Tag Archives: healthy

The Right Way to Snack

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Our "Snack Box"

Every college student is familiar with the art of snacking.  Whether you’re studying into the late hours of the night or you’re too lazy to get out of bed to walk to the dining hall, keeping snacks in your dorm room is key.  Like most people on my hall, my roommate and I have a “snack box” where we store our favorite foods and goodies (see above).

What’s in our ‘snack box’? 

  • Quaker Oatmeal
  • Skippy and Jiff Peanut Butter
  • Nature Valley Granola Bars
  • Crackers
  • Chocolate covered blueberries
  • Macaroni and Cheese
  • Campbell’s soup
  • Popcorn
  • Pretzels
  • Candy: sour patch kids, Reese’s peanut butter cups

Now that you’ve had a sneak peak into the types of food my roommate and I keep in our room, you might be wondering if we’ve gained 50 pounds since the start of the school year.  Not to worry!  I have come up with a few tricks to avoid overeating and snacking unhealthily:

1)    It’s all about moderation.

  • It’s okay to indulge in your favorite unhealthy snacks…once in awhile.  If you keep them in your room you need to have enough self-restraint not to overindulge.  Someone who can’t help but devour pounds of candy in one sitting should only keep fresh and healthy options in their “snack box.”

2)    Avoid vending machines.

  • Junk food lives inside of vending machines.  It hangs out in there for days at a time, waiting for someone to press a few buttons to rescue it from its glass cage.  These snacks are processed, artificial, stale and unhealthy.  Let’s be honest, after numerous trips to the vending machine, you will be getting fatter as your wallet gets thinner!

3)    Choose drinks from Starbucks wisely.

  • Whenever I go to Starbucks I am always tempted to order a delicious iced frappuccino drink topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.  However, a Grande blended mocha frappuccino has 278 calories.  The calories in one frappuccino are equal to the calories in 697 ml of beer and 149 grams of ice cream!  This website displays different foods that equal approximately 300 calories.  Next time you go to Starbucks order a tall non-fat Caffè Latte (100 calories) or a Tazo Tea (0 calories).

4)    Ziploc bags are your best friend.

  • After the first few weeks of school I realized that what I missed most about my kitchen at home was the easy access I had to fresh fruit and vegetables.  As a result, I started to bring small Ziploc bags to the dining hall to collect fruit such as grapes, pineapple and melon slices as well as fresh watermelon.  I also filed the bags with veggies from the salad bar section like celery sticks, carrots, fresh cherry tomatoes, cubed squash, corn and olives.  Soon enough my dorm room fridge was stocked with fresh fruit and vegetables to snack on!  This also saved me a ton of money because I utilized the food from the dining hall instead of paying money at the grocery store.

5)    Make homemade trail mix.

  • A great way to satisfy hunger during the day is to carry a small Ziploc bag filled with nuts, granola, dried fruit and chocolate chips.  All of these ingredients can be purchased at the local grocery store and it is super easy to assemble individual bags in the morning before class.