[rrjs]

I'm back at college now and terrified of adding onto instead of reversing my freshman 15 from last year! For the past week the only thing that sounds good to me is cereal. I wish I understood why, but any other food just doesn't sound appealing. Today was an example of a typical day:

two bowls of cereal for breakfast (raisin bran and cap'n crunch)
two bowls of cereal for lunch (lucky charms and corn flakes)
8 oz of italian wedding soup for a snack
two bowls of cereal for dinner (raisin bran and lucky charms)

the bowls only hold about 1.5 cups of cereal and half a cup of skim milk, it's not like each bowl is actually worth 3 servings of cereal.

and of course i go to the gym anywhere from a half hour to an hour at least 5 times a week.

Should I force myself to switch it up or is this weird new habit okay?

[2annabelle]

As much as you're afraid of gaining weight, you need to eat more food! You need some fruits, vegs, more protein (there's not a lot in cereal and milk as compared to meat or eggs). You're at school to learn and YOUR BRAIN NEEDS MORE THAN 6 BOWLS OF CEREAL (and some Italian wedding soup!) so it can learn! AND, you're getting a HUGE amount of sugar from the cap'n crunch and lucky charms cereals...you know that's not good for you!

[rrjs]

i don't count calories - am i getting too little or too many?

i agree though, my body is telling me i need different food sources and i need to force my brain to cooperate.

[rrjs]

also - yuck, never thought about how much sugar is in the junky cereals i eat. ): definitely don't need it.

[2annabelle]

You'll have to check the cereal boxes for the size of a serving (I'm betting it's about 1 cup per serving, which means you've been eating 3 servings of cereal for each meal if the bowls hold 1 1/2 cups of cereal), figure out how many servings you're getting in a day, add the milk and whatever else you eat and then you'll know how many calories you're eating. It's a good exercise, even though you're not counting calories.

The common sense side of your brain knows that you need to eat differently...hence the question you posted!

[Vladadog]

In the short term (a day or two) I don't mind feeding my cravings for weird things as long as I stay within my calories. A couple days of just eating cereal, even junky cereal, won't kill you and it may provide some sort of psychological thing you need (cereal is both easy and comforting and sometimes we need that!). If you are going to prolong your cereal vacation then I'd toss the junky ones (or limit them to one small serving a day) go for high nutrient & fiber, low sugar, and add fresh berries or other fruit. I used to use yogurt on my cereal rather than milk, then I progressed to more yogurt, less cereal, and now I seldom add any cereal at all to my yogurt (more likely to toss in a few almonds if I'm want some crunch.).

I doubt that a week form now you'll still be wanting to eat only cereal.