What are the first words you think of when you think of college food? Cheesy? Greasy? Carb-loaded? Do you ever think of how healthy your college diet is? Probably not. And if you do, it’s in a “See? I’m eating vegetables….on my 3am deep dish pizza that I’m dipping in ranch and washing down with a Natty Ice” sorta way.

While most college campuses provide healthy options, it’s almost impossible to get all the nutrients you need daily. Because let’s be honest: what’s more appealing? A bacon cheeseburger, or a garden salad with dressing on the side?

But because of that (and the many other poor choices we make for our bodies) there is a serious vitamin deficiency in the diets of college girls. And it’s during this time that a girl needs all the vitamins she can get! So here’s a quick list of all the nutrients you must be getting daily to live stress-free and healthy!

Vitamin A: You can get this vitamin by eating liver, orange fruits and vegetables like cantaloupe and carrots and sweet potatoes, and dark green leafy vegetables like kale and collards and spinach. Vitamin A is crucial to eyesight and healthy skin.

Read More »

"Cheers to spending an extra 40 minutes on a Spin bike this week!"

Let’s all have a “come to Jesus” (or in my case, Moses) moment here and get real for a minute. Have you ever really thought about how many calories you consume in a single night of fun?

We all know that drinking adds extra calories. I mean, how many times have we heard someone tell us “If you want to lose weight, cut out alcohol”? But let’s face it, for a lot of us, that is pretty much asking us to give up going to college.

So what do we do? We make up for our weekend activities by making cuts in our week day diets.  But much like we underestimate how many shoes we have in our closest when debating a new purchase of totally adorable must-have-them-now sparkly pumps, we also tend to underestimate how much we’re actually drinking/eating on the weekends. We factor in our estimated calories in a very sober state, often forgetting what happens when we transition from sober to, well, not so much.

– Are you thinking about all those extra beers you drank when everyone decided to play flip-cup?

– Do you think about the gallon of Gatorade you chugged after you downed nearly a bottle of tequila?

– Do you even remember the small pizza you ate when you got home…in bed… as your roommates force-fed you water?

Yes, we’ve all been there and we all know what it’s like to drink/eat more than we anticipated and then be frustrated when it shows in the scale the following week. So here is some drink for thought: If you don’t want to pack on the extra pounds in college, you gotta be realistic about how much you’re really going to drink/eat on your nights out and make up for those extra calories somewhere else during the week.

Let me break it all down for ya and offer some healthy ways to offset that “MOST EPIC SATURDAY NIGHT, EVER!”

If you are a fan of Oprah you are quite familiar with her friend, Dr. Mehmet Oz. Oprah counts on him to enlighten her (and all of us) on everything from getting rid of stinky feet to what a tapeworm looks like.

Yum.

Well, Dr. Oz has a daughter and she is awesome. She also happens to be an expert in healthy living in college and shares her expertise with you in her book, “The Dorm Room Diet.”

The Freshman 15 has no chance when you have Daphne Oz on your side.

She will be guest blogging with us this week and sharing great tips for surviving the cafeteria and fitting workouts in between all that partying studying.

If you are struggling with the free ice cream in the caf., stick around – Daphne’s got your back.