Tips on surviving study vacation in the UK?

Sofitness

Hi everyone,

I need a huge help. The thing is I'm leaving to study in the UK for a month and I'm going to live (and eat) in the school area. I won't have cooker and probably not even microwave in my room and I'm only going to be able to eat either what I buy (I don't know what local shops - if any - will be around) and/or from the school cafeteria. And so, there are several issues:

1) I tend to lose motivation SO QUICKLY when I'm not at home! I've been only to two 5-day trips while living healthy, and I always overate. The most curious thing about it was that I never really ate unhealthy foods - and there were HUGE temptations! Chips, cookies, candies everywhere - I even baked some stuff that I didn't taste! I always overate on brown rice, frozen peas, nuts, seeds... healthy stuff that I love the most. What would you suggest to stay motivated?

2) I think I *could* survive with eating reasonable portions there, but my issue is that I'm eating clean for quite some time now and my body really DOESN'T like the taste of "regular" food. I've indulged like twice and I always felt so ill afterwards. I think my body has gone to the phase where it refuses to take in junk food and I'm really happy about it! I don't want to start over because of some trip! Do you have any tips on staying clean when on vacation?

3) Logging, weight-ins - I'm not sure if I'll be able to log in food (but I think I probably will and if not, I'll just write it down), but I'm always so undisciplined on the vacations. I don't measure my portions, I snack horribly, etc... And the worst is the thing with portions. Since all my meals will be at the cafeteria, I'm pretty sure the portions will be at least double sized and it would look, well, weird, bringing my own kitchen scale there. Also there will be no regular scale to check if I'm at least maintaining (I'm bringing a measuring tape, but still). How would you treat portion sizes from a school cafeteria?

4) I had the chance to see an example meal plan for week and I want to ask you, which one of these breakfast cereals are the healthiest and is there any chance that some are without added sweetener? Coco Pops, Weetabix, Honey Nut Cornflakes, Frosties, Chocolate Weeto's, Bitesize Shreddies, Fruit & Fibre, Cornflakes, Sugar Puffs.
Also, is wholemeal bread the same as whole wheat/grain? Or is it just a fancy name for white bread painted brown?
What's Marmite? Is it healthy?

What am I the most afraid of that it's going to be a month, so there's an actual chance of me letting go of the healthy lifestyle. Plus, I'm quite short on money, so I can't buy everything my own, since paying the actual course already was quite a big deal.

Anyways, thank you all in advantage, it would be a TREMENDOUS help for me if I'd got some advice. Thanks

jmo325

Sainsbury's - a major grocery chain here- has its own line called "Be Good to Yourself." It basically healthier versions of pretty much everything you need. I would suggest that and just portion control in general. You might not lose any, but you can probably keep it so that you don't gain any either. You can always balance out over eating with watching carefully the next day.

swaymyway

I'm just about to head out but will come bck to this thread when I get back with more advice - for now, do you know where exactly you are staying? Find out if you have a local Lidl or Aldi, they have the cheapest food and loads of cheap fruit and veg, they have weekly offers and half price weekends and the like so if you are willing to eat whatever happens to be on offer that week you can do so pretty cheaply

TavistockToad

For the cereal question, weetabix, cornflakes, fruit & fibre and bitesize shreddies are your best bet!

Dont worry, we do have some salad in the UK as well!

flimflamfloz

1) I just keep counting calories, and I feel bad when I overeat... But you might work differently.

2) Don't know, try to avoid junk food full stop?
I would ask if there is a "school canteen" nearby, when it is opened (e.g. lunchtime and evening meals?), and if they serve in the evening that's half your problems sorted.

3) I would just compare the quantity of food with the size of my fist (e.g. 1.5 fist of mashed potatoes), roughly, to try to evaluate the volume. Then I would log it in cups in the evening, you can probably find the weight/calories for "1 cup of mashed potatoes" for example.
Remember that calories are just approximations (even if you measure them properly), and that for an entire plate you will end up with a margin of error anyway.

4) - Weetabix are probably the heathiest, and they keep you full for a long time.
- Wholewheat bread is indeed brown bread, it is similar to white bread in term of calories but it contains more nutritious ingredients (in other words, better to avoid bread altogether, and if you want some bread, go for "brown/wholewheat" bread... same goes for pastas btw). But both brown and white are "calories sinks", so don't forget to add them to your daily cal count.
- Marmite is yeast extract. Tastes like crap IMHO, it tastes like salt... Probably not "unhealthy" in terms of calories, and you tend to put only a spoon or two on bread/toasts etc (like butter for example).

madforplaid

I visit the UK a lot, and find I tend to eat healthier while there (with the except of imbibing on real British Ale).

For breakfast, try sugar-free Alpen (not bad on calories, great fiber, I hate cereals but love this one). Careful with the sandwich shops, as I have always found that mayo comes on everything. Most large cities/towns have farmers markets, or market days, where you can find great fresh produce. As someone said below, Sainsbury's has some great options for fresh selections. I have found that Sainsbury Local shops ( a smaller grocery store found in truly urban areas) have a really large selection of grab and go healthy stuff. But get there early (like lunch time) or you will find the pickings slim.

