College students trying to lose weight

P.S. I'm starting my masters this September at a completely different school so I'll take a few days to scope around healthy & cheap places to eat. (If anyone goes to NYU, if you don't mind let me know of which places are good!) Until I find out where it's "safe" I'll pack a tuna or ham sammich & carry around snacks in a zip lock bag

Haha, I'm on here because I gained 19 pounds through grad school and bad habits learned through college. :ohwell:

Here are my tips:

Cut out soda. Entirely. Don't buy it. You'll save money AND not take in those extra calories. Soda/pop is nutritionally empty and expensive on a college budget. She can try diet, but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm biased because artificial sweeteners give me migraines so I hate diet anyway, but I truly believe it's better in the long run to go cold turkey. That way you eventually won't crave the sweetness or carbonation after a while. I still cheat every once in a while (once every few weeks?) with diet, but it's better to break the habit!

On that note, limit alcohol as well. I can't believe how many excess calories I had through happy hour. Drinking (unfortunately?) is a big part of college culture. For weight loss, it's necessary to cut back. I still go out every once in a while, but I make sure to record everything I drink and make some wiggle room for it in my daily intake.

Caffeine: Drink coffee black or with just a tablespoon of creamer. No Starbucks or shop drinks that can be 400-500 calories! If you can't drink it without all the cream and sugar, then you don't love coffee enough to drink it period. Heh, that might sound a little harsh, but thinking in those terms helped me say no to specialty coffees with whipped cream on top.

Eat at home if you can. No meal plans! It's cheaper and you'll be in control of what you eat.
When at the grocery store, stick to the produce side. Don't get tempted by the bad foods. You'll be cranky at times when you get that chocolate fudge ice cream craving at 3 am, but it's much easier to be healthy when you make sure you don't have access to it.

Limit eating out to social situations. I used to order far too much Chinese food by myself. It's one thing to go out to eat with friends once a week, it's another to eat take out for every meal!

The hard part about losing weight and/or maintaining a healthy weight in college is your schedule. Schedules are flexible and often demanding (who wants to think about making a salad when they're at the library at 2 am the night before a final?!), but there are ways to have convenient healthy food. My favorite snacks now are cottage cheese, yogurt, and deli meat with some veggies. Healthy foods can easily be packaged and shoved into a backpack.

Also, I'm reprogramming myself to enjoy cooking. Usually, I would make excuses about being too tired or stressed to cook. Now, I'm using cooking as a way to relax and unwind after a long day. It's oddly soothing to get out some ingredients and prepare them. A lot of it is about your frame of mind and how you perceive healthy eating.

This was a big one for me: Eating is not a way to stay awake or an emotional band-aid for being stressed about class. Eating is eating. Don't use it for something else.

Exercise: I was so good about this until grad school. Again, I used excuses about being too stressed, tired, or busy to avoid it. Exercise can be about your "me" time (nothing like your ipod and a run around the block after a long day!), or a social time to catch up with friends. I would go to the gym during my undergrad days with friends, and I really miss that buddy system.

Some small changes: Start walking to class. Never take the bus. Set a minimum amount of time (thanks MFP!) each day just for exercise. A 15 minute walk is better than nothing and doesn't take up too much time in the day.

That might all sound like small stuff, but it made a difference for me!

P.S. I'm starting my masters this September at a completely different school so I'll take a few days to scope around healthy & cheap places to eat. (If anyone goes to NYU, if you don't mind let me know of which places are good!) Until I find out where it's "safe" I'll pack a tuna or ham sammich & carry around snacks in a zip lock bag

I go to NYU! Small world, haha.I'm going to be a junior, add me if you like.
There's tons of dollar pizza around! No, sorry. Erm, healthy. Let's see. The only thing I can think of is Mahmoud's falafel (not the healthiest, but def the yummiest). There's also a place on sixth ave. 3 blocks from bobst (I can't remember what it's called, I'll get back to you on this one) where you can build your own salads with anything imaginable and pay per oz. but it gets really expensive. Also, a place called Eva's down 8th St., 2 blocks from the B&N. It's a restaurant type that isn't TOO expensive, and they have some healthier options. And you can always just get the salad from McDonald's To tell you the truth, I take 15 minutes at night and just pack whatever's in the house. It saves a TON of money and that way I know exactly what's going in my mouth, plus I always have food if I get munchies and don't want to leave wherever I am. I'll only eat out when I don't have time at night, or forget or fall asleep, or there's nothing packable in the house.

Let me know if you discover anything around!