Appliances to invest in as a student living on campus

Do you find it hard to eat healthy on campus because there are more unhealthy food options to choose from? Why not make a healthy meal in your room? It’s easy; you will need to invest in a kitchen appliance. Did you just say that you don't have money as a student? This will depend on what you love making because there are many affordable appliances. If you have roommates, invest in kitchen appliances together as a house.  Some of these appliances and tools include a rice cooker, smoothie blender, electric kettle, fridge, paring knife and a can opener.

1. Smoothie Blender- If you love smoothies you might definitely want to consider getting a personal blender which makes it possible to make smoothies in little or no time. It is small, portable and can fit into your backpack. Smoothies are very filling and packed with nutrients. Taking a smoothie can carry you through your morning till you can finally make time to get lunch. Smoothie Blenders can cost $15 and up depending on its quality.

2. Rice Cooker- This appliance cooks rice, vegetables, oatmeal, sauces and stews. On average it takes 20-30 minutes but it doesn't require your attention so you can study while you cook. It has a thermostat that triggers when it’s done.Price for rice cookers range from $20 and up.

What's in your food environment?

Your food environment includes all the things around you that involve what you decide to put in your body (i.e. eat!). Of course the food environment that we first think of is the kitchen. What's in your kitchen was already discussed on a previous post.

What we choose to surround ourselves directly effects what we put in our bodies. If your dorm room is filled with munchies like potato chips and cookies – that’s what you will end up eating. If you fill your environment with healthy food then that’s what you will end up eating. Seems simple but here's where it gets complicated.

A Motivational interview with Lola Adeshina

Lola has been my friend and classmate for the past 6 months and I have to say her well rounded and motivated attitude has been an inspiration. Lola has been on her healthy eating journey for 2 years, I decided I would like to interview her to find out the deets on how she does it. We sit down in our learning team room and of course she has a healthy looking smoothie and smile. 

Why did you begin your healthy eating journey?

I began this journey mainly because I started running into a lot of health issues and made the decision to start an overall healthy lifestyle to avoid further problems with my health, so I started out with clearing my refrigerator of any bad foods, ever since then I have noticed a huge difference in my health and never looked back.

What do you enjoy about eating healthy?

It makes me feel good! I wake up feeling energized, my skin feels refreshed and nourished. I find that when I don’t eat healthy I tend to be less happy... also, who wouldn’t love the perks of an acne-free face (she chuckles). Eating healthy allows me to be organized in the sense that I can have healthy prepared meals for my long days at work, instead of worrying about what to eat or even worse- what is going into my body.

What has been the biggest challenge of eating healthy?

Temptations! I don’t believe anyone that says they’d rather have kale chips than chocolate and ice cream on a bad day.

Get Motivated, Eat Healthy

Get Motivated: Eat Healthy

                      

Health Motivation Key 1: Set Realistic Goals to achieve success

The first step to any plan is the most crucial one. Planning the right, achievable goal as per your capacities would predict the long term success. The goal can be achieved by taking small steps time to time. stick to the goals and stay organized. If you set unattainable goals, you're setting yourself towards failure. Instead, you'll be more likely to stick with a diet if you focus on your health and create sensible eating strategies. Setting smaller, attainable benchmarks, like not skipping breakfast for one week, will give you the confidence to continue.

Health Motivation Key 2: Be a part of Buddy System

It's hard to make major behaviour changes when you are swimming upstream by yourself. Finding buddies and involving them in your plans by setting similar goals can greatly improve chances of success. When your spirit starts falling down, having people to call on can provide the support you need to continue. Having a support group to move ahead with, whether it's friends or people from classroom, can make all the difference for diet success.

Motivate Yourself

You’ve been thinking about eating healthy, I know it because otherwise you wouldn’t be here reading this blog. Eating healthy is a lifestyle that we know is good for us but it’s so hard to get motivated sometimes. LISTEN UP motivation won’t come to you by simply waiting around long enough. The sky isn’t going to open up and pour a dose of motivation over you. It will not magically appear just because you need it. You have to dig deep within you and pull it out. You have to wrestle away excuses and find desire, I know you have it in you, we all do!

Motivation craves to be chased. It requires you to make an active choice to pursue and tackle it. Then you must stay the course and impose your will on it. It’s hard at first but overtime eating healthy will become part of your lifestyle.

Lifestyle seems too far away right now, I get it. So lets find ways to take small steps and start with a plan of attack. Set goals that are specific and accomplishable (check out our previous blog on SMART goals) and talk to yourself in proactive terms. Rather than making sure that you do NOT do some thing, tell yourself what you WILL do. For example, tell yourself that you will eat fruits rather than that you cannot eat fries. Then write it down. Cement what you want to accomplish in visible words and put this somewhere you can see it daily to remind you of your commitment to yourself.

Go ahead and celebrate your small wins. No matter how tiny it might seem, it is al a part of the bigger picture and you deserve to be celebrated. Get excited, be in the right frame of mind, think positive and allow yourself to smile.

Confession of a dine-out-holic

So I have a confession to make. I love eating at restaurants and trying out different types of cuisines. It’s is amazing the variety of food I can try by eating out.  I can try Ethiopian one day and Japanese another.  It’s like traveling through different cultures in a short period of time in the same city. I get to learn more about what an injera is and how to eat it; I get to taste different types of ramen dunk in deliciously rich bone soup.  As an individual that values learning about different cultures, dining out has been a great teacher to me.

 Brunch

 Mexican

 Filipino

Fast food

Living in an urban city with a big University population made me dine out more often. It’s a social event. If I haven’t seen someone for a long time, I would meet up with them for lunch or dinner and grab a bite. I also enjoy trying new restaurants because being adventurous is part of being a dine-out-holic. Students get influenced by the social norms of our peer group all the time.  It has been shown that friends are an influential model agents with food selection (Kinard et al., 2011). So if your friends are eating unhealthy food, you’re most likely going to be engaging in the same behavior.  

Kale “The Queen of Greens”

Kale has many great benefits. It’s a high fiber vegetable that aids in the digestion and elimination of toxic waste from the body. With nutrients like vitamins, iron, calcium folate and magnesium¹; It’s no wonder why kale is considered a great detox and anti-inflammatory food filled with powerful antioxidants.²

How to Eat Kale

It can be difficult to eat green vegetables at times so it’s best to know different ways of preparing them. Here are some great ways to eat kale with a smile on your face.

Sauté it: Sprinkle some olive oil and a little bit of salt. Cook on low heat for about 5 minutes. The leaf is tougher so don’t worry about it getting soft and losing the nutrients.