Need help eating clean/healthy in college.

[jaded]

Hey guys, I'm a university student and I'm on a mandatory meal plan and eat most of my meals in the dining hall. I need some tips/advice on eating clean and healthy while here and while on the meal plan. You can see the daily menus here: https://housing.queensu.ca/foodservices/menu_cal.asp

There's also a salad bar, fruit, etc. The problem is the dining hall doesn't really offer clean, protein rich foods like chicken breasts and whanot, and I'm having trouble eating clean, getting enough protein, etc. The meal plan is expensive (around $2000) so I feel like it's such a waste of money when I don't eat in there, and besides we're not provided with cooking facilities so I can't really cook my own meals. I do have a small fridge and microwave in my room, so that is an option. Do any of you have any suggestions?

Cross posted to the diet board as well...

 

[Triple-G]

seems to be a nice selection of protein rich food you got there. for me, "clean" means lots of fat and protein and zero carbs, would have got all resources there. ok, i would also get a protein shake here and there, i usually eat at least 5-6 times a day.

 

[superqt4u2nv]

seems to be a nice selection of protein rich food you got there. for me, "clean" means lots of fat and protein and zero carbs, would have got all resources there. ok, i would also get a protein shake here and there, i usually eat at least 5-6 times a day.

Not true you need a minimum of 20g of carbs per day for your brain to function. Carbs are not the enemy as long as you eat low GI carbs.

Good luck with that meal plan. Breafast I suggest scrambled eggs if they have it. The salad bar probably has cottage cheese. Lunches if there is hamburgers eat the burger with out the bun. Try to get some protien shakes in if yoiu can make sure to it 5-6 small meals. problem with most meals in dorms is the portion size are way to big 2-3 times more than you would need to eat in a day. Stay away from anything with white flour in it.

 

[Daisy_Girl]

Wow, nice menus.

You can eat clean, but you will have to "modify" some things. For example, you could eat a sandwich, but take off the bread. There is your protein source right there.

Stay away from fried things (french fries), "special sauces", breaded items. Stick with veggies - try for the green ones mostly. You could eat from the salad bar, use Oil and Vinegar dressing. You could always put the meat from the sandwich on top of the salad.

Oatmeal for breakfast, with scrambled eggs is good. Might be high in fat though - check to see if the oatmeal is made with milk (esp whole milk). The whole wheat pancake is good..... but no syrup. Maybe buy some sugar-free syrup and bring it with you and use that. The dining hall might even have diabetic syrup (sug-free).

The pastas aren't bad choices for LUNCH only, but take a SMALL portion. And no cream sauces, only tomato based ones.

Stay away form the pizzas. And the Lo Mein. Too fatty.

You can do it, but just think SIMPLE. The more "stuff" involced with it, the more likely it is that is is NOT clean.

Hope this helps.

 

[Sassy69]

I worked in our dorm cafeteria in college. Oh my god. I swear they fill everything w/ zucchini. Lots of zucchini. And it wasnt' just straight up zucchini - everything except the salad bar was made in some sort of scary sauce. Lots of starchy filler. One thing I did was do a 2 meal / day meal plan instead of 3 because I actually didn't eat breakfast in the morning very often because I would get stomachs from eating regular breakfast food & then sit in class for 4 hours. Now, however, if you have an option to go with a smaller meal plan, you can get your own oatmeal (and is there any body building food better and cheaper than oatmeal???) You can nuke it in your microwave and throw in apples / fruit / whatever or protein mix. I've also gotten those cartons of egg whites & nuked those too. (You may consider that an acquired taste, but if you need eggs and don't have access to a stove, it works!)