Healthy Eating Tips for College Students

As a college student, you need to eat to fuel your body for a hectic season in your life, where you’re busy with classes, studying, and work (and some play too). But you may feel like you don’t have the time, energy, or even the nutrition know-how you need. And maybe you are worried about that “freshman 15″ you’ve heard about.

The good news is that you can build healthier eating habits, even on a budget and a busy schedule. Start with these strategies.

Know What a Balanced Diet Is

Eating a healthy diet means you’re getting the correct balance of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates (also known as macronutrients), along with the vitamins and minerals (or micronutrients) your body needs to function well. To get all of these nutrients you want to make sure you are eating a variety of foods and that your meals contain some carbohydrate, protein, fat, and fiber at each meal.

A good rule of thumb for eating a well-balanced meal is to consume about 1-2 servings of vegetables or fruit per meal, along with a serving of fat, a starch (such as a whole grain, legume, or starchy vegetables) and some protein (legumes, tofu, chicken, fish, turkey, eggs, yogurt, etc).

For example, you may have 1 cup of low-fat Greek yogurt with 3/4 cup blueberries, 1 tablespoon of chopped nuts and a handful of whole grain cereal for breakfast. Or you might eat 2 slices of whole grain toast with 1/3 avocado, lettuce, sliced tomato, and chopped egg. Each meal contains some carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber. This will leave you feeling full and energized.

A common mistake is not eating enough fruits and vegetables or high-fiber foods. Another pitfall is eating too much fried food and sugary snacks and sodas (or any foods that supply a lot of calories without many nutrients). This is the Best diet pills.

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Add a Fruit or Vegetable to Every Meal

PhotoAlto / Laurence Mouton / Getty Images

The average American only consumes around 1/2 of the recommended servings of fruits and vegetables daily. So add a fruit or a colorful veggie to every single meal you can. It’s easy—you only need to be more mindful of what goes on your plate.

Top a bowl of cereal or oatmeal with sliced fruit, or fresh berries at breakfast, or start your day off with a fruit and vegetable smoothie.

At lunchtime, choose green beans to go with your sandwich or grab some crunchy raw carrots. End your meal with an apple or banana.

Dinner works the same way. And even if you’re out for pizza with friends, you can order a side salad or opt for veggie toppings instead of meats on your pie.

One of the easiest ways to eat a balanced diet is to aim for 2 to 3 cups of veggies and a serving or two of fruit every day.

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Work in Some Extra Calcium Sources

Verywell / Alexandra Shytsman

Calcium is essential for all kinds of things—blood clotting, muscle and nerve function, healthy teeth, and strong bones. In fact, you’re building up bone mass until you reach about 30 years of age—then it gets tougher to add calcium to bone. So take advantage of this time and get plenty of calcium every day.

Milk and dairy products are well-known calcium sources. Try Greek yogurt with fresh berries, nuts, and honey, or drink a glass of milk with your meals. Cheese is an excellent source of calcium too. One serving of cheese is only about an ounce (about the size of two dice).

If milk’s not your thing, there are still plenty of calcium sources available. Dark leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds, and fortified cow’s milk alternatives like fortified soy milk, rice milk, or almond milk will provide you with plenty of calcium. Tofu is also a good source of calcium, as well as sardines, salmon, fortified orange juice, cottage cheese, chia seeds, and some breakfast cereals.

click here to open post Sep 18, 2013 | posted in Weddings | 38 comments

I sat here a solid five minutes mulling over how to best describe Leo and Mei. How do you adequately paint a picture of their love for one another, their absolute loyalty and devotion to the friends in their lives, their passionate appreciation and adoration of their family. . .?

