With a busy class schedule, extracurriculars to attend, friends to meet, coffee to drink, and the buzz of campus activities and events, life’s most basic and crucial act, eating, can at times fall to the wayside. The excitement of new social groups, new classes, and new opportunities can sometimes distract from the necessities of self-care. Finding a good balance is important, so here are a few of my tips for how I eat healthy and stay happy on campus.
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Balance and prepare your schedule for each day. A balanced schedule means breathing room, time between classes to sit down in a dining hall with some friends and discuss the day over chicken fingers and brisket. Knowing when the breaks in your schedule are can help you use your time more efficiently.
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Stock up on snacks for your dorm room. My go-tos were clementines and Kind Bars, but anything nutritive and easy to eat will save you for those 8 a.m. classes where sleep has sealed your eyelids closed and you narrowly miss running into a light post. If your stomach is growling so loudly it starts contributing to discussion, this is the tip for you.
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Eat with purpose. Take your time in the dining hall to find what you like and what is filling and balanced. If you don’t like a dish you selected, find something different that you will like instead of picking at it with the tines of your fork. Take advantage of the amount of options dining halls often have.
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Treat yourself. Reward yourself with a hamburger or banh mi from a food truck once in a while to keep things interesting. Calc midterm, meet bento box. Eight-page essay, meet fried chicken sandwich.
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Make food with others (when it’s safe to do so, of course). Baking or cooking with your friends is a great way to bond. At UChicago, each of the houses in our dorms has its own lounge with a kitchen area which is perfect for this. Preparing food with others can introduce you to a variety of different dishes and give you a chance to get creative by trying new things together.
Hopefully you find these tips helpful! There are a lot of different ways to stay healthy when living on campus, so this is by no means an exhaustive list—you just need to find what works best for you personally! The main thing to remember is to make time and energy for both friends and food!