Dining Hall Dilemmas  

What if I can’t find any food I like?

Be creative. If you don’t like the hot food offered, try to combine foods from different areas of the dining hall. For example, add a grilled chicken breast to a salad or veggies from the salad bar to a sandwich or a wrap. Many colleges have multiple dining halls that may serve different foods and meals. Try all the dining halls to figure out which ones you like best.

What if I’m a vegetarian?

Most colleges offer vegetarian entrees at all meals such as veggie burgers, stir fries, and pasta dishes. Create your own vegetarian meal at the salad or sandwich bar by adding protein-rich ingredients like cheese, eggs, hummus, beans, or peanut butter.

What if I have class during meals?

Food is the fuel your brain needs to help you think, so make time to eat. If you skip a meal, you may have trouble concentrating, get a headache, or feel like you didn’t get very much out of your class. Even if you can’t sit down for a full meal, pack a healthy portable snack such as fruit, trail mix, a granola or energy bar, or a sandwich.

How can I maintain good nutrition?

Try to eat a variety of foods and don’t skip meals. To get the most out of your meals, eat a balance of vegetarian proteins or lean meats, high fiber carbs, and healthy fats such as oils, nuts, and fish. The table below provides suggestions of foods to choose at meal times.

Instead Of: 

• Fried foods
• Refined grains (such as white bread and white rice)
• Whole milk
• French fries
• Sweetened drinks
• Sweetened desserts (such as cookies, cake, or ice cream)

Try: 

• Grilled or baked foods
• Whole grains (such as whole wheat bread and brown rice)
• Baked potato or sweet potato
• Water or seltzer
• Low-fat milk or soy milk
• Fruit

Nutrition 101: The Food Groups

Food Group/Benefits/Nutrition Tip

Dairy & Dairy Substitutes

• Build strong bones. Have a serving of low-fat dairy such as milk, cheese, yogurt, or pudding
• 3 times a day.

Grains

• Provide energy for muscles & brain.
• Include grains such as rice, pasta, and bread at every meal. Choose whole grain options as often as possible.

Fats

• Keep you feeling full.
• Include some fat such as olive oil, guacamole, nuts, or seeds at every meal.

Fruits & Vegetables

• Provide vitamins and minerals for healthy skin, hair, nails, and immune system.
• Try having at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables such as apples, broccoli, pears, carrots, squash, or salad per day.

Proteins

•  Maintain muscle.
• Try having fish, beans, eggs, tofu, peanut butter, chicken, or beef at 2 meals per day.

Using campus services can also help you maintain good nutrition. If you have any food allergies, food intolerances, or food preferences, talk to your campus food services director. Meet with your college nutritionist if you are experience weight or appetite changes.

Dorm Room Remedies

I have a meal plan, but always get hungry between meals and at night when I’m studying. What should I do?

Keep your room stocked with healthy snacks you can grab when you’re hungry, such as:

• Animal crackers
• Canned fruit
• Crackers
• Energy (or protein) bars
• Fresh fruit
• Granola bars
• High fiber cereal
• Nuts
• Oatmeal (packets)
• Pita bread
• Popcorn (try the single-serving bag)
• Pudding
• Soup
• Trail Mix
• Tuna fish

If you have a fridge, try:

• Baby carrots and celery
• Hummus
• String cheese
• Yogurt and smoothies
• Water, flavored seltzer waters, and low-fat milk

My friends order late night pizza, calzones, and wings. What should I do?

Don’t deny yourself food if you are craving it, but don’t over indulge either. Healthy eating is about moderation! If you eat regular meals throughout the day, you may still be a little hungry at night, so it is okay to eat a regular portion of these foods, such 1 or 2 slices of pizza, every once in a while.

Top 5 Healthy Eating Tips

Make Time for Meals - Eating 3 meals per day plus snacks will give you energy that will last all day and keep your metabolism active. Pack healthy portable snacks such as fruit or a granola bar when you’re on the go.

