College Dining Hall Disaster

I'm having major trouble staying on track while I'm at school. I only go to the dining hall once a day, usually dinner, but when I go I can't just eat the things I know I should be eating. I grab everything that looks good. My control level is so bad. I lost track over the holidays and now I wanna eat all the time. I'm also getting late night cravings, and I go out of control, eating whole bags of popcorn and bowls of cereal(thats all I have in my room.) I need major motivation to get back on track. Also when I'm sitting there eating these things, I know I shouldn't be, it's just so hard to stop, let alone not even pick it up in the first place. HELP!!

Well that's how I gained the freshman 15 (twice).

Does your meal plan allow you to go more than one time a day to the dining hall?  The problem may be you are starved by the time you get to the dining hall.  As we all know the dining hall has healthy and unhealthy choices.  It is hard to resist pizza, burgers, etc. when the smell is wafting through the dining hall and go line up in the line serving lima beans.

I had a meal plan where I could go just seven times a week to the dining hall.  That made it kind of hard to get good meals all the time.  I loved eating breakfast there, but I didn't get as much bang for the buck doing that. So I ate cereal in the dorm. like you.

I recommend having fresh fruit in your dorm that you can have with a bowl of oatmeal in the morning.  That can be made with a microwave in the dorm. 

Keep two bags of nuts (one handful per bag) in your backpack so you will have a snack on you when you are out and about campus.  This way you don't get too hungry at any one time.

If you are going to have only one meal a day at the dining hall make sure you eat balanced meals at the other two so you aren't starving.  If you get in there and it doesn't feel like your only chance to eat for 24 hours you won't go nuts and screw up your eating.

I'd keep some lean meat, salad, lowfat yougurt, and nuts in the dormatory if I had enough room in my dorm for it.  I had enough room for that and milk.  I am sure my roommate loved me filling our fridge with all my stuff, but she ate all three meals at the dining hall and she never gained a darn pound.  If you have room for some fresh veggies (carrots, salad) that would be good for you to have with lunch.   You should have a salad with lunch and dinner (whoa on that dressing, low fat, and very little). Sometimes I eat the regular dressing but then it is even less (about a teaspoon full) and I smear it around really good (tee hee).

I gained weight eating all that darn cereal (the sugary kind) , I also ate pizza like every Thursday and I stopped at Baskin Robins and James Coney Island on my way back from classes on that one side of campus that had that stuff.  It's way worse now, now they offer all kinds of stuff on campus (taco bell, mcDs ect.)

Drink plenty of water.  Don't drink a lot of caffeine and get more sleep than the average college student.  Those things will help you. 

Living off of cereal and Ramen noodles, that was my college experience. Whoever said that was going to be the best time in my life was totally messed up in the head. 

It is good you are thinking about trying to eat healthier.  If you can just set up your environment where you won't be so hungry and you have healthy choices on your other meals then you will win.

Thats all good stuff. I'm starting to work off the freshmen 15 myself. I did exactly what you did, and here are the steps I'm taking.

 

•  I got a air popper for popcorn which cuts the calories from 200 to just 30. Perfect snack
• I'm keeping real meals in the floor freezer for when I can't eat in the caf
• Got a water filter and pretty cups so I keep drinking water instead of snacking
• Have goals for the dining hall - a checkling: one meat item, one veggie item, one whole grain item, and one fruit
• Grapes and beef jerky are the other snacks I keep in my room. And V8 juice

 

ive have that problem... gained 40 lbs... what helps me if i eat a really high fiber healthy thing first (outmeal) and then go back to the line for the rest of the food.. i tend to unhealthy food when im hungry... also, they have great low calorie snacks that you can eat throughout the day... the more hungry you are, the more likely you are to binge/eat unhealthy stuff

When I began to gain the freshman 15, I freaked out! I did not want an extra 15 lbs to carry around.

Fill your dorm with healthy snacks. The problem for me was having too many chips, cookies, cokes lying around while I was studying. Way too convient to bypass. So I filled my room with healhy foods and 100 cal packs to snack on.

About the dining hall, I used to go around to every bar and pick my favorite thing. BAD IDEA. because my favorite things are rolls, mashed potatoes, pizza, mac and cheese, etc. This is how freshman gain those 15.

My roomate recently went to a nutritionist and she told her to pick one bar and STICK WITH IT! No picking and choosing the best things! Stay at the one bar. Make sure you fill your plate with at least HALF veggies and the rest is yours to chose. I usually get some sort of chicken. If it is fried I take the skin off.

I lost the weight I had gained, and have now lost 5 more. YOU CAN DO IT! trust me, if I can, you can! I was the worst!! lol :)

Good luck!