College Girl trying to diet on dorm food! Help!

[Judith6]

Hi there,

I'm wondering if any of you have some advice.. I'm a college student living in the dorms with over 150lbs to lose.. Problem is, its hard to stick to my diet with the dorm food. I've tried keeping my own food in my room, but being in college, without a car, and on a limited budget and schedule with no way to cook (other than a microwave) its hard to keep a stocked pantry and cook anything other than ramen noodles.

So over winter break, I figured out how to manage for Breakfast and Lunch, with oatmeal and salads. But for dinner, my options get more limited. I'm working with 1200-1300 calories a day, but need to find a healthy dinner option thats 500-600 calories, is filling and healthy enough to get me through a long night of studying as well.

Any advice? In terms of dorm food available to me, we have salad bars, of course, pizza, cereal bars, usually an entree of some sort (meat loaf, turkey, etc - varies on quality/health), and italian food. Basically typical cafeteria fare!

I was wondering if those of you with experience in this matter or know someone who does, have any suggestions for me. Thanks!

[sontaikle]

I'm actually going to suggest my best friend's cooking blog to you. She's a graduate student and lost 90+ pounds while living in a dorm. I live at home so I can't really help you here but she's done amazing while being off at college, that's for sure!

http://rocketship-cooking.tumblr.com/

[Munchy]

In college is when I finally lost the ten lbs that I had been trying to lose for years! I'm still trying to lose it now lol.

-I took advantage of the free gym and the fact that I had support that lived all around me. After classes M-F, a group of us would go to the gym together for an hour or more.

-I ate cafeteria food 1-2 times a day, depending on my schedule.

BREAKFAST
In the dorm breakfast: Low cal instant oatmeal, low sodium canned soup (Health Valley, Trader Joe's, and Lundberg are the ones that come to mind but read the labels).

In the cafeteria breakfast: I'd always drink one entire large 16oz cup of water with lemon before eating anything. Coffee, egg, an English muffin or one slice of wheat toast. If they had an omelette station, I'd take advantage of the veggies and lean meats, ask for egg whites, ask for no or very light cheese.

LUNCH
In the dorm lunch: I typically picked up a grilled chicken sandwich and ate the chicken dipped in bbq sauce, a veggie wrap with hummus, or a turkey lunch meat sandwich with lettuce and tomato (we had the ability to get "fast food" with our meal plans at several locations on campus) to eat in the dorm.

In the cafeteria lunch: usually a salad with chickpeas, no cheese, and some low cal dressing on the side. I typically tried to eat chicken if they had it and I'd put it in my salad or eat it on a separate plate, tossing the skin and blotting the meat if it was greasy.

DINNER
I always ate dinner in the cafeteria. I'd always drink one entire large 16oz cup of water with lemon before eating anything. I'd start with a salad on the side with beans (like the above). If the entree looked healthy (even if I had to tweak it a little), I'd get it. If not, I'd get about 3/4 cup of pasta, add tomato sauce and add in the side vegetables that we had.

I kept one snack in my room - mini light salt pretzel twists and I allowed myself 12 and put the bag away. If I was hungry, I'd just drink more water/tea/diet soda (at that time I wasn't into natural foods) and sleep if I needed to. Accountability was easy because I was living in such close quarters with other people.

[wanzulfikri]

Well I guess the best thing you could do if you are on limited budget is to identify what foods are available at your dorm that are healthy. I don't think that all of it are the sort that can increase your weight.

Aside from that, there are many recipes out there that can are healthy but cheap. Just google it.

[canadianwoman]

Originally Posted by sontaikle

I'm actually going to suggest my best friend's cooking blog to you. She's a graduate student and lost 90+ pounds while living in a dorm. I live at home so I can't really help you here but she's done amazing while being off at college, that's for sure!

http://rocketship-cooking.tumblr.com/

Thanks for posting your friend's blog. It will come in handy...now, and when I start college (going back at age 50 plus).