Balance Your Meals - Eating healthy meals that contain foods from at least 3 different food groups will help to ensure that you get all the nutrition you need to stay healthy. Be sure to eat different combinations of grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy, and healthy fats throughout the day.

Don’t forget Dairy - Your bones still need calcium to stay strong. Dairy foods and alternatives such as soymilk provide protein and vitamin D, as well as calcium.

Stay Hydrated - Proper hydration is important for healthy skin and organs. Drink water even if you are not thirsty. Waiting until you are thirsty to have fluids means you are already partially dehydrated. Pack a bottle of water in your backpack or gym bag.

Choose Appropriate Portions  - Food portions in restaurants are often more than one serving size and they’re getting bigger and bigger. You may not realize how much food you are actually eating. When you are at a restaurant, plan on taking half of your meal home or spilt an entrée with a friend. When eating at the dining hall, take smaller portions to start and go back for more if you are still hungry.

Top 5 Ways to Include Fitness in College Life

1. Walk or Bike to Class - Be active on the way to class instead of taking the bus or car.
2. Join an Intramural Sport - This is a fun way to meet new people and fit in exercise, too.
3. Go for a Walk with Friends - Stay fit and catch up with friends at the same time. Instead of taking a shortcut back to your dorm, take the scenic route and get in a little extra exercise.
4. Take a Fitness Class as a Course - This is a good way to include fitness into your routine and earn credit. Consider weight lifting or dancing.
5. Check out your College Gym - Most colleges have gyms or fitness centers that offer free or reduced price memberships. They may also offer classes such as yoga, cardio, kickboxing, and dancing.

As posted on Young Women’s Health.org

You’ve seen news reports about people who need assistance after a natural disaster or animals in need. Maybe you’ve walked past people who are living on the streets. Or perhaps you’ve watched TV programs about how lonely and isolated older people can get.So what can you do about any of those things, you ask? The answer: You can volunteer.

Volunteering gives you an opportunity to change people’s lives, including your own. If you’re feeling frustrated or overwhelmed by the news of a disaster, volunteering to help can be a great way to cope. If you’d like to support a cause but can’t afford to donate money, you can donate your time instead.

Helping others in need is such an important part of the American way of life that many high schools require their students to spend a certain number of hours volunteering in order to graduate.

So how do you go about it?

Find What’s Right for You
Volunteering isn’t like school: Instead of having the choices made for you about where to go and what subjects to learn, you get to pick. You can choose what really interests you and who (or what) is most deserving of your time.

If you like animals, help out at a local animal shelter. Most shelters depend on volunteers to keep the cats and dogs happy and well exercised. (And when you’re walking rescued dogs, it’s not just the pooches that get a workout - you benefit too!)

If you think you may be interested in politics, volunteering to help with a campaign is a great way to find out how things work on the inside. Even if you’re too young to vote, you can make a difference by helping on a political campaign - whether it’s for the president of the United States or your town mayor.

If you have a friend or relative who has or had a medical problem (like cancer, HIV, or diabetes, for example), you might be inspired to donate your time to help an organization that raises money for research, delivers meals, or offers other help to people with the illness.

If you like children, there are tons of volunteering opportunities - from being a Big Brother or Big Sister to helping out in an after-school sports program.

You also can:

serve food at a homeless shelter
volunteer to spend time at a retirement community
help out at your house of worship
take part in a park cleanup day
The possibilities are endless!

And if you have more than one thing you love, you can combine the two: For example, if you love kids and are great at arts and crafts, visit your local children’s hospital and offer to lead art activities for young patients.

Find What Fits Your Schedule
After you’ve discovered what interests you, decide how much time you want to spend and what fits into your schedule. Most organizations want volunteers to commit to giving them a set amount of time every week or two - it varies according to the organization.

