Sport Eating at school

[rglover]

After doing a lot of research on how I plan to refine my current fitness program, I've decided I need to dedicate a lot more attention to my diet. The only problem is, I'm in school until May, and unfortunately, the food choices at school are fairly poor. In addition to this, the only access I have to money (aside from work) is through my "meal plan," which only works at on-campus locations. In order to effectively construct a diet, considering the awkward situation, is there a good way to go about devising a diet when you don't really know what you're taking in (I can't really see the amount of fat/calories in a dish)? Any suggestions would be very helpful.

Thanks!

 

[Dallen]

Just eat in moderation. Don't overeat and don't eat stressed out over something (ex school work, etc). Try not to eat around others because you can easily over/under eat based on how much others are eating.

Whenever you don't know how much you're eating, stop and listen to your body. Pause at meal stop, and determine if you're still hungry or not. Don't have the mentality that you must clean your plate - but at the same time, don't have the mentality that you must leave food on your plate.

As for portion sizes, here are some good examples:

* For breakfast, if you're having cereal, oatmeal, eggs, or whatever, go with the palm size portion. For cereal, grab about two handfuls, and that will be a good portion size for something like Cheerios. For oatmeal, you'd want to grab about half a hand full (uncooked) or about a handful (cooked), and that will be a good portion size. For eggs, try and grab about a handful.

* Try and drink milk or orange juice. If you can get it in a box, try to get fat free or low fat. Lay off the soda and mixed drinks such as chocolate milk or something like that.

* For chicken, fish, steak, etc follow the card deck rule. Try and eat about the size of a deck of cards. EDIT: This means a deck of card in both height and width. I've seen this guy flipped a piece of steak the other way so that the width matches the size of a deck of card, but the height is like the size of 5 decks of cards.

* Try and eat as much fruits and veggies in each meal. If all they serve are the mixed fruits in syrup, try and dump out the syrup and eat only the fruits. As for veggies, again follow the handful rule. Simply grab about two handfuls of your favorite veggies.

* For bread, and other things, follow the color rule. Try and get whole wheat, and if they don't know, or you can't ask, simply choose brown colored stuff, but remember sometimes white bread is brownish colored. But don't worry, just eat it in moderation and you'll be fine.

* For "stuffers" such as rice cakes, crackers, candies, and so fort, limit it or restrict it. These things will fill you up, and might "fake" you into thinking you're full. Try not to eat things like these.

* Lay off the soda. If you're a soda drinker, limit it or go for diet.

* For cheeses (such as in sandwiches and whatnot) try and remove it from your meal.

I recommend getting a job or finding extra cash so you can go out and buy your own meals.

 

[Dallen]

Another rule I recommend is to keep a schedule of things you eat and get an estimated number of calories and other information of interest from websites.

You can keep a log on Fitday and it's fairly accurate as long as you are honest with what you're eating.

Simply log everything you eat, get a rough estimate of what you're eating, and simply go from there. You don't need to be exact to lose weight. You need to understand that the energy in (the food you eat) must be less than the energy out (the energy you put out doing stuff). Just remember, don't tip the scale too far; don't let the energy in go too high or low, and don't let the energy out go too high or low.

 

[amp89]

You also want to look for things that are baked/boiled/steamed rather than fried/au gratin/ cream of/ etc. when making food choices. Stay away from fatty cuts of meat, and stick to meats that are leaner such as loins and rounds. Stack up on healthy snack for your room so that when you get the munchies you're alright. Whole wheat bread, peanut butter, fruit, nuts, beef jerky.

I could probably do a better job explaining some stuff but I'm having a mental block. I'm a freshman in college also so if you have any other questions let me know.

 

[tribal1]

I remember the time when I lost weight before even seeing the doctor and starting to combine dieting and hitting the gym. I knew mentally what portions I ate as well as the sugary/empty calorie foods I was eating. Cutting down on these foods and for example having an apple instead of doritos/crisps helped me lose some weight (even without calorie counting). Taking the stairs instead of using the lift also helped.

 

[rglover]

A lot of these suggestions are great, thank you! As far as purchasing stuff to have in my room, I actually landed a job that starts right when I get back to school, so I will be able to get a couple things that I can just eat without buying from the school. Thanks for the tips, and amp, feel free to PM me so we can trade ideas and what not.