How To Eat Healthy In College

Eating healthy in college can be a challenge. Most of the time, all you have available is a microwave and whatever the cafeteria is serving. In this post, I will be giving you tips on how to eat healthy in college.

Smoothies

If you live in a dorm room, then your cooking options are limited. One healthy thing you can make is a smoothie. You can have a smoothie as a meal replacement for any meal. All you need is a blender and a small dorm fridge where you can keep the frozen fruit.

You can increase the fiber content of a smoothie by adding chia seeds or flax seeds to your smoothie. You can increase your protein by adding all natural peanut butter or protein powder mix.

My suggestion for a healthy smoothie is to not add any extra sugar. If you need your smoothie to be sweeter, try adding fruits that have more sweetness to them such as dates or pineapple. Do your best to have unsweetened coconut or almond milk, or just use water. Smoothies can quickly become an unhealthy meal by adding extra sugar in the form of milk or table sugar.

Microwavable Meals

Most dorms have a microwave, and eating microwavable meals can be a good thing. It can also be a bad thing. It depends on what you choose. There are healthier options out there. Just a tip: Usually the cheaper microwavable meals are also the most unhealthy ones. The more expensive microwavable meals tend to be healthier for you.

You can find microwavable frozen vegetables as well, which can help you out in a pinch. Try to stick to protein and veggies when eating microwavable meals and stay away from the processed pasta and breading.

In general, you would want to stay away from processed foods and most microwavable meals are highly processed. But this is college and you are quite limited. I do believe microwavable meals are okay as long as you stick to the guidelines I've put here and mostly include meat and veggies.

Fresh Fruit

Something that anyone can keep in their dorm, whether they have a fridge or not, is a bowl of fresh fruit. You can buy fruit at any grocery store and get yourself a bowl to place the fruit in. Fresh fruit is a healthy snack that you can keep around any time of the year. I suggest getting started on a fruit bowl if you don't already have one. It can help you with preventing cravings and provide you with healthy fiber to keep you full.

Healthy Snacks

Besides fresh fruit, you can keep around nuts as well. Peanuts are not as healthy as most other nuts. Almonds tend to be the most healthy nut to consume. My favorites are pistachios and cashews.

A plant protein shake is another healthy snack/meal. Plant protein shakes use all plant based ingredients and provide you with healthy protein to help build a healthy body. You don't even need any equipment to make a protein shake. You could simply buy a blender bottle which comes with a metal piece inside. Just fill the bottle with the ingredients and shake. It will blend it for you. Alternatively, you can mix it yourself by hand using a spoon.

Something I love to snack on is dried coconut. It provides plenty of healthy fats and fiber, plus it tastes good. At least, I believe it tastes good. There are also other dried fruits. Dried fruits do tend to have a lot of sugar if you eat too much, so watch your portions.

Trail mix is a nice little snack you can keep in the dorm. You can find some healthy trailmixes and some unhealthy ones. It just depends, so you need to look at the label. Hint: The ones with the chocolate morsels are not the healthy ones.

Cafe

Most students that live on campus will have a meal package that comes with their dorm expenses. This allows you to eat in the cafeteria a certain amount of times per semester.

Now, the cafeteria can be a trap because it's like an all-you-can-eat buffet. This is where most students pack on the freshman 15. Imagine each of your meals being spent at a buffet. Don't you think you'd gain a fair amount of weight doing that? Anyone would.

What you can do is limit yourself. You can either limit the amount of food you eat or the types of food you eat. Either one will help you stay at a healthy weight. Meat, fruits, and vegetables are generally the more healthy options, so try to go for those items. You can have a nice stir fry with salad as a meal.

Getting a to-go plate and deciding not to eat inside the cafe is a great way to keep yourself from going overboard on food.

Counting Calories

Counting your calories is a great way to make sure you aren't overeating. Overeating leads to weight gain. So use this calculator to figure out how many calories you should be eating each day. It will tell you how many calories your body needs in order to stay the same weight (maintain) or to lose weight, if you are interested in losing some.

With these tips, you should be able to eat healthy in college in order to prevent weight gain.