But what if school, sports, or other commitments prevent you from devoting time every week? Many large organizations (especially those related to the environment or finding cures for diseases) have daylong activities that you can take part in once in a while. These include walkathons, bike rides, cleanup days, or building homes for those in need. Not only are these great ways to help, you can also get some exercise.

Expand Your Mind
Volunteering is a great way to learn new skills - from working as part of a team to setting and reaching goals. It gives you a chance to discover what kinds of things you’re best at and enjoy the most. A volunteer job that you love can even help shape your ideas about your career goals.

Volunteering also can provide you with a sense of responsibility because people really depend on you. And it can help you develop a new understanding of people who are different from you - people with disabilities, people in financial distress, sick kids, or the elderly.

As Posted on KidsHealth.org

High fuel prices and Hollywood hype made 2008 the year to “go green”. But we shouldn’t table efforts to reduce our impact on our planet just because the economy has soured. In fact, you can do a lot of things to be green and save green at the same time. In celebration of Earth Day, here are a few suggestions.

Stop using paper cups and plastic bottles. Now! Did you know that most paper coffee cups are lined with a non-biodegradable film (so the liquid doesn’t eat through the cup)? Some big coffee chains still use Styrofoam cups…even worse! If you invest in a reusable coffee mug, you’ll stop filling landfills with cups, and you may just save some cash. Starbucks gives you a $0.10 cent discount for bringing your own mug; our favorite local roaster here in Maine gives you $0.25 off. As for bottled water, paying $1.50 for stuff that you can get almost anywhere for free has never made much sense.

Unplug stuff. It’s so simple, and yet, I am so bad at it! My fiancée points out that the electricity bill has skyrocketed since I moved in. I’m working on it, I promise. The fact is, most electronics draw electricity even when they’re off. Be vigilant about unplugging things when they’re not in use (from microwaves to cell-phone chargers) and you could save up to $5 a month on your electric bill.

Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs. Although CFL bulbs are more expensive than old-fashioned incandescent bulbs, these super-energy efficient bulbs last up to 10 times longer and can save you up to 75% on lighting costs. Now that’s a bright idea! (Sorry; I couldn’t resist.)

Buy food locally. Join a local community supported agriculture (CSA) farm and support local farmers while getting fresh, healthy, often organic food for a fraction of the price of the supermarket. (Of course, you’ll have to commit to eating your share of fresh produce to make it cost-effective, but splitting the harvest with a few friends can be an easy solution).

Stop printing. Are you an over-printer? Do you print out e-mails? Directions? Articles? Save on pricey printer ink and paper by second-guessing yourself every time you print. Can you read something online or just jot a note down instead?

What are your favorite dual-action environment- and money-saving tips?

As Posted on Money Under 30

By Brian X. Chen 01.02.09

The iPhone alone is an amazing device. But it’s the phenomenal App Store that’s made the iPhone truly revolutionary, by giving thousands of independent developers the ability extend and transform the device with their creativity.

Not even half a year old, the store has surpassed a milestone of 10,000 pieces of software available. Since the beginning, Wired.com has paid close attention to the gems that shine among the dross.

We’ve plucked out a list of 10 apps - from mapping software to musical instruments to games - that deserve applause for their quality, innovation and breakthrough achievements. Here they are - Jay Leno style - with our top pick at the very bottom.

10. Stanza
A book reader that grabs free titles from public domains, Stanza has soared in popularity - making the iPhone a worthy competitor to Amazon’s Kindle. And if those free books aren’t enough, Stanza recently expanded to incorporate a store to purchase commercial titles. The app did a good job pleasing Wired.com’s Charlie Sorrel, who modified his Moleskine notebook so he could embed his iPod touch in it. (That way, he could read e-books at the cafe while exuding an aura of pretentious artiness, instead of pretentious geekiness.) (Free)

9. SayWhere
You get used to typing on the iPhone after some time, but punching in addresses to look up directions is by far the biggest drag. DialDirections was the first to introduce speech-recognition capabilities to the iPhone with SayWhere, which translates users’ speech into queries for Google Maps, Yelp, Traffic or Yellow Pages. It’s a nifty app, especially for keeping drivers’ eyes on the road rather than the iPhone’s virtual keyboard. (Free)

