Eating well at college

hey i was wondering if anyone else finds it difficult to get their daily calories healthily while at college/university?

In my halls we basically have two hot choices, served with some kind of fried potato, and pretty much always unhealthy, or a salad (a load of lettuce, tomato, cucumber and like a piece of ham). I've been trying to avoid the unhealthy options, but when i stick to salads i find it impossible to get up to 1200 calories in a day! It seems that the only way to increase my calorie intake is to fill up on unhealthy stuff like fries or desserts!

Anyone else got the same problem?

Hey, my suggestion would be to ditch the meal plan and use that money as a grocery budget.  Your parents might even help out if you explain that you want to eat healthy and would like a little extra money so you could do so.  Do you live in a dorm room with a fridge?  It makes it a ton easier to eat healthily if you have an apartment...You can always buy one of those mini fridges and start stalking it with food from the store instead of campus food.  Good luck!

In some ways I do, but my dining halls are actually pretty good with having healthful options. I mainly wish they had whole wheat bread and served pasta a bit less. I've found that if I eat a small portion of the less healthful food they serve (like one slice of pizza or a few chunks of teryiaki chicken) and then fill up on the veggies it's easier to get my calories. If you're really eating just plain salads most of the time, it might actually be better to have small portions of the not so great choices. Salads are great, but you do need carbs, protein, and fat in you're diet.

I also do breakfast myself (cold cereal and oatmeal mostly) and keep better snack choices in my room. I always have peanut butter and whole wheat bread to eat as a snack, and I've been trying to also keep fresh fruit and veggies. 

My uni halls arent catered, sometimes this can be just as bad though, especially this time of the year when i have lots of assignments in and am just sat at a computer with nothing but junk food around.

superkimmi-- I completely understand where you're coming from!

My suggestion is to stock your fridge with healthy foods so that you could eat those instead of junk while you're at the computer. My school has a mini-convenience store where I can get some basic healthy foods so I can use that instead of spending massive amounts of money at the dining halls and eating unhealthy.