I’ve been struggling a lot with finding a balance of eating, working out and all the other aspects of my life lately. I feel like I’m constantly having to press the “restart” button on a healthy lifestyle!
This was leaving me SO confused. I’ve always considered myself healthy. I make consistently good choices about what I put in my body. I don’t drink soda or eat fast food/lots of processed food/junk food. But lately I’ve just felt miserable and out of control.
Why is it that I’ve been feeling so bad about myself when it seems like I’m doing the right thing? Also, why do I keep craving sugar ALL THE TIME now???
I have a couple of theories and those theories brought up some points I thought were important about college eating.
Background information: I go to the University of Texas and live in an off-campus private dorm. So my situation is going to be a little bit different from on-campus dining/food. Also, every college is going to be different, but hopefully I can give you a general idea of what to expect. Some of those “unique” things I want to mention so I’m more clear later: A. I don’t have any sort of paid meal card, I get all of my meals simply by showing my dorm ID, and I can go to the cafeteria in my dorm as much as I’d like; B. I’m allowed to take food from my cafeteria; C. My dorm does not serve dinner on Friday and Saturday.
On to the theories! Generally, comparison is just messing me up big time. I keep comparing other people’s eating habits/meals/workouts to mine and it’s making everything really confusing. When you live in a dorm, in college, without a kitchen, and you’re paying for a meal plan on campus, you don’t want to be buying groceries all the time, and it’s nearly impossible to cook. And I keep trying to deny that. Then I get frustrated. That frustration leads to convolution of portion sizes. When you’re getting food buffet-style on giant dinner plates, portion sizes get all sorts of messy. There are giant tubs of delicious hot food in front of you, with giant spoons to scoop out the food. Even the food itself is giant. And there’s so much and it smells so good you want to go back! And do I even need to add the fact that you’re usually eating/talking with lots of people so you’re not really keeping track? Then you finish your wholesome, yet super sized meal and you face the evil that is the dessert table. And oh my goodness, does my dorm do dessert well. Their famous dessert is a “CCB” which is pretty much a giant ball of vanilla ice cream covered in oreo crumbles drizzled with hot fudge. Hungry yet? I’ll stop, but you get the idea!
So whereas when you’re at your house and you actually have to make your meal/you control what food is around, or you’re at a restaurant and you are served your one plate of food, dorm cafeteria eating is a constant battle. I think I would rather live at a dorm with bad food just to release myself of some of the temptation! Summary: I need to control portion sizes better.
Second theory: I’m not balancing my nutrients/carbs/proteins/fats correctly. But I hate using MyFitnessPal because then I get very obsessive or I just forget. Also, since I’m not cooking my own food I don’t know what’s in it exactly.
Third theory: Stress/exhaustion eating! After waking up early to work out most morning, then going to class, then work, plus all my health/fitness imbalance and organizations I’ve felt extremely stressed lately. And I’m always on the go, so I’m exhausted/stressed from that too!
Finally, I need to drink more water/herbal tea. I refuse to buy dispensable water bottles because of the waste, so I have to walk all the way downstairs every time my water bottle is empty! I don’t always want to do that 😉 It’s a bad excuse, but it’s the truth. When you’re all cozy in your room it’s tough to want to put on shoes, walk down several flights of stairs, fight with the water fountain and ice machine, then walk back up all those stairs. First world problems, right?
If you have helpful tips for resisting cravings and eating well in college, I’d love to hear! Either in a comment, or on twitter! (@alyssatiu).
Life is a constant experiment of what works and what doesn’t. Currently, I’m living with so many wonderful friends in this dorm full of girls it’s way too easy to socialize all the time and not take enough time to consider myself, my goals, and what I need to be doing! But right now I’m surrounded by all of my organization tools, so it’s beyond time to get back on top of things!
Notes:
-TOMORROW is the last day to sign up for September Motivation Mail!!!
-I just got a couple more things at the grocery store, so college-style haul to come tomorrow 🙂
xoxo
Everything A 