I've lost almost 20 lbs so far, eating nearly every meal in my college's all you can eat dining hall. Our food service provider is a small company so I don't have accurate calorie counts for anything, but with estimates and a few simple rules I've been eating pretty normally but still losing at a fast rate. By my loseit log, I'm eating 1400 calories most days. I put off weight loss until spring senior year because I had no idea how to do it while on a full meal plan, but it's been easier than I expected.
Here's my non dining hall meal options:
- Breakfast - either I sleep through it or I eat low-fat Greek yogurt in my room with an ounce of almonds (always weigh your nuts). Occasionally I make two "fried" eggs in my microwave and put them on two slices of low calorie bread with some hot sauce.
- Morning/afternoon snack/coffee - I get a cup of coffee daily with a splash of cream and a packet of sugar. If there's fresh strawberries at our cafe I buy them, too. Switching from lattes to regular coffee has saved me so much money.
- Cafe lunch - If I don't make it to the dining hall or if my lunch is early and my dinner is late, I grab a package of sushi from our cafe. It's usually marked as 300 calories or so, and I get a hot tea to go with it. I used to get wraps from here until I discovered that my favorite wrap was 900 calories.
- Frozen meals - I eat a healthy choice brand frozen meal if I feel hungry late at night. They have salt and some preservatives but they really helped me kick my midnight vending machine/popcorn/dominos/doordash habit. My overspending on delivery was a big problem for me, and keeping prepared meals around is saving me a ton of money.
Here's my strategy for my 2 dining hall meals per day:
- I look up the day's options on the online menu before going and plan what entree I will get. This helps me avoid the "nothing looks good, I'll get pizza" trap.
- I get an entree with one serving of protein and one serving of carbohydrates. This is usually a small bowl of rice and stir-fry, a grain and legumes from the vegan station, chicken breast and quinoa from the grill and the salad bar, or a hamburger. I only eat one serving of carbs per meal, so if, say, the vegan station is serving both couscous and pita, I only get one of those. I don't get fries.
- I log my entrees by looking up Sodexo/Aramark listings that are similar ingredients and eyeballing my carbs (trying to err on the side of overestimating). I know it's a different recipe and that serving sizes vary, but my estimates have been close enough on average. If I get a burger I track condiments.
- After getting my entree, I get a big plate and go to the salad bar for veggies. I get 1-2 cups of veggies per meal, including 1 cup of leafy greens per day. I don't get cheese, croutons, or dressing - my side salad is usually a pile of spinach with a drizzle of balsamic (no olive oil). I love crunchy snacking veggies, so cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli are common. I log my veg to keep track of how many servings I've had, but besides carrots and tomatoes the calories are negligible.
- Sometimes I have roasted veg from one of the hot stations. This counts towards the veg per meal. I log this for the oil.
- I used to have a bad habit of going back and getting dessert every meal. Now I finish my savory food and go back and get a piece of fresh fruit. I always log my fruit.
This pattern tends to leave me with an extra 100-200 calories at the end of the day. I either measure out nuts or eat a 100 calorie skinny cow ice cream sandwich. I also rotate my fruit and veg to get a variety of nutrients and flavors. I aim to eat legumes a few times a week and get sushi at least twice a week for the health benefits of fish. I limit red meat to 2x per week. These goals come from reading about the health benefits of the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet and trying to incorporate some aspects of those eating patterns into my week. I also try to make half of my grains whole grains.
This pattern gets me a good variety of flavors and textures as well as a good volume of food, while also not doing anything particularly "weird" in the dining hall. I do CICO but by focusing on eating a wide variety of nutritious food, I find it much easier to sustain and I'm sure eating like this is good for my overall health.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/K6A3gWo
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