I am so sorry that your healthy eating options are limited. It should NOT be like that on a college campus. Obesity is such a problem in developed countries. Some college students will eat junk no matter what is presented, but I've observed that if healthy options are there many students will make much better choices about what they eat.

I work at a university and the food service here is very good. I often eat there myself even though I'm not a traditional student. They have a HUGE salad bar with lots of fixings, a plethora of fresh fruit, a fruit and yogurt bar, a part of the line has super healthy cooked options, make your own sandwiches with lean meats, grilled chicken sandwiches, chinese stir frys, and other healthy options depending on the day.

If there are VERY FEW healthy options the Dining Services at your university should be ASHAMED of themselves. Your health and the health of your fellow students is important! If they force you to live in the dorms and buy a meal plan (like many universities do for undergrades) they should feel doubly ashamed.

If they truly are not offering healthy foods then I would encourage you to e-mail a multitude of people that work in Dining Services at your University including the Director, the Executive Chef, the nutritionist and anyone else that seem relevant and tell them what you are trying to do and you are struggling to find healthy options at their dining centers. Just ask for advice first. You may even consider going over their head to complain about the food selections if you don't get a good response and the selection is abysmal.

In the meantime it sounds like you are thwarted with a poor selection and lots of temptation. All you can do is make the absolute best choices you can. Steel yourself to make the best choices you can based on what is available. Make a commitment to your health. The fact is we are all faced with obstacles that can keep us from succeeding. Part of this weight loss journey is beating those obstacles no matter how challenging they are. I know you can do this!

I'm also a college student on a meal plan. Though my meal plan offers me a lot of choices (salad bar at every meal, different dining locations/options with a "healthy choice" dining hall), it also offers me a lot of temptation. Particularly on weekends where we have brunch instead of breakfast/lunch and there are sweet goodies abound. And then there are some nights when the healthier options seem... a lot less appetizing. But I plan anyway, and I fall back on the salad bar if there are no other options.

I second e-mailing Dining Services. There really should be more healthy options available to you and I'm sure that they can find some way to be more accomodating.

Thank you for your posts because I just came out of a really bad weekend and you've made me feel less alone, if you feel like talking, PM me. =) Sounds like we're in the same boat.

I could be off base, not knowing your exact circumstances, and maybe my college was super healthy, but I remember having tons of healthy options on the meal plan. In fact, we had different dining halls with different foods. One catered to athletes and was high carb, one was entirely soup and salad, one was all grilled foods. There was always a salad bar. (There were also always waffles! :D) There was always a bowl of apples and oranges. Cereal was always an option including oatmeal. Yes, you could exist on pizza and hamburgers nightly in college, but we also had healthy choices. Are you really sure that's all your dining halls serve? If it is, I'd find the complaint/suggestion box right quick!

I understand that your choices on campus are limited. I have the same problem.

There is not too many healthy options at my University. I am an off campus student, and I am required to have a meal plan even though I don't live on campus! It's insane. If you take so many credit hours they require you to be on a meal plan. In our dining area it's like a mall. There's a grill restaurant, taco bell, and a chick-fil-a. There is a grab and go section to with cereals, sodas, yogurts, chips, and sandwiches. They JUST added back a fresh fruit section. There used to be a salad bar but it got ditched after the re-modeling.

Since I have to spend the money (the meal plan is in the tuition) I have been eating the chargrilled chicken sandwich from Chick-Fil-A, yogurt, or a fruit. I also found a healthy smoothie in the smoothie and coffee place.

So maybe there are a few healthier choices you could make? If not I would start complaining. I am sure other students want to eat healthy too.

This is really unfortunate. One thing to think about--it's April, now (practically), so you have 8-10 more weeks of school. What happens in the next 2 months is less important than what happens over the next 12. Can you do things differently next year? Move off campus? If you are paying for a meal plan, can you opt out and use the money to buy a small fridge, microwave, and groceries? You could spend the summer inventing a whole new cuisine of light, healthy food you can make in a dorm room (and if you can't have appliances, you could spend it developing a light, healthy non-cook dry-goods cuisine!)

You mention being "tempted" in the cafeteria, which makes me think that the problem is often that there is one healthy choice that you don't really like, and 1000 temptations that you do, and you end up giving in to the temptation. In a situation like that, I think it's important to never, ever, ever cheat, because as long as you never, ever cheat, it won't seem like an option and you won't have to fight that battle every day.

By analogy: in my own college days, I found that as long as I always, always, always went to class, it wasn't that bad. I wasn't that tempted. But if I ever missed a class, from then on, skipping that class was an option. And once it was an option, it was something I had to specifically resist and often--very often--I failed. You need to get to a place where the bad foods in the cafeteria don't even look like food to you, where they just aren't things you eat. Cheat ANYWHERE else but there.

You know, one of the biggest helpful things for me was to quit sweets. No sugar. And you have to read labels, cause sugar is in everything. Once I did that, I was shocked at how little I needed for breakfast and lunch to not feel hungry. Before quitting sugar, I was always "hungry" and always craving things. BUT, a lot of my success is because I work in an office where I bring my pre-measured or counted breakfast and lunch, where there is very little temptation elsewhere. There are vending machines, but they don't tempt me much at all. I CAN NOT imagine being in your situation and sticking to plan. That's crazy. Hopefully you can find the few healthy things and avoid the rest. Good luck!

Wow, I'm really shocked at the college offerings!! I guess I went to a really health conscious university. Fast food is the only option? If we wanted fast food we had to walk 2 miles for it, and no, I'm not doing the "back in my day I walked 2 miles up hill to school" bit. The school served about three entree options and if you didn't like/want any of those, there were the always available options which I mentioned above.

I'm very saddened that the college meal plan can be so poor! I mean we certainly had our fair share of temptations. Among the "always available options" there were also cookies, ice cream, waffles, etc., but we had a wealth of healthy options.