I demolished the salad bars- salad bars are exciting (to me) and with lots of options I didn’t get bored. Then for everything else I only ate “worth it” things- Custom Omelets on Friday nights (light meal before the parties) YES, homemade waffles on Sundays (to soak up the drinks) YES… they same old pizza that’s there every day or the sketchy meatloaf- pass!

Breakfast- there was always oatmeal and cereal options to get something healthy.

If only I had avoided the dessert line…

Having a GYM BUDDY helped as well to stick to exercise, especially for group fitness classes.

Lastly, consciously keeping my room SNACK-FREE helped curbed a stress-induced appetite.

Thanks for this post!

Salad bar with beans and dried fruit instead of dressing; maybe a little bit of olive oil and vinegar to hold it all together.

Open-faced sandwich (that means only one piece of bread!) on something all-natural and whole grain with lots of lettuce and sprouts.

Peanut butter and banana for dessert.

Those were things I could always count on in the dining hall, even if all the other options sucked.

I lost weight at college, more each year. Having a set eating schedule helped. And always heading to the dining hall with friends helped (you can’t eat as much or as fast when you’re chatting). And I walked or roller-bladed EVERYWHERE. But what really helped me keep the weight off (and get in the best shape of my life) was finding something I truly loved, i.e. the triathlon team. And even though we occasionally ate ridiculous nachos and drank lots and lots and lots (you metabolize alcohol quickly after running and biking for 3-4 hours in a day) of beer, I got down to the lowest weight of my post-pubescent life.

The key is to find something you love. It also helps to have a liberal arts major (more free time).

i played club hockey (games/practice in season took up 5 days a week), almost always walked or biked to class (.5-1mi each way), played intramural sports, reffed as my job and joined a hockey class as well by senior year. i also made sure to eat breakfast every day. rarely ever drinking probably also helped …

however, i ate like crap for the most part. dinner at the dining hall (usually gross anyway) was always done by the time i got out of practice, so my options were fast food crap at the student union, the late nite cafe (greasy appetizers, basically) or the local restaurants (none of which were all THAT healthy). freshman year, i basically ate chicken parm and a coffee frappe every night. the mid years, dinner was a strawberry/banana smoothie, cheese sticks, chicken fingers and, when they had them, mac and cheese bites.

yeah. luckily, i ended up shaping up a bit more senior year by taking a weight training course, but still.

oh, i ended up gaining about 20 pounds over the course of college, but i think part of that was a SUPER late puberty spurt sophomore year as stuff that fit in january weirdly didn’t fit in may … by not changing ANYTHING. yeah.