8. Tweetie
Twitter, a new form of micro-blogging, became more legitimate when it broke the news of the deadly Mumbai attacks. And Tweetie is the best app we’ve found to follow your Twitter friends. The app neatly separates Twitter feeds into categories, and the interface resembles the bubbly iChat interface that most of us have come to love. It even lets you search Twitter and save those searches for later. A must-have for Twitterholics. ($3)

7. NetShare
This app is so cool you can’t have it anymore. Nullriver’s NetShare, an application that turns your iPhone into a wireless modem, disappeared from the App Store shortly after its release. Later, we learned Apple banned the app because NetShare violated AT&T’s terms of service agreement. So only a lucky few (including some Wired.com staff) got the benefits of unlimited iPhone tethering, which normally costs about $30 a month, for a one-time price of $10. Bummer!

6. Shazam
Everyone’s familiar with this scenario: You hear a really catchy, unfamiliar song on the radio and you have no idea what it’s called. You hum it to yourself repeatedly and attempt to memorize the lyrics, only to forget it after slamming a few shots at the bar. Shazam will never leave you struggling to recollect these thoughts again: Hold the iPhone up to a speaker playing the unknown tune and the app will identify it - album, artist and song title - just like that. (Free)

5. Ocarina
The hottest music app in the App Store, Ocarina thought beyond the iPhone’s touchscreen and found a unique way to use the handset’s microphone. Blowing into the mic simulates the experience of tooting into a flute; you play around with four virtual “holes” on the screen to change the note. Ocarina users around the world can even hear what you’re playing in a globe mode. It takes a while to get a hang of it, but Ocarina gives away just how creative iPhone apps can get so long as developers have enough imagination. ($1)
4. TapTapRevenge
You’d have to be living on a different planet (or a retirement home) if you haven’t heard of Guitar Hero, the game that gets players to twitch their fingers compulsively along with the beat of their favorite songs. Developer Tapulous took the same idea to make an extremely addictive rhythm game called Tap Tap Revenge. Tapping blinking lights on a screen to catch tunes isn’t exactly the same as rocking out on plastic guitars and drum pads, but it’s still highly addictive. And Tap Tap Revenge is so popular it’s even offering the option to download new tracks to tap to, similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band’s music stores. (Free)

3. Trism
Trism is such an addictive and appealing game that it blessed its developer Steve Demeter with $250,000 in profit in just two months. And deservedly so, because the game’s really well designed and plays something like a Bejeweled with an accelerometer to move around the puzzle pieces. It wouldn’t be fair to call it one game, either: There are three different modes to keep you hooked. ($3)

2. Pandora
Whoa whoa whoa - free downloaded music on a portable device? You don’t say. Pandora’s alternative music distribution made this happen, and the app is cool as hell on the iPhone. Add a station for an artist you like, and the app will play that artist’s music as well as similar tunes you might like. What better way to find new music with the wealth of new bands out there? (Free)

1. Google Earth
When Steve Jobs called the iPhone “Your life in your pocket,” he probably didn’t expect Google to deliver the world in your pocket. Well, virtually. Displaying satellite imagery around the world in a 3-D globe, Google Earth is one of the most intense, mindblowing apps that truly shows off the powers of the iPhone. If you want to impress your grandmother with a demonstration of just how far technology has come since she was a girl, this ought to do the trick. (Free)

As see on Wired.com

Being a college student usually means living and surviving on a cheap budget. Some of you may be pretty good at pinching your pennies and getting by, while others take out student loans and get themselves further into debt. Either way, all of us could use some additional advice and ideas on stretching our dollar just a bit further.