The only words that keep coming to mind are not my own, so they’re posted here compliments of Mr Johnny Mercer (hear Etta James perform them for you here):

I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you come rain or come shine
High as a mountain and deep as a river come rain or come shine
I guess when you met me it was just one of those things
But don’t ever bet me cause I’m gonna be true if you let me

You’re gonna love me like nobody’s loved me come rain or come shine
Happy together unhappy together and won’t it be fine?
Days may be cloudy or sunny
We’re in or we’re out of the money

But I’m with you always, I’m with you rain or shine

I’m gonna love you like nobody’s loved you come rain or come shine
High as a mountain deep as a river come rain or come shine
I guess when you met me it was just one of those things
But don’t ever bet me cause I’m gonna be true if you let me

You’re gonna love me like nobody’s loved me come rain or come shine
Happy together unhappy together and won’t it be fine?
Days may be cloudy or sunny
We’re in or we’re out of the money

But I’ll love you always, I’m with you rain or shine

I hope you enjoy looking at these images even 1/10th as much as I enjoyed shooting them. Enjoy.

Family, family, more family (and abundant love) for miles.

Friendship that knows NO bounds.

 

 

The forever, no matter what, kind of love.

“I’ll love you always, I’m with you rain or shine.”

The wedding was catered by Mei Mei’s Street Kitchen. Yes, Mei is co-owner of this Boston treasure—named Boston’s Best Meal on Wheels!

Then began the most hilarious series of toasts . . . of all time.  (Sincerely.)

Complete with a cheese portrait of the bride and groom. . .

I’m tempted to get married again, simply so that these girls could sing a parody at the event. . .

 

In lieu of cake…

I love you Mei and Leo. Thank you for not only inviting me but EMBRACING me as a part of such a wonderful day in your lives!

Good morning. Good night.

“You look awful!”

He steps in to get a better look.

“Like, (perplexed pause), you look like you are about to die!”

He leans in even closer.

But before he can find a way to further articulate his horror, we both burst into side-splitting laughter.

“This is what I need him for,” I think, as I look down and realize that I’m still in my pajamas at 7:30. . . PM.

There is a pile of wrappers that used to contain the canister full of dinner mints that have sustained me all day long.

This was . . . a day. Ya know? And if I’m being totally honest, I’ll say that I have a lot of days like this. I’m not the mom who wakes up and has her make-up on before she gets the kids out of bed in the morning. I’ll never be that mom. I wish I were that mom. But guess what? Reality: I’m lucky if I get my make up on before our semi-annual family photo session, forget the drop off line at school. And that’s ok with me. (Sort of. . . . Well, most of the time. OK. A good percentage of the time. Like say, 35%.)

On days when I’m feeling particularly spread thin and frazzled, I remind myself that I’m a part of something. Something that matters. In fact, I’m a part of a lot of somethings that matter, and I get to live them out every day, with my entire soul. That means something to me. It really does. So yes, I’m still in the stars and stripes that I put on at 10:30pm . . . yesterday. And no, I’m not ashamed (I’m a little ashamed) to be admitting that out loud. (Actually, you know what? I did it on purpose. It makes going to bed again a cinch.)

______________________________

Dear, sweet, strong, brave, bat-freaking-crazy, zombie face Natalie,

Every day, as you break up fist fights between your children, stop and look at them (but not for too long, or there will be blood). Stop and really look at them, and remember that they are yours. You made them. And you get to keep them, forever. That’s a something to be proud of. 

As you look at the pile of dishes that is stinking up not only the kitchen but is sneaking it’s way into your living space as well, remember, you survived on dinner mints today because you wanted to, not because you didn’t have enough food to eat. You have a kitchen full of dishes and a pantry full of food to put on them. Why you chose to subsist on dinner mints is a mystery of the free world. But every girl needs to keep a little mystery in her life. So, good on ya! This is all a something to feel very grateful for. 

When your husband tells you you look like the walking dead, wrap your arms tight around his neck, because if it weren’t for him, you would drive yourself right into the ground with how hard you work every day, and you know it. His love and hilarity are the solitary reasons you stay sane and keep your head square upon your shoulders. That is a something to cry tears of joy about.

