Campus Diet & Call for Help
Myth #1) Iowa is flat. Hardly, people! There are hills on this campus that may as well be vertical! Which is good. I huff and puff my way up at least one daily. Not for class, but during my two hour break between. Plus, I'm forcing myself to take the stairs instead of the elevator and parking towards the far end of the lot.
Myth #2) Campus food sucks. Nope. Not even close. I can't speak for the Residence halls (dorms), but there are two restaurants on campus run by the University and both of them have delicious, fattening foods. Thank god they also offer a fruit/veggie buffet and lots of vegetarian goodies. Now, if I can just stay away from the breadbowls and buffalo burgers, I should be fine. Oh and the omelets and the decadent chocolate desserts and the Dutch letters...
Myth #3) Vending machines that offer more fat free and healthy snacks. I know they exist. I've seen them with my own two eyes. However, try to find a machine on campus that offers more than three of these choices. And the choices seem to be animal crackers, beef jerky, and trail mix. The trail mix is occasionally omitted in favor of those little packages of crackers with cheese or pb. Yeah. All I wanted was some damned pretzels! I found them...they were those nasty mustard pretzel ball things three buildings away from my classes. Ish!
As for my call for help, since I do have a two hour break between classes, limited income (duh), and a strong desire to both cut costs and weight, does anyone have any suggestions for a decent sack lunch to carry with me? I have no access to a microwave anywhere on campus, but I do have an insulated Betty Boop lunch bag. I've got fruit, low cal soda, and other than that, I'm out of ideas. I also have access to a fairly reliable thermos for hot stuff. Plenty of areas to munch at, just no munchies. What a world! What a campus!
posted by Manic Mom at 7:07 PM
4 Comments:
Have you tried some veggies? Carrots & Celery make great snacks. Throw some p-nut butter on them celery sticks and YUM! If you have an insulated bad you could maybe toss a salad in the morning and have some salad? There are so many choices. Fruit cups, yogurt, gogurts, cottage cheese? A bagel with p-nut butter is one of my favs. If you have something to keep things warm (or at least room temp) some left overs from the night before? Or try making some pasta salad (pasta, tomato, onion, and whatever other veggies you like mixed with a light itallian dressing maybe). Just a few suggestions.
Happy Dieting!
As for me? I have strayed the last couple weeks but hope to get back on track here soon!
Congrats on the exercise!! As for snacks, Chris had some great ones. There is also whole fuit, rice cakes (not as bad as they sound). You might think about exchanging the diet soda for water, diet may not have calories, but who knows what all those chemicals are doing to your matabolism. Just a thought.
Good luck, and at least you are working on it. I seemed to have hit a small platau, but I know I can do it.
I have something called a salad shaker, that I use to pack my lunch salad in. It's a big cup looking thing (like the size of a super size milkshake) and you ptu your salad in it. Then the lid you put your dressing in. Then when your ready you push the button on the lid, and dressing falls in, and you shake it all up. I also taked a little diced meat, or the lean lunch meat I can tear into it, and some fruit and or nuts.
Take some low fat ritz crackers, and some fat free cheese and lean meat, make yourself cracker stackers. Doesn't take many of them to fill ya up.
Vanilla yogurt with some fresh fruit and granola is nice too.
Just some thoughts.
When it gets cold get some low fat or fat free soup and take it in the thermos thingie.
Thanks for all the suggestions! It's greatly appreciated. I hadn't thought about bagels with PB. And I completely forgot about rice cakes. I love rice cakes, really! Duh! (smack in the forehead) I'm also shared lunch ideas with another student today. She brought pita sandwiches stuffed with lettuce, tomato, shredded cheese, and tuna salad. Each thing was packed separately so nothing got mushy. She also makes some kind of tortilla roll-up with cottage cheese or yogurt and fruit and another kind with salsa, cheese, eggs and lettuce. She's promised me directions/recipes for some diet friendly sack lunches and munchies. I promise to share if they're any good! Thanks again!
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