Socially Akward
Hunger Pangs...
by TFSCBlogger on 02/23/11
After I stopped living at home and went to college, I definitely started to gain weight. I know it’s a common phenomenon – it’s even got a special name: the freshman 15 – but I found it really distressing. I could feel the changes in body, as my clothes stopped fitting, my skin looked awful, and I felt tired and groggy all day long. Something had changed, and I quickly realized that it was my diet.
I knew I needed to change and eat a more balanced diet, but it was difficult when all I craved were French fries and pizza. To make things worse, I always had a million things to do each day, so taking the time out of my day to actually cook a healthy meal seemed impossible. Still, I knew I needed to make a change so I decided to take the plunge into healthy eating.
My initial attempts to eat healthy ended in failure. I would return from the grocery store with a variety of odd vegetables and grains, but actually eating them was a scary task. I would try to incorporate them into my meals but it never tasted quite right, leaving the vegetables sitting deserted in the refrigerator until they rotted and I had to throw them away. After several rounds of trial and error, I realized what worked for me and what doesn’t. Here are some things that I learned:
Plan, plan, plan:
I started to plan my meals for the week each Sunday – taking account what groceries were in season and on sale, how much time I had to cook each day, and using recipes with the same ingredients. I could save the leftovers for a day I knew I’d be busy or take them to school for lunch.
Shop the perimeter: Because I planned so well, I went to the grocery store armed with a shopping list and vowed not to be tempted by junk food, saving me both money and calories. Another way to resist temptation is to only shop the perimeter of the grocery store, because that is where all the essential food items (produce, meat, dairy) are located. I guess I truly subscribe to the mentality “out of sight, out of mind” because if I didn’t pass junk food at the grocery store, I would never think to seek it out and buy it.
Use your freezer: I was a very busy college student and usually cooking for one. Sometimes the portions of a recipe or the fresh produce at the grocery store were too much to finish quickly; in these cases, a freezer is your best friend. Frozen vegetables were a life saver for me because I could use them as I needed and could always have a bag of broccoli around to warm up in the microwave as a snack. Some food, macaroni and cheese for example, freezes really well. I love mac and cheese (though to make it healthier, I normally add broccoli or squash), but I can never finish it. Instead, I put portions in plastic bags and into the freezer, to be warmed up in the microwave up to weeks later. It’s like having your own frozen meal for a fraction of the cost!
These are just some of the methods that I employed to keep my diet balanced while under a time crunch. Not only did my energy level increase tenfold, but I also saved up to a hundred dollars a month on groceries. It seems like a lot of planning at first, but it gets easier and it definitely pays off, and TFSC offers a lot of resources to help you get started. More and more people are taking advantage of these resources every day, and I suggest you do too!
