If your school, like mine, typically has pretty good food, it’s hard to avoid gaining weight. There are so many options that it feels like you can’t just pick one thing. This is especially true towards the beginning of the school year. You’ve become so used to eating whatever your parents made for you that day that having so many options can be overwhelming, which makes you inclined to eat everything that’s offered on the menu. And they’re all usually pretty tempting.
But working in my school’s dining hall has really helped me to see that some people don’t know how to control themselves when it comes to eating. And it’s not just once a week, either. It’s not uncommon to see the same people come up in the line almost every day and ask for basically everything there. So, if we’re serving chicken sandwiches, fries, and pasta, there’s a huge number of people who come up and ask for everything there. That’s a lot of food. And sometimes they’ll even have food from other places, like some chips and a cookie. That’s a ridiculous amount of food.
And this is only during lunch. Even when I’m not working and I go to get dinner, there will be the same people who asked for basically everything on the lunch menu get the same amount of food for dinner! So many people just don’t know how to resist getting all the food that’s offered, and that’s the biggest problem with going to the dining hall. Having an unlimited meal plan (being able to go to the dining hall as much as you want) is also problematic for many people.
The dining hall is to blame for the Freshman 15 and any other weight you may gain at any point in college. But at the same time, you need to be able to eat in moderation. You can’t get a burger, fries, donuts and macaroni and cheese for lunch, then go to dinner and get pizza, wings, and extra fries (my school serves fries pretty much all the time, if you couldn’t tell) and not expect to gain weight. I’m not saying you have to cut everything out and swear only by the salad bar for the entire semester, but there are ways to eat healthier that you may not even realize.
For one, the salad bar is actually something to consider. Like I said, it doesn’t have to be all you eat, but if you just picked one of two days out of the week and just had salad for lunch, that’s a great way to eat healthier. You’ll feel full after, too. And the nice thing about salad is that there are so many different options to choose from, like having tomatoes one day and carrots the next, and changing the dressing you use. You can also have salad as a side if you want to get the entrée, instead of pigging out on those fries.
Probably one of the most underrated tips to eating healthier is simply not getting that much food to begin with. You don’t have to go to every station and pick out what you want. Instead, just pick one main menu item, maybe one side, and then eat that. And when you’re eating, eat slowly! This will fill you up more than you think. If you’re still really hungry after you’ve finished eating, then you can go up and get more. But don’t fill your tray just because everything looks good.
Maybe the most important part about eating healthier in college is the snacks you have in your dorm. Instead of eating candy, macaroni and cheese, and chips when you’re in your room in between meals, try to eat some crackers or granola bars instead. Dry cereal is good, too. Again, it’s not a bad thing to have junk food every so often, just don’t do it everyday.
Learning how to eat better in college is not that hard, but it’s an adjustment. It’s hard to resist some things that are offered, but you don’t need to stuff yourself every time you go to the dining hall. Your body will thank you!