When you are starting to doubt the wisdom of your 3 month long email strike as you see unanswered messages spilling out the front door and onto the neighbor’s lawn, remember— each one of those emails (except the stupid ones from Living Social and K-Mart) represents one of God’s children that you get the absolute honor of loving on for a few measly minutes of your big bad day. That is a something you need to appreciate as a gift. That is a something you need to remember to love.

When you are losing your mind trying to coordinate all the logistics of your crazy-beautiful life, just look around at all the SPECTACULAR people who are constantly rising up to help, to encourage, to support and to sustain your efforts. YOUR life is FILLED TO OVERFLOWING with not only somethings but someones who love you fiercely. . .far more than you deserve.

 

Above: Discussing Metta (loving kindness) Meditation with Mom after a particularly hard night.

 

 At the end of a long day of hustling like your life depended on it, when your 10 year old asks you to come and not only listen to him practice his drums, but sing vocals for him as well (WHAT?!), remember, migraines.are.awesome. (That’s not a something. It’s just torture, by the way. But it is evidence of a life full of love and belonging. . . and THAT is a something you could never live without.)

And when you didn’t get dinner on the table, and your house is nearing disaster status, and your laundry is taking over the bathroom, and said bathroom smells like number one, and you are exhausted on a cellular level, and despite going a million miles an hour—all.day.long—you really aren’t sure what you even accomplished . . . remember, you have opposable thumbs, and that is neat.

Hang in there, sister. Your life is beautiful.

xo,

Self

PS Want to join me in an upcoming something that I’m incredibly proud to be a part of? Come see me and two of my most treasured and respected friends (Tamara Lackey and Jen Bebb) in Brooklyn, Nashville or LA for a day of encouragement, straight talk and practical, sustainable application that is sure to get you from where you are now (10:45pm in yesterday’s pajamas?), to where you truly want to be (10:45 pm in yesterday’s pajamas, but eating ice cream too??).

All joking aside*, this event is not to be missed. Find (real) information here: What If Conference | The Day Camps.

*Note: this is my last scheduled speaking engagement of 2013.

When you really love something, when you really, truly, madly, deeply, passionately LOVE something, it’s always shocking to wake up one morning and realize how long that thing has been gone from your life—how far away it feels—how foreign—how . . . irretrievable. When you finally find the courage and resolve to go after what you’ve lost, when you finally realize that life without it is worse than the horrifying reality of what will be required to get it back, there’s a part of you that believes that once you “jump back in,” you’ll be simply overwhelmed by the utter rightness of it all. “I’m home!” your spirit will cry!

Here’s the truth that I have found: It will hurt, this process of righting wrongs, of chasing our bliss, of restoring what was lost, of building what we hope has the potential to be. Once you’re in the thick of all the searching, it will be hard, and it will hurt. You’ll feel clumsy and unsteady, insignificant and small, and the journey will feel very, very long and unyielding. To paraphrase Robert Frost—the woods will seem dark and deep and there will be miles and miles (and miles) to go before you’ll sleep.

But where there is love, there is light. And light, my friends, is ALWAYS worth fighting for. Once you get back in the ring, the entire universe will begin to conspire together for your good—in absolutely miraculous ways. And out of nowhere, you’ll start receiving signs. Trust them. These signs will validate the stirring in your heart, and they will give every ounce of the courage you need. My sign was delivered to me by a stranger. In the exact moment my heart needed it the most:

“Please come back to the web. If only you knew all the people that you were encouraging, lives you were touching, the way that God uses your pain to shape others lives, to comfort those who feel the same. I know you will probably never know the depths of the way that God is using you, your story, your writing, your talents, your gifts, your trials, your sufferings….but I do hope and pray that you come back and process more with us. There needs to be more hope and truth out here on the internet….and more voices like yours. Thank you for all you have done here…you are a gift and a blessing and a teacher and a mentor and even in a way, a friend. Thank you.”

I’ll be back to writing (blogging) tomorrow (well, and today, as it would seem).

(Deep inhale, soft smile.) I’ll see you soon.