I have found that the UK ingredient labels on fresh food are more truthful than what you find in the US. For example, pre-made sandwiches here (from a deli, a food cart, a grocery store, etc) only list the main ingredients (ham, swiss, arugula) but never the condiments (I detest mayo, so this is an issue for me). The labels I've seen in the UK (at Sainsbury's, Morrisons, etc) have listed all the ingredients, so I believe you will find that much much better.

Also, I would talk to the other local students about the best places for food. Try to find the best Southern Indian restaurant you can afford: it will help you get your vegetables in if you stay away from the ones with the "creamy" sauces.

On a personal note, even though it looks like you like peas, do stay away from the "mushy peas" if you are in England (really, anywhere they serve them). Totally an acquired taste, one I will never get.

Persipan

4) Weetabix are wholegrain and contain very little else (ingredients here: http://www.weetabix.co.uk/products/cereals/weetabix#titleIngredients) - they're not my favourite thing personally, but they're pretty healthy. Fruit'n'fibre is also mostly wholegrain and dried fruit (http://www.kelloggs.ie/products/fruitnfibre/Cereal/fruit_'n_fibre.aspx). (Actually, just look at this site generally for lots of different cereals nutitional info: http://www.kelloggs.ie/products/)

If bread is described as 'brown', it could be just white bread that's brown in colour, but if it's described as wholemeal then I'm pretty sure it actually has to be wholegrain, by law.

Marmite is something very British which you either love or hate (literally, all their advertising is about this!) - http://www.marmite.com/ It's a savoury yeast extract spread. It's very low in fat and sugar and contains lots of B vitamins, but it does also contain a fair bit of salt so it's best eaten in small quantities. If you try it, my advice would be to go with the teeniest possible scraping of it on your toast; it tastes best like this anyway and means you won't overdo it on salt.

Feel free to ask if you want to know anything else! Whereabouts will you be staying?

Persipan

Here you go - the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 say:

"Regulation 6 restricts the use of the words “wholemeal” and “wheat germ”. The terms may only be used on the labelling or advertising of bread if the bread meets the following criteria:
• Wholemeal - all the flour used as an ingredient in the preparation of the bread must be wholemeal. The term “wholemeal” is not defined in law, however it is generally accepted that wholemeal flour is the entire wheat grain, which contains the bran and the germ.
• Wheat germ – the bread must have an added processed wheat germ content of at least 10% calculated on the dry matter of the bread.
Other descriptions of bread, such as “white”, “brown”, “stone-ground” are not specifically prescribed by law. However, the use of such descriptions will be subject to the rules of the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 – “where there is no name prescribed by law for a food, the name used must be sufficiently precise to inform the purchaser of the true nature of the food and must not mislead”."

Sofitness

Thanks, everyone! This has been a huge help for me. I'm staying in Rugby, Warwickshire and though I'm really looking forward to it, I also fear what it will do to my eating habits. I figured I could actually weight and pack oatmeal portions for every day (yep, I'm crazy), so I guess the breakfast thing is solved - and then I'll try and option the healthiest for lunch and dinner. I think it'll all come down to how motivated and determined I am.

But really, thank you so much guys, don't know what I would do without you

kitinboots

Stay away from pork pies. They are the devil's food. Far too tasty but soooo bad.

taurie

They sell oatmeal here; it's called porridge.

I suggest that whatever you are doing now stick to it as close as possible. You can pretty much get everything here you can get back home. Everything is more expensive, so that may deter you from overindulging (ex: why would you want to spend $8.00 on a slice of pizza, or $5.00 for a cookie at Starbucks)

For school lunches you can always measure your portions to the size of your hands. I read somewhere that portions (for women) are as follows:

protein:
meat/chicken - the thickness and size of 1 palm
fish - 1 hand
beans, etc - 1 handful


carbs:
grains - 1 handful
starchy veg - 1 handful


Fruit and Vegetables:
non-starchy veg - 2 handfuls
fruit - one piece or 1 handful


Ideally your lunches will have combination of all three... or have two and then save the third for a snack.

Good luck and enjoy your time here.

Persipan

If you want to stock up on some healthy food to snack on, it looks like Rugby has the following:

3 x Sainsburys (31b Clifton Road, CV21 3PY; 385 Dunchurch Road, CV22 6HU; and 339 Hillmorton Road, CV22 5EZ) - supermarket, lots of fruit and veg available plus they do a range of healthier option foods
2 x Tesco (Redpoll Road, CV21 3HW; and 1 Leicester Road, CV21 1RG) - ditto
Boots (15-17 Market Mall, CV21 2JR) - Boots is a chemist but most branches sell lots of low-fat lunch options and snacks

...plus I'm sure there are lots of other places as well. So, if you're anywhere near the town centre (or able to get there by bus or whatever), then you've got lots of options. Have a brilliant trip!

lauz45

And just to let you know Tesco's is much cheaper than Sainsbury's! If there is an Asda that's usually cheaper still, it's owned by Walmart (I have a huge Asda Walmart megastore where I live).

I would guess that our portion sizes are actually a lot smaller than in the US, even in school cafeterias, so it shouldn't be too bad. Personally I love marmite, but as someone said, the teeniest scraping is all you need. And I love mushy peas Wholemeal bread is the same as wholewheat bread.

Best of luck, hopefully the weather will be nice for you (for a change!)

Persipan

Looks like there's an Asda - 12 Chapel Street, CV21 3EB

:-)