[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. This month, Emmy gave up meat. She tried (and loved) new things, she tried (and didn't love so much) some others. She felt great. And now she's done. Let's see what she's learned, shall we?]

October is finally almost over, and while I am frantically scrambling to come up with another costume for tonight, I am also thrilled that I am only one day away from being done with my meatless month. I can’t believe it’s been a month since my last beefy indulgence. I am really surprised by how well I did and the fact that I didn’t have even a morsel of meat during this whole time.

Being meatless has been a great way to shake things up and make sure that I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. A bunch of my girlfriends were talking at dinner the other night about how one girl had been vegetarian for a while, and she actually GAINED weight because all she ate was carbs. That has definitely not been my experience at all. October has been an insanely busy week with academics, and I haven’t had enough time to work out as often as I regularly do. Yet not only have I not gained weight, I lost some! I don’t own a scale, but I can feel it in my clothes. Losing weight was in no way my goal in going meatless, but it’s not a bad side effect at all!

While I might not ever learn to like tofu, I have definitely expanded the variety of foods that I eat. Morningstar Farms Chik’n Nuggets (SO GOOD!) are something that will definitely stay on my regular grocery shopping list, as will the mass amounts of fruits and vegetables I’ve been buying. Read More »

This post provided by college nutritionist, author, and all around excellent source of healthful info, Melanie Jatsek.

Campus dining halls are amazing places.  Besides a Las Vegas buffet, where else can you find Chinese food, Mexican food, and a pasta, deli, salad and dessert bar all in one room?  They are amazing, but amazing doesn’t always equal good for you.  Sometimes it can be down right challenging to navigate through the lines and find something that isn’t fried or covered in some sort of sauce.  To make it easy for you, here are the top 5 dining hall food traps to watch out for. Some may surprise you!

Wraps or Burritos:

You’re probably wondering why.  Most tortillas used to make wraps and burritos contain trans fats (trans fatty acids), which are even worse for you than saturated fats!  The scary thing about them is, they make their way into your brain and disrupt communication between your brain cells.  It’s sort of like when you use your cell phone to call your friend’s cell phone and the two of you keep dropping the call – you can’t seem to make a connection!  The only way to tell for sure if a tortilla contains trans fats is by looking at the nutrition facts label on the package for the words “partially hydrogenated oils.”  Obviously you can’t do this in your dining hall, so you may want to ask the food service staff to take a peak for you. Read More »

Nearly every first year student worries about putting on the dreaded “freshman fifteen” upon entering college, which makes the dining hall and food options offered by a university a major focal point of conversation among its student body. While most colleges across the nation have a variety of options in their dining hall and the students are satisfied, a lot of colleges simply suck in the food programs they provide for their students. However, while those programs may not be ideal for the student body, administrations often work with students to get insight into creating better menus, offering more variety, and improving overall healthiness of the food.

My university is not one of those schools that eagerly works to improve the situation in the dining hall, even though it is overwhelmingly a huge issue on campus.

From day one, I have heard nothing but complaints from my peers, and even my professors – and now, two and a half years later, complaints and concerns of the dining program (created by Sodexho – a program which works with many schools across the nation) still circulate on a day-to-day basis.

As a campus, Hollins students are indisputably guilty for interminable complaining about the issues with Sodexho as a program and the administration taking responsibility (or lack thereof) for student concerns over food issues, but I don’t blame anyone for their incessant pressure on trying to improve the situation. Hollins doesn’t offer a varying meal plan; its unlimited access to the dining hall from breakfast until the cafeteria closes at 7pm binds students to the meal-plan, making getting off the meal plan nearly impossible. Read More »