Diet for college kids

laurenelha21

Can anyone recommend a diet for a college kid on the go and surrounded by unhealthy food?? Self discipline tips will also help too!

RodaRose

Is there a school cafeteria? It will usually have some lowish-calorie selections.
Are are you off campus cooking for yourself?

Lounmoun

laurenelha21 wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a diet for a college kid on the go and surrounded by unhealthy food?? Self discipline tips will also help too!

Your post is kind of vague.
What are your resources and cooking skill level? Do you eat in a cafeteria or restaurants or need packed food ideas?
Do you have the use of a kitchen with all appliances and decent cooking skills or need no cook basic foods?
Can you get to a grocery store?
What makes the food around you unhealthy? Do you have a medical condition that requires a special diet?

Look at meeting your nutritional needs instead of labeling foods unhealthy. Look at your whole diet rather than one meal.
Planning ahead can be helpful. Make smaller sustainable changes to your diet. Eat food you like just the right amount. Maybe start adding more protein or vegetables to your meals. Log what you currently eat and see where you are at.

I prelog my food and adjust portion sizes to fit my goals. I look at calories first then meeting my protein goal. I try to eat several servings of vegetables or fruits a day. I generally have 100-300 calories for snacks.
I pair higher calorie foods with more lower calorie vegetables. I reduce calories in foods by using less cheese, less oil, lower fat milk, thinner crust for pizza. I might skip rice or bread if it doesn't fit well that day. I don't try to have doughnuts, stuffed crust pizza, fried chicken, bacon cheeseburger and a peanut butter shake all in one day.

I eat the same foods I always did just in appropriate portion sizes for my goal.
Typically I eat stuff like this:
Breakfast- Greek yogurt, granola bars, cereal with milk, sandwich, dinner leftovers, fruit, or cottage cheese (about 200-300 calories)
Lunch- sandwich, salad, or dinner leftovers (about 300-500 calories)
Dinner- something different every night of the month. (about 500-600 calories) I have soup once a week usually.
Snacks- things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles, cottage cheese (about 100-300 calories)

I find food ideas on Pinterest a lot.
http://www.budgetbytes.com
http://www.skinnytaste.com
http://www.allrecipes.com
http://www.ohsheglows.com
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/

Low budget help:
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/40dollarmenu.htm
http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/70dollarmenu.htm
http://www.budgetbytes.com
http://www.sixsistersstuff.com/2013/03/35-meatless-meals.html
http://www.meatlessmonday.com/favorite-recipes/
http://www.lentils.org/recipes-cooking/recipes/
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10518784/healthy-food-choice-on-a-budget/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10500423/costing-a-lot-more-money-to-eat-healthier/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10490067/most-healthy-food-options-are-very-expensive-and-im-on-a-very-poor-budget-what-to-do/p1
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10020804/looking-for-vegetarian-recipes#latest

Old_Cat_Lady

Contact the school. You can attend and not have to get the dinning hall meals/meal plan if you get a doctor's note. This only works if the school does not offer healthy daily meals. Worth looking into if that dinning hall is the problem. Some smaller schools only offer junk.

deannalfisher

depending on the school - mine (Virginia Tech) had everything from salad/wraps etc to junk food in the dining halls on campus - I find it unlikely that all the food is junk food

apullum

deannalfisher wrote: »

depending on the school - mine (Virginia Tech) had everything from salad/wraps etc to junk food in the dining halls on campus - I find it unlikely that all the food is junk food

Hi fellow Hokie! Class of 2005 and 2007 here--I stuck around for a M.S. We were so spoiled with excellent on campus food.

OP, if you live on campus, does your school post nutrition info for the dining halls online? Many schools do.

If you don't live on campus, my advice is always to get a crock pot. You can get one cheap at a thrift store and put affordable, healthy things like beans and veggies in it. You get dinner with very little time or money invested. You can even cook up some chili, soup, spaghetti sauce, etc. in your crock pot and freeze the extra for later, so don't be afraid to make plenty!

After a crock pot, my next suggestion is a rice cooker. You can get this cheaply too. You don't need a fancy one. Not only can you make rice in it, you can also do things like steam veggies or even cook oatmeal in it too. And if you do shell out money for a fancier one, it may have a timer or "keep warm" function so you can have it cook for you while you're in class.

extra_medium

This is not a smartass response but it's the same diet as anyone else. Log everything you eat and keep your calories/macros within the range MFP suggests based on the info you entered when you signed up. You will lose weight... We're all on the go and surrounded by "unhealthy" food every day.

deannalfisher

apullum wrote: »

deannalfisher wrote: »

depending on the school - mine (Virginia Tech) had everything from salad/wraps etc to junk food in the dining halls on campus - I find it unlikely that all the food is junk food

Hi fellow Hokie! Class of 2005 and 2007 here--I stuck around for a M.S. We were so spoiled with excellent on campus food.

OP, if you live on campus, does your school post nutrition info for the dining halls online? Many schools do.

If you don't live on campus, my advice is always to get a crock pot. You can get one cheap at a thrift store and put affordable, healthy things like beans and veggies in it. You get dinner with very little time or money invested. You can even cook up some chili, soup, spaghetti sauce, etc. in your crock pot and freeze the extra for later, so don't be afraid to make plenty!

After a crock pot, my next suggestion is a rice cooker. You can get this cheaply too. You don't need a fancy one. Not only can you make rice in it, you can also do things like steam veggies or even cook oatmeal in it too. And if you do shell out money for a fancier one, it may have a timer or "keep warm" function so you can have it cook for you while you're in class.

we were on campus same time then - I was class of 2005 although food nowadays looks so much more appealing than when I was there

spoiled - apparently you never ate in Schultz (or shitz as we liked to call it)