Tips for the College Student: Conquering Unhealthy Eating Habits

Fast food is that invisible .63 caliber revolver aimed directly at consumers. The main target, however, are college students who desire its convenience and affordability. And these days, being young is the only thing you need to score a golden ticket to eat just about anything your stomach desires. Eating habits have evolved with the pressure exerted by student life today. This translates to more time for school work and less and less time for other activities, including eating. Students these days want their food, fast. And with the college student's meager budgets, who can afford to resist the cheap and greasy tacos and fries they serve at the fast food joints around the corner? Does college really translate to an unhealthy eating lifestyle? The article Healthy Eating Habits and Dining Halls: 10 Tips for College Students offers some excellent advice on tackling healthy eating in your college dining hall. But healthy eating doesn't have to stop there.

Modern technology has definitely improved humanity's lifestyle. But are college students living it the healthy way? The youth today don't have it easy. With the grueling pressures of a rapidly advancing society and the burden of society's enormous expectations to shoulder, eating has become a luxury afforded by time. Often cramped in a dormitory hundreds of miles away from home, kids no longer take brown bag lunches to school, sealed by mom's loving hands, nor do they have much time to hang around at home for a taste of a good old home-cooked meal. Then comes the wonder of food today: fresh, hot and served fast. Hence, bad calories have become the primary energy source for the increasingly demanding student lifestyle. Boxes of pizza litter study halls, bags of potato chips and colas are a staple during all-nighters and the vending machine is every crammer's all-around nutrient source.

Convenience. The one word by which the health of this generation's future lives by. But in the name of money and convenience, is it really worth that sacrifice? It's part of the heritage of many cultures to treasure the communal value of mealtime. However, today, it seems like this tradition has weakened steadily. Late hours at the office have hindered parents from attending to their kids' meals. The solution? Restaurant takeout, fast food drive-thrus and frozen processed chicken nuggets and microwave dinners.

The lifestyles of students nowadays has been driven into unhealthy eating habits that only consider convenient options. It's nice to live a life where everything comes in handy. Then again, it's not worth the sacrifice of putting one's health at stake. It's fun to eat while sharing good times with peers and cohorts but it's still best to be mindful of one's diet when considering the effects and their consequences. It's a matter of disciplining oneself and learning to control one's eating habits, and these tips show that it's not too difficult.

1. Start the day right

In the morning, when most of us are still too groggy to prepare breakfast, we occasionally break out the Pop Tarts and put them in the toaster, or open a pack of instant noodles into a bowl of steaming water and voila, breakfast is served in under five minutes. Worse, when the clock is ticking way too fast, a lot of students opt to skip breakfast once and for all. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, because just like it says, it "breaks" our "fast", which takes place during the time we're asleep. Skipping breakfast makes you groggy and shortens you attention span.

Have a small portion of milk or yogurt together with a piece of bread (go for rye or wheat, and stave off the temptation of devouring an entire bagel-eating too much carbs can make you sleepy). Cereals are also a healthy option, but avoid the sugary kind. Bran flakes are a good option, they taste good and they're packed with fiber, too! A glass of juice like orange or cranberry are also good (stay away from sweetened varieties).

2. Exercise as often as you can

Finding ways to burn the excess calories will certainly pay off-and with pride-when the weighing scale starts registering the right figures! Many of us have a hard time setting aside time for a daily 30-minute exercise routine, but you can squeeze in some exercise through a busy day at school. The stairs, for one, is a great alternative to the elevator. If your class is on the 10th floor of a building for example, take the elevator all the way to the 7th floor before you get off and use the stairs to get to the tenth. This way, you don't have to break a sweat exercising but you still get to move and stretch your sedentary muscles. Incorporating a 30-minute brisk walk into the daily routine is a good way to jumpstarting a calorie-burning frenzy. Walk as often as you can; if you have the time, walk instead of taking the commute.

3. Watch your sweets

There's always room for something tasty as long as it's balanced with the right amount of vegetables and fruits. You can occasionally indulge on a slice of chocolate cake or some ice cream, provided that you do so with discretion. Have only one full serving of a dessert item a day, and stave off the temptation of having more servings. The less servings of dessert per week, the better. You can think of it as a sort of reward for keeping up a week of healthy eating. Reduced fat desserts, frozen yogurt and sugar-free treats are healthier alternatives. Gelato also contains less fat than regular ice cream. If you're craving for something sweet, try eating fruits instead. They're sweet, not costly, have less fat and pack in so much flavor and vitamins, too.

4. Avoid takeout

It's always tempting to settle for restaurant takeout-they're fast, convenient and don't have to cost a lot. On the other side of it, takeout often consists of food slathered in generous amounts of re-used oil, and meat portions, for example, are often very fatty. You could eat so much takeout before your forehead starts becoming shiny from all the oil! Eating in your university or college dining hall is a healthier option, and you can fill up with veggies over there, too. On your trips to the grocery, you can also buy prepackaged salads to make for healthy, cheap and hassle-free meals. Load up on fruits. Take a small fruit along with you so you have something to snack on throughout the day; it'll help you avoid trips to the vending machine or the temptation of fatty, sugary snacks. With a bit more time, you can also come up with your own deli sandwiches to lunch on. This is a good way to save up a few bucks, too. On your next trip to the grocery, buy some precooked turkey breast slices, ready to be slathered on some whole wheat or rye bread. Pair this up with some mustard, a slice of cheese, fresh tomatoes, onions, and lettuce. You don't even have to get anywhere near the stove!

5. Stay away from sugary drinks

The temptation of sugary drinks is everywhere! Vending machines carry cans of soda, your college dining hall is loaded with iced tea and sports drinks, grocery stores have refrigerator aisles full of carbonated fruit beverages, flavored coffee, and all the root beer you could ever want. It's hard to avoid encountering these sweet treats but a bit of control should do the trick. Students tend to load up on sugar to max up alertness levels, and it doesn't take very long before one can of soda empties and another one is opened. Even meals are not complete without these beverages.

It's no wonder that diabetes is becoming more and more prevalent in younger age groups. A high-sugar diet coupled with a sedentary lifestyle is the perfect breeding ground for this ailment. Avoid these drinks whenever possible. Water is still the best drink there is; it's zero-calorie and your body needs huge quantities of it everyday. For a light caffeine boost, take some tea or coffee, but try to minimize-or better yet, eliminate-the added sugar. It only takes a little getting used to, after all. Low fat milk, skim milk or soy milk are good too, and they have excellent nutritional values.

A hectic college lifestyle doesn't have to translate to unhealthy habits. Simple efforts to escape that sedentary trap may make all the difference. As Sam Ewing once put it, "It's not the minutes we spend at the table that put on weight. It's the seconds." And even if people have to hack up the weighing scale a few pounds to get it to spell out the right figures, making smart, informed choices today will certainly help add years to their lives and life to their years.