hello,
I'm a college student in Idaho and i live on campus. The food service on campus is killing me weight wise. I'm having a really rough time trying to eat right while being forced to eat here. Most the food that is served is either fried or grilled. The only thing that isn't is the salad bar. The only two things on the menu that aren't fried in oil or fried on a grittle with butter are a grilled chicken sandwhich and a grilled terriaki chicken sandwhich...i'm not exagerating. I've been finding ways to be innovative like getting just a grilled chicken breast and putting it over a salad from the salad bar, but after eating it so many times i just cant bring myself to do it anymore. any ideas? I've barely just started back on weight watchers because i gained over 50 pounds from an anti-seizure drug and when combined with the food here it was disaster. I'm almost out of money on my food card and soon will be eating only in the dorms...which means if it cant be eaten straight out of the can or cooked in the microwave i'm about out of luck. Does anyone know of some inexpensive ways to eat light without a proper kitchen?

also...does anyone know how many points regular V8 splash are? also how much the V8 splash smoothies. we dont have access to diet V8 splash on campus..only the regular and my books are out of date. any help would be greatly appreciated.

One more question...does anyone know how many points you earn doing aerobics? I would appreciate any help i can get. Thanks so much!!

-Adriane Joy
Current weight- 210
Goal - 145

try utilizing calorieking.com for the items you need infomation on such as the V8 Splash and Smoothies.

It is hard when that is all they have at the cafeteria.

Now can you hide something small like a George Foreman grill so you can do some meats? Do you have a small refrigerator? I know when I was in the military we weren't supposed to cook in our rooms however we did hide hotplates in drawers and stuff.

Also does your campus have any grills that you can cook stuff outside?

we can sneak toasters and stuff like that in...BUT...they do periodic suprise room inspections and we can get in alot of trouble for having anything - we can even be fined for it...kinda rough. we do have a 2 small fridges..one set up as a fridge and one as a freezer. as far as having other places on campus to cook thats a negative. Its a small community college so there aren't many perks...definatly not going to be living here next year..thats for sure.

I am putting in a link to our university's health challenge. I hope you might find some help. I have been following it in our local newspaper, but unfortuneately it is a subscription only website. Maybe you can even take up the challenge for next years student body and encourage food services to be healthier.
foodservices.uwaterloo.ca

maybe that link won't be too helpful but its worth a try, I just wish I could link you to the newspaper site.

I used to travel quite a bit and got to be a mean cook with a hotel room iron. Use some Pam spray and tin foil and you can cook a FF grilled cheese, FF tortilla quesadilla with some canned chicken and FF cheese, or even poach an egg. Get an electric egg cooker (they turn off automoatically so should be dorm approved), and you can boil or poach eggs for breakfast. egg salad, chef salad, or breakfast wraps. Microwave boneless chicken breats and use for lunch in a WW bun, dinner, or sald toppings. Tuna salad! Fresh fruit. Bagged salads. I'll keep thinking!

I want to say where there is a will there is a way to sneak in and use things. My barracks room had weekly inspections and I always had a hot plate, hot pot, etc. You just get creative on where to store things such as purchasing a foot locker with a lock on it and keeping things in there. With so many 'convenience' cooking things it is really easy to do things like this.

Do you have a car that is parked close? If so you can buy pots and ovens that plug into the cigarette lighter that cook from truck stops. DH and I used these when we were truck driving...

As for cheap foods, when I was in college, I got the meal plan where I would eat 1 meal a day. Breakfast would be instant oatmeal or cereal, or an energy bar of some sort. Snacks would be fresh fruit or cut up veggies or popcorn. Because I got up late, breakfast would usually be lunch, and my main cafeteria meal would be the dinner time. I'd arrive early and smuggle in my backpack and horde extras to take home later. This is usually a good way to get some extra fruit, slices of bread, or muffins. If you are daring, you can bring tupperware containers. (My dorm meal plan was a $5 charge when you enter, but all you can eat inside).

For microwave cooking, you can make a nuked scrambled egg pretty easily. Just scramble it and put it in a small tupperware container and nuke for about 1 minutes. When combined with an english muffin, you have a 4 point breakfast (3 points if you use egg beaters) for probably less than a dollar. For variety, you can substitute tortillas or other bread items.

Quesadillas are also easy for the microwave. You can add veggie refried beans for more bulk. If you add taco seasoning to the beans, it makes it taste much better. From a food spoilage point of view, Kraft cheese lasts a long time. I don't know what they put in it, but it takes forever for it to mold. To keep it from molding, don't put your hands in the grated cheese. Shake the cheese from the bag, then carefully reseal.

For fruits and veggies, maybe consider buying dried items. They are easier to store than fresh, but they do cost a bit more. You can try checking at Costco/Sams Club or a health food store for good prices. If you like meat, beef or turkey jerkey can be relatively healthy. They are high in sodium, but if you check labels, you can find some for about 2-3 points a serving. For these types of things, I would probably prepackage serving sizes so you can grab a bag while running to class.

You may also want to find a friend who you can go shopping with. Usually stores have buy 1 get 1 free deals, and having a shopping buddy makes it easier to use these bargains. You could also do this with fresh veggies, like divide a bag of baby carrots or a head of lettuce in two so that you get a better price and have fewer spoilage issues. Milk was really hard for me to deal with, because it would always go bad before I used it all up. I ended up switching between rice milk (could be stored on shelf until opened and had a vaguely sweet flavor. bad for cooking) and powdered milk (most disgusting stuff I've ever tasted.

If you are going the canned goods route, watch the sales for healthy items in grocery stores. I've also found some good options at Costco. You have to buy a case, but a can of soup usually is less than $1 a can, which is about half the price in grocery stores most of the time.

Mac and cheese is relatively healthy. You can make the pasta in the microwave and you can add frozen veggies to the pasta as it cooks. You can get away with using a lot less butter than the package suggests, and sometimes I would omit it totally (just using ff milk instead). You can add soy sauce, mrs. dash, or other herbs/spices for variety. Definitely not gourmet, but pretty cheap.

Oh, and one more thing. Canned turkey spam is awesome for students. I know spam has this horrid reputation, but the turkey spam is really low in fat, and I think it was 2-3 points a serving. It's great, because it's precooked, so you can just dice it up and add it to pasta or veggies. You can also slice it thin and put it in the george foreman grill. Plus, it's a small enough size that you can use it up within 2-3 meals. My usual dorm meal was a pot of spaghetti and a pot of sauce with frozen veggies and spam mixed in. This would be my main food for about 3 days straight, but I had a large fridge, so I don't know if this would be doable for you.

Another suggestion would be to find a babysitting job near campus that would allow you to cook in the kitchen and maybe bring laundry to wash. You could make a meal for the kids and package the leftovers for use during the week. Plus, you could earn a bit of spending money and have some quiet for homework (after the kids are asleep).