. Now I realize that being healthy doesn’t mean you have to deprive yourself of yummy things every so often. Happiness counts, too 🙂
I am a junior in college and would definitely say I don’t have any issues being healthy, except for the 1:00-3:00 slump. I have an eight a.m. followed by a break, so I use this time to run and lift weights, but once I’m through a shower and some fruit, grilled chicken, salad and veggies, I’m practically asleep in Astronomy. Maybe it’s the dark lights and monotone professor? I usually get my eight hours of sleep in (on weeknights, anyway). I avoid extra sugar, because any time I take in processed stuff or sugar treats, I pay for it in the form of exhaustion and/or a stomach ache.
Getting bored with the repeat foods on campus and not having enough time to exercise because of school projects.
College years were definitely a struggle for me in terms of healthy eating. It was the time in my life where I learned both what all the wrong ways to eat were and where I began to learn the right ways to eat. It is difficult to eat healthy in college with the pressures of snacking and ordering out with friends, the endless amounts of unhealthy food in the cafe, and the stress of living in a busy routine. My biggest tips are:
1) Educate yourself a bit on good nutrition, learn the terms the denote unhealthy food versus the ones that are more healthy ways of cooking (grilled, baked, etc)
2) Balance out the veggies, fruits and whole grains (if possible) with protein, too!
3) Learn that there are even healthy ways to order out! Veggie pizzas are much better for you than pepperoni. Chinese food isn’t all bad, go for dishes that have a meat and a vegetable component and skip the fried rice 🙂
Good luck!!!
I definitely fell on the more unhealthy side when it came to college eating. I was also very undereducated about nutrition…. oops.
If anything, if the healthy eats are hard to come by, at least make sure you’re getting enough “movement” in. I think having classes all across campus (as much of a pain as it was) saved me because I was constantly outside walking around.
Walk everywhere and as much as possible! I went to NYU so I adjusted to the active city lifestyle…ever notice how no one in New York is overweight? It’s because people walk everywhere, all the time, from place to place, up subway stairs, etc. I was one of few who never gained my Freshman 15! Just this change makes such a huge difference!
My best advice: buy a crock pot! It is so easy (and inexpensive) to pop in some meat and veggies in the morning, and you get to come home to the amazing smell of supper all cooked and waiting for you! I even used my crock pot in residence and I’m pretty sure you can make just about anything in a crock pot.
I’m in college right now and I am a really healthy eater. I love spoiling myself though on things like pizza or dessert or drinks. It’s college and it’s life so it’s important to take in those indulgences. The hardest challenge for me is working out. I probably go to the gym at least 3 times during the week. I wish I could go more but my schedule doesn’t allow it.
I wasn’t healthy until my senior year..I literally gained 25 lbs between in my first two years..that’s a LOT on a 5’4″ frame that’s normally 115lbs!
One of the dining halls on my campus was strictly vegetarian, so I ate lunch there everyday. They usually had pretty decent options, and I always had fruit and veggies with my meal. I think it’s the dessert offerings that were the worst for my eating habits in college. I did, however, stay away from drinking in college, except when I was with my boyfriend (now husband). He lived a 1000 miles away though so that wasn’t very often!
I’m in college right now and I find it easier to eat healthy/workout when you surround yourself with like-minded people.
Also if I don’t want to drink I just say so! Who are people to judge your healthy living life style? Either that or vodka/crystal light 😉
I was already obese by the time I got to college. And I packed on more after the surgery I had back then. Thankfully I have since lost almost 100 pounds, but I certainly didn’t know about health and fitness back then!
I went through multiple stages of eating in college – it was usually healthy in that I made healthy choices at the dining hall and made sure to get in my veggies, but I also was eating “diet foods” like dannon lite n fit yogurt and way too many meal bars.
At the end of senior year it all clicked and I started to use my kitchen to cook real food!
I was definitely active and healthy in college, but certainly did my fair share of imbibing and late night pizza eating. My girlfriend and I used to walk the 2 miles to the liquor store every Thursday to offset that night’s drinking. Definitely one of my favorite attempts to balance the healthy and not so healthy!
HAHAHA that’s awesome!
emily, you are a genius. 😉
This topic upsets me so much! College was such a dreadful, miserable experience for me. I went into it with an eating disorder, thinking going away would make it better. WRONG. It just snowballed from there. Without going into detail, I embarked on quite an unfortunate 4 year roller coaster ride with food, exercise, etc. I think I may be the only one who DOESN’T ever want to revisit those years!
i’m so sorry to hear that, laura. i am not sure what point you are at now in your journey, but i hope things have improved for you since then. my heart goes out to you.
I am too embarrassed to leave my real name here. I wanted you to know that you are not alone, I regret how much time and energy I wasted on my own eating disorder in college and would never want to go back to that.
Laura – I had the exact same experience in college too. I went in with an eating disorder and was so happy to get away from all the people “watching” me eat (parents, doctors, nutritionist, etc.) and being on my own where no one thought of me as the girl with an eating disorder.
I am now sad that my entire college experience was centered around eating and how I could avoid it. I was always so stressed about eating situations (dining hall dinners, going out to eat, late night Wendy’s runs, etc.) because I wanted to hang out with my friends but being around food scared me so much.
Now life is much better, but I wasted so many years worrying about food and the size of my belly. Good luck to you and I hope you have found some relief from the ED demons!
My biggest challenge is munching while studying. And I study a lot so that means a lot of munching! Reese pieces= great study food.
reeses pieces = good everything food 😉
Mine is finding time to eat. I am constantly going so it is easy to realize at 4 pm that I have not had lunch yet. Because I am training for an ultra-marathon it is important that I eat regular and healthy meals.
holy crap! an ultra marathon!?!?! you’re a superhero!
I became a certified fitness instructor once I got to college. Might as well get paid to workout!
I also never really found it hard to eat well in college. I think it mainly had to do with always having a passion for nutrition and understanding of good food vs bad foods! Definitely saved me from the freshman 15 =)
You look so young in that last pic!
My first semester in college I went a little crazy with the all-you-can-eat dining hall, but moving off campus I went back to my normal eating habits the following years. I have always worked out so I kept that up as well, as did my roomies.
Drinking has never added pounds to me, but I’m a diet soda + liquor kinda gal!
college is when I actually started getting really healthy. I mean, I went through the adjustment period of realizing I had to in fact be responsible about what I fed myself, but by Sophomore year I was all set with my workout buddies and regular fitness classes at the campus rec center. That would be my biggest tip, actually – FIND A BUDDY! (or many!!) It’s the BEST way to motivate to stay healthy and active.
Great post!
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