How to eat right in college!?

tnpxx94

Any advice for a college student here? I have a pretty limited meal plan at the dining hall, 8 meals per week. When I eat at the dining hall I can usually eat somewhat healthy however, living in a dorm I'm at a loss for what I should buy to eat that is healthy since I can really only get to a grocery store about once a month maybe... Any suggestions for meals in my dorm and how I should try to approach this?
Thanks (:

mkatetay

I was the same way last semester and I didn't have anything to snack on and that's the way the I lost my weight.. never keep food you don't need in your room...

jayche

Buy a rice cooker

lovechicagobears

Buy a rice cooker

Those generally aren't allowed in dorm rooms. Neither are hot plates. We were allowed to have a microwave and a toaster.

trogalicious

The same way you eat healthy out of college, it's all about making the right choices. Certainly there have to be healthy options and eating outside of your dorm room can be an option. The less easily available food you have around, the less likely you are to stress/boredom eat.
Sure, your choices are going to be limited if you can only get to a grocery store once a month. Maybe make going to the grocery store more of a priority?

kaypat09

You have a fridge I'm guessing? And access to a microwave?

Fill it with healthy things to eat like greek yogurt, cottage cheese, etc.
Get healthy snacks like almonds.
Buy canned fruits and vegetables. They're just as nutritious as fresh.

I lived in a dorm the last 3 years, so feel free to pick my brain for more ideas. They're just not coming to me right now.

thescrumisfun

Do you have access to a larger fridge? At school, I've split my meal plan half on-campus/half groceries. I cook meat and then freeze it. You can pretty much freeze anything like meat, fruit, veggies. I buy a lot of yogurt and milk as a cheap protein (if you're not lactose intolerant). I also have a food scale and measuring cups.

For campus dining, aim for meats like chicken, turkey, and use the salad bar if there is one. Try to stay away from stations that aren't self-serving, I don't know about your uni, but at mine they tend to give huuuge portions. Eat in moderation, log, work out, and enjoy school :flowerforyou: .

keem88

i lost a lot of weight in college, i went from 125 to 110 because the dining hall sucked and didn't offer veg options, so salad and cereal it was.
okay so that's like one meal a week in the dining hall.
i used to bring tupperware in a bag with me and gank seconds for a next meal, if you can do that then you can have like dinner that day sorted out or lunch the next day. do they have where you can go up and get how ever many times you want?
so you can have a microwave, hopefully you have a fridge too because that makes things much easier.

see if you can find: pasta that is quick cook you can do in the microwave, get veggies to mix with sauce or eat plain. oatmeal!! i lived off that in college, just add hot water so easy. i know the packaged stuff prolly has a lot of sodium, but i used to make those pasta side dishes in the microwave as well. microwave low fat popcorn for snacks. frozen dinners are packed with sodium too but sometimes that is the easiest, amy's brand is a little better sodium wise. get tortillas, and mix veggies and maybe black beans or something in them to make burritos, laughing cow cheese with crackers, cereal, some lunch meat/lettuce (again if you have a fridge, hopefully you do). for dinners try to get staple ingredients that you can use for multiple dishes so they don't go to waste. if you get veggies, beans, maybe even pre cooked chicken or something that you can just heat up you can make a variety of dishes with that. good luck! i lived in the dorms 3 years so it was a real pain in the *kitten* lol, if i think of other things i used to eat i will post again. oh yea, you can microwave eggs too so maybe keep those on hand? since you can't go frequently to the grocery, if you have a freezer with the fridge get some frozen vegs, or fresh ones chop them up or freeze them, or get canned fruits and vegs instead so you dont have to wrry about them spoiling. if you don't have a large fridge or one with a freezer it may be worth it to get a bigger one so you can store more food, and have better options than pre packaged or frozen. hope some of this helps!

jayche

Buy a rice cooker

Those generally aren't allowed in dorm rooms. Neither are hot plates. We were allowed to have a microwave and a toaster.

whoops, had one in mine for a while until I moved off campus

AyaKara

Buy a big case of oatmeal, eating 1/2 cup a day will make the case last for weeks. Then, buy a pound of apples and a bunch of bananas, & something else that lasts a bit. Use your meal plan to buy your dinners. How large are the meals that you can buy at the cafeteria? You can make it work

tnpxx94

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone! They're all really helpful! My main problem I guess is that since I have PCOS if I want to lose any weight I'm not suppose to eat a lot of carbs and protein is hard to come by even at the dining hall. They give you tiny portions especially with meat and most of the time I only get around 200 calories out of dining hall meals. I do have a relatively big refrigerator atleast for dorms... It's 4 cu ft with a big freezer. I can only go grocery shopping once a month because I don't have a car and no buses go directly to grocery store so it would still be a mile walk to them after the bus and they aren't in the best part of town so its kind of dangerous. I usually just wait for my parents to take me since I don't have my own money either. But next time I get to the grocery store I will definitely try all your suggestions!

BamBam125

Is there a "community kitchen" in your building? Every dorm I stayed in had at least one for the building, and sometimes a partial kitchen on each floor. They are rarely used by most students, but let me just say that when I made pancakes in the kitchen on the 1st floor, I always made a new friend when I was taking the elevator back up to my room on a higher floor. (My floor only had a microwave, sink, and larger fridge. The 1st floor also had a stove and oven.)

Far warning though, if your dorm is old and the kitchen is tucked away in a corner of the basement (my freshman dorm), you may need to scrub the living daylights out of it before you feel safe cooking in it. Newer dorms (my later dorm) or dorms with more popular kitchens are less likely too required a good scrubbing first.

I didn't have a lot of tools, but a cookie sheet, a skillet, one pot, an oven mitt, a mixing bowl with a lid, a good knife, a can opener, and a spatula can get you through a lot more recipes than you might imagine.

You can do a lot with cheap electric water pot and most of them are under the allowed watts for a dorm room. I used mine for instant oatmeal, rice, soup, and even to boil eggs.

There is also a lot that you can surprisingly cook in a microwave.

Check to see if you can car pool to the grocery store with a friend (remember too that cooking can help you make a friend--:P ). If you know someone you can split cooking duties and costs with, even better.

A local farmer's market came to my campus twice per month as well. Check your student union building for fliers with advertisements for things like this. My university had a strong "ag" department, so we could even get milk, cheese and ice cream from the student union, cafeteria, and the campus creamery.

If you like jerky, it makes a good high protein snack and it keeps well without refrigeration.

When my SO was a bachelor, he also got a lot of mileage out of a microwavable plastic steamer from Target. I purchased it for him for about $10 and he used it for everything from rice to veggies.