Guest Post: Healthy College Eating
Hi! My name is Meghan, and I’m a new blogger over at www.HelpMeghanRun.com. First of all, thank you so much, Tina, for allowing me to do this guest blog post. I have been reading Carrots n’ Cake for a long time (I think since the very beginning even!) and it was one of the blogs that inspired my own. I started Help Meghan Run to document my adventures in running, food, and fundraising while I run with Team in Training and train for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in October in San Francisco. So after you read this guest post, go check out my blog.
As I’ve touched on in a couple of my posts, eating healthfully while in college is no easy task. In my situation, I live on a full, unlimited meal plan which includes 19 meals a week. Through trial and error and experiments with the food in my dining hall, I have found that what works best for me is servery food at regular mealtimes supplemented with my own food that I keep in my dorm room. Moderation is key: nothing is good in very large quantities. Moderation and variety are the main concepts I keep in mind. I aim to cover all my nutritional bases and be a mindful eater (if you don’t like it, don’t eat it!) while enjoying college. Life is too short to deprive yourself of everything all the time!
It gets tricky when, due to the unpredictability of the dining hall, sometimes nothing on the “hot” food line will appeal to me. That’s where my tried-and-true meals come in: meals that are always available and that I can throw together easily. And while these will certainly be helpful to college kids, I hope the ideas can be applied to other people, as well.
- Sweet potatoes. I love sweet potatoes, and I’m lucky my servery has them every day. My favorite way to eat these nutritional powerhouses is to combine them with black beans, and if I want a heartier meal, I make a toasted sweet potato/black bean sandwich.
- Cereal. Boring? A little bit, yes. But Cheerios with soy milk and cinnamon is my breakfast of choice, and it works for lunch or dinner in a pinch. It’s even better topped with nuts.
- Oatmeal. You take an instant packet (not the best, but we make do with what we have) and can either add hot water or milk. The toppings will depend on what’s available in the dining hall, but nuts, cereal, banana, and apple make good choices. If you want savory oatmeal, the toppings expand even further. This is also good for any meal of the day.
- Hard-boiled eggs. A great source of protein (from the whites) and essential vitamins (from the yolk). I usually mix up one whole egg and maybe another white or two as a topping for a salad, or even on a sandwich.
- Whole wheat bread. Sandwiches are incredibly versatile: anything from the salad bar, deli meat, beans, tofu, peanut butter, eggs, sweet potatoes…the list goes on and on! You can slap practically anything between two slices of bread.
So between those staples available in the dining hall and the food I have in my room, my bases are pretty much covered and I’m always happy, food wise! I just make sure to always have snacks with me. So what else do I eat? Fruit (bananas, apples, clementines) is a constant, and then here’s a sampling of what I keep in my room. Can you tell what brand I like? 
The almond butter is key because it’s so versatile! It works with bread (which I keep in my freezer so it lasts longer), oatmeal, bananas, apples…it goes on! Besides what’s shown in the pictures, I also keep walnuts, chocolate, veggie burgers (Amy’s), cinnamon, some type of granola (Nature’s Path and Udi’s are my favorite), and various other stuff in my room.
I hope you enjoyed my quick tips on eating healthfully in college! Good luck to all of you, and please stop by my blog if you get the chance!
Meghan
www.HelpMeghanRun.com
Sarah (Running to Slow Things Down) — May 31, 2009 @ 8:14 am
Great post! I can totally relate to it being difficult to find smart choices in the cafetaria. But you gave some great pointers…and like you said, it’s just finding those foods that work and eating the “splurges” in moderation.
Recipes for creativity — May 31, 2009 @ 9:07 am
You mentioned soy milk and cereal in the dining hall – does your school have soy milk? I went back to college way back when, from 97 to 2001, so I guess soy milk wasn’t big back then anyways, but we certainly didn’t have that option!
Debbie — May 31, 2009 @ 10:25 am
Hi Tina, I’ve been following you for quite some time and must say I love your blog so much.
Wow I enjoyed your post about Chef Lynn Mansel so much that I had to look him up online and read more about him. He and his creations totally blow me away. And I can only imagine by your pics how amazing that tour was.
Thank you for introducing us to Meghan, I really enjoyed her creativity and way of eating.
This was truly a treat for me today.
Blessings – Debbie
SouthWind78 — October 22, 2009 @ 8:56 am
Her teacher was certain the student knew more than her written answers conveyed, so the teacher asked the student if she could explain what she knew in other ways. ,