Check out these 50 ideas on ways to save money:

FOOD & DRINK

• Learn how to cook your own meals, it’s healthier and you’ll save money.
• Don’t get a meal plan, the cafeteria food isn’t usually that great anyways.
• Bring your own snacks/water to class instead of buying them on campus. Stay away from vending machines.
• Bring your own lunch to school. If you do it right, you can usually make it a healthier lunch than what is offered in the cafeteria.
• If you have a meal plan, actually use it.
• Eat Ramen Noodles.
• Don’t get soda when you go out to eat.
• Don’t go to Starbucks.
• Buy food in bulk. Get a Costco card with your roommates and get bulk discounts.
• Find events on campus that offer free food for attending. Follow those “Free Pizza” signs!

HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES

• Have a roommate (so you can split expenses).
• Shop at Walmart, Dollar Stores, and thift stores.
• Shop at garage sales on the weekends for any household items you may need.
• Put on more layers of clothing instead of turning up the heat.
• Buy generic brand items.

TEXTBOOKS

• Buy used textbooks.
• Buy textbooks online. Maybe even consider buying the e-book version of the textbook.
• Check the library for your required books, you may get lucky!
• Sell back your textbooks.

TRANSPORTATION

• Use public transportation. Being a college student, you can usually ride for free or at a reduced rate.
• Don’t get a car. They are a huge expense and cost a lot in insurance and gas.
• Ride your bike. Except for commuter students, no one needs a car on campus for daily use.
• Live close to campus and use the campus shuttles to save on gas.

ENTERTAINMENT

• Instead of hitting the clubs, try and find house parties.
• Keep an eye out for free activities on campus. Most college campuses have free entertainment almost every night. For example: some colleges have a weekly movie night that is free to all students.
• Borrow movies from the library. The library has a large collection of movies for students to check out.

COLLEGE EXPENSES

• Fill out the FAFSA every year.
• Take a look at your college bill. Certain fees are optional. If you won’t be using your college’s fitness center, remove the fee.
• Depending on dorm prices, it may be cheaper just to get an apartment.
• Don’t buy anything from the school’s bookstore. Some of the prices they charge are outrageous.
• Go to a community college and get your core classes completed, then transfer to a 4-year college for required classes for your degree. Make sure all your credits will transfer.
• Do not use student loans for anything that is not school related. It’s tempting to rack up your credit and loans, knowing you’ll eventually pay it back. However, you have no idea how the economy will look when you graduate and you don’t want to be in massive debt while job searching.
• Test out of classes. For a small fee you can usually take a test to fulfill certain class requirements. Think of the cost you’ll save on tuition.
• Finish in three years if you can.
• Apply for financial aid early.
• Get good grades so you qualify for certain (typically merit-based) grants and scholarships.
• Work as a Resident Advisor and get free room and board.
• Take as many credits as allowed every term.
• Research your school for scholarships. That means taking a look at the website, contacting the admissions office, scholarship office, and faculty to see what’s available. Use every resource you have to get the big scholarships while keeping your eyes open for smaller, but still substantial ones. Look for scholarships in the area of your major. Most professional organizations will have scholarships to encourage students to stay in that field.
• Take advantage of student services. There are plenty of free programs that assist you while going to school. From health care to transportation, there are many different ways to save money.
• Take advantage of things that are already paid for, such as on-campus meals and library services.
• Get a job first and have your employer pay for your schooling.

MONEY TIPS

• Only buy what you need. Don’t buy on impulse.
• Don’t get a credit card. It’s not necessary and you’ll end up paying a high interest rate.
• If you do decide to keep a credit card on hand, pay for things with cash as much as you can. Don’t run up credit card bills for trivial things.
• Open up a savings account that earns interest.
• Keep track of everything you spend. It really helps to know what you have coming in and going out.
• Take advantage of student discounts.
• Not only should you try to save money, but you should also try to make money! Get a campus job. There are several jobs that have very little responsibility, believe it or not, and many times you can do your homework during this time. There are typically many jobs available on campus and most are pretty flexible with your class schedule.

As posted on Campus Grotto