Most college students experience a 9-5 school routine, possibly including work and various extracurricular activities. On top of all this, they have to consider when and where to eat. This is made exponentially more difficult if they don’t have a meal plan or are out of dining punches for the week.
A solution? Meal-prepping.
By dedicating only two or three hours on a Sunday to prepare for the week ahead, students may feel more confident and energetic to complete tasks knowing they don’t have to allocate cooking time during school days. Furthermore, people can exercise personal autonomy by selecting their favorite ingredients and recipes that are both delicious and nourishing. Aside from beneficial time management, meal-prepping also often decreases food expenses. Eating out daily or purchasing pre-made meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner can become costly and can also negatively affect portion control. When recognizing the amount of food the body needs to feel satisfied during each meal, it’s much easier to determine portion sizes and thus reduce food waste.
There’s also the advantage of the nutritional value if meal-prepping is done mindfully. Here are three pieces of advice when striving to incorporate more nutritional strategies in a diet: limit added sugars, focus on food groups and slow down to fuel up.
“When planning a meal, make sure you include foods from at least three food groups, and when planning a snack, choose foods from at least two food groups. Focusing on the food groups will help ensure that you are consuming key nutrients to support your health!”
Tae note of the importance of intuitive eating, most notably when to start and stop each meal.
“While time can be a factor in how you approach a meal, slow down, sit down and savor your meal. Some of the longest-lived populations on the planet practice the 80/20 rule, which is to recognize and stop eating when you feel 80% full.”
Even though there are limited opportunities to prioritize healthy eating in a busy college schedule, students can try to work around obligations and meal prep when it’s most flexible for them. Look for online recipes and make shopping lists, choose foods to put
“on repeat,”
and include some convenient items in meal planning. Try searching for recipes on Pinterest because you can save them to your favorites and add them to your family’s meal rotation. Finding it difficult to go shopping? Try ordering ahead from the grocery store. Planning ahead will allow students to triage tasks and better prioritize health and nutrition. This process doesn’t need to be complicated; everyone can tune in to their ingredient preferences and double dip on specific items for different plates. For example, whether you purchase a cooked rotisserie chicken from the store or roast your own chicken at home, you can use the chicken for multiple meals. Think chicken salad sandwiches, adding chicken to some pasta or a salad, or adding to a low-sodium canned vegetable soup for an added protein boost.
Additionally, keeping a meal planner or journal can be efficient and help students stay organized when knowing how many days to cook and what types of meals to prepare. This can also increase food variety and make grocery shopping a more enjoyable experience. Cooking should not be considered a chore, and by exercising cost-effective strategies, college students can feel fulfilled with their eating choices, even without relying on a dining hall or meal plan.
Adapted from: Breeze
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