Living in the dorms and getting a healthy college diet at the cafeteria can be a serious challenge. Many students put on the freshman 15 or more, and the caf food is at least partially to blame. There are plenty of unhealthy choices in the caf and this leads to an improper diet. If you want to improve your diet and lose some weight, here are 5 tips for cafeteria survival:
1. Don’t take a tray
Nutritionists agree that eating 5 or 6 small meals throughout the day is better for your weight than eating 1-3 large ones. Grabbing a tray is counterproductive because you can fit a lot on a tray, like a dinner plate, dinner roll, desert plate, and beverages. Skip the tray and just grab the plate and silverware. Fill up the plate with a decent lunch or dinner and go to your seat and set it down. You can head back up for your beverages. This is a fool-proof way to stick to eating small meals.
2. Unlimited meal plan
Building on what I mentioned above, you want to eat several small meals per day on a healthy college diet. Make sure that you have enough access to stop for at least 3 meals before the caf closes, and maybe even run through for a snack. It depends on how your school runs its meal system, but if you only have access to 10 meals per week in the caf, this is going to lead to eating large meals, fast food, or unhealthy snacks in between meals.
3. What to eat for breakfast
A healthy college diet must include breakfast. Studies show that people who eat breakfast daily are thinner than people who don’t. Choose a breakfast with lean protein, complex carbs, and fiber.
4. Beverage choice
The cafeteria has many sugary soft-drinks available. Try to avoid these, since they will add a lot of unwanted calories and processed sugar to your diet. Try to stick with water, milk, and limited amounts of real fruit juice.
5. What to avoid
Some things to try to avoid as much as possible for a healthy college diet:
- The desert tray and desert freezer
- Bagels
- French fries
- The waffle bar
- The soft-serve ice cream machine
- Fountain pops
- Doughnuts
- Desert pastries
- Sugary cereal
