I’m just beginning my second semester of living in my sorority’s house. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle while surrounded by unhealthy food options can still be quite daunting. However, with a little will power and determination, you can easily be eating cleaner with all of your sisters by your side without breaking the bank. To start eating healthy, you have to have self-control. Sure, it’s hard to pick-up an apple when there are bags of chips tempting you with their delicious saltiness, but you have to remember that a) the apple is insanely better for you and b) not refined. While junk food is yummy and fast, it’s not filling. For protein, core out your apple and fill it with peanut butter and sunflower seeds for an extra burst of fun.
In my sorority house, our chef doesn’t cook for us on weekends, which is when it’s always hardest to stay healthy. I usually end up turning to grilled cheese sandwiches and microwaveable dinners because once again, it’s convenient and cheap. However, just one trip to the grocery store can prep you for your weekend of cooking. Recently, I’ve stopped with the grilled cheese and have started buying food at Wal-Mart each Friday. Some of my favorite foods to buy are frozen veggie burgers, microwaveable brown rice (we don’t have access to the kitchen), cantaloupe, fresh broccoli, clementines, leafy spinach, strawberries, precooked chicken strips, and almonds. These are just some of the few options you can mix and match to create an endless list of meal possibilities such as a chicken-spinach-strawberry salad or rice-broccoli stir fry in the microwave with a cut up veggie patty.
While it may be cheaper to stick to the grilled cheese, remember to treat your body with the respect it deserves — it’s the only one you’ve got. If you’re like me and don’t have access to a stove, try seeing if a friend will let you borrow her apartment kitchen for a few hours; I’m sure she won’t mind if you give her a taste of your yummy food, too!
Besides snack attacks and weekends when you’re left to fend for yourself, the weeks can be hard when every meal your chef makes seems to be fried, soaked in butter, or loaded with unsatisfying calories. If this is your current situation, there are many solutions to prevent this unhealthy cycle. The first and best thing you could do is to go and ask your chef to start providing more nutritionally balanced food for you and your sisters. Chances are, she or he will be happy to change the meals. They’re cooking for you, so they want you to be happy with your options. If you really want to impress, bring in some recipes that you’d like for them to try, or ask your friends to contribute a recipe as well. If asking for a change doesn’t go over well, the next best thing to do is to try to incorporate the salad bar into your meal. While the regular salad bar can become dull and repetitive, try mixing the main course with your salad.
Is dinner fried chicken strips with mashed potatoes? Take the batter off of the chicken and cut it up to throw onto your regular salad. Then add a little scoop of potatoes on the side; there’s no need to completely deprive yourself! If the meal is filling, colorful, and contains vegetables in some way, you really can’t go wrong. Remember, eating healthy is all about feeling better on the inside and the outside. If you treat your body right with healthy foods, it’ll treat your right for years to come.
