It’s no secret that our diets affect the way we feel. If you spend a night binge studying and suppressing your late-night stressors with copious amounts of mozz sticks, you (and your brain) will not feel fresh and new. Instead, you will probably feel a bit sluggish, full, bloated, and fat. Not the sexiest feeling for a young college girl.

I’m certainly not ruling out this kind of behavior. Personally, I enjoy dabbling with fried food every Sunday afternoon in an effort to kick my hangover. But, this type of eating can really mess up many students’ digestive systems, causing them to complain about stomach pain, inconsistency, and constipation. In high school my friends and I were in club “we don’t poop” and now in college my friends are I are in  club “does anyone have any gasX?”.

There are various cure-alls to such issues. A healthy diet is numero uno on that list. Followed by various other tips. Although this site provides some great advice for healthy digestion, not all of it is feasible for college students. I mean, if I could keep my stress down, I obviously would. On that note, if I could date Josh Duhamel, I obviously would. But, constantly maintaining a low stress level during college is practically equivalent on the possibility scale to me and Josh getting together.

So, here are CollegeCandy’s 6 tips for college students to maintain healthy digestion:

Healthy Diet means to be sure to incorporate roughage (lots of vegetables and greens) in order to keep things moving in your digestive tract. Also, stay away from processed foods. They’re full of chemicals and unnatural products that your body simply will not agree with. Look for food with high fiber.

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[For this week's Body Blog, we're turning to our friend and college nutritionist Melanie Jatsek to help a reader in need. Though we're pretty sure the girl who wrote in isn't the only one with this problem....]

Dear College Candy,

Thank you so much for your topics on health and fitness. As a college student, I feel very self-conscious about my body, and it causes a great deal of self-esteem issues. Especially around midterms, eating binges for me are fairly common.  What is the best way to prevent this?  Also, I live with two boys who eat WHATEVER they want… how do I avoid eating what they eat??

Thank You,
Binging Betty

Dear Binging Betty,

When you’re tired, you sleep.  When you’re thirsty, you drink.  When you’re hungry, stressed, sad, or bored…you eat!  Get the picture?

Food is medicine for the body, but often times we eat it to self-medicate.  We aren’t self-medicating with carrots sticks either – it’s more like M&M’s, chips and ice cream.  This doesn’t make you a bad person, it makes you human!  When it occurs too often, however, it can lead to food binges.  Depression, guilt, name-calling and a zap in your energy level are usually the result.

The two best ways to stop your food binge:  Plan your plate and follow the 80-20 rule. Read More »

[Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? A really rad singer? A wicked new book? A chic and cheap clothing line? Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com or tweet me and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, every week. Make your kindergarten teacher proud and share!]

Here is a totally random piece of info that I bet you didn’t know about.

It’s that time of year where we realize perhaps we’ve eaten a bit too much late night cheesy bread and we want to start losing some of the extra poundage so we look good in our skinny jeans by Thanksgiving weekend, lest our 8th grade crush see the dreaded muffin top eating all those pumpkin chocolate chip muffins has created.

So here’s a tip: Start cooking with coconut oil!

Seriously.

I know it sounds counter-intutive to use oil for weight loss, but coconut oil (available at any health food store) has been known to help with weight loss! Coconut oil is very useful in reducing weight because it contains medium-chain fatty acids. MCFA’s, unlike other fats, are digested and utilized differently. They do not circulate in the bloodstream like other fats, but are sent directly to the liver where they are immediately converted into energy – just like a carbohydrate. So when you eat coconut oil, the body uses it immediately to make energy rather than store it as body fat. It is also easy to digest and it helps in healthy functioning of the thyroid and enzymes systems. Not to mention, it actually helps your body’s metabolism, kicking it into high gear! Read More »

[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's going 31 days without beef. Or chicken. Or turkey. Or....you get the idea. Last week's attempts at tofu didn't go so well, so how did she fare this week?]

Okay, so it’s been kind of a busy fall season so far, and I haven’t had a ton of time (read: any time where I wasn’t either studying or drinking) to call home (delinquent daughter… whoops!). Anyway, my family had no idea that I was going meatless for a month, and I just mentioned it in passing to my mom on the phone, and she laughed. She thought I was joking.

To be fair, my mom knows that I LOVE meat, and so she was really concerned that something was wrong because there was no other plausible explanation in her mind as to why else I would stop eating it. So after some intense mother calming (during which I was chowing down on some delicious hummus), and multiple reassurances that I was still getting plenty of protein and not about to pass out at any moment, my mom finally let up on the whole issue. Read More »

Nom nom nom.

[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. Last month we followed Meredith on her quest to give up junk food. This month, Emmy's going 31 days without beef. Or chicken. Or turkey. Or....you get the idea.]

Let me start off by saying that I love meat. Like a lot. If I could eat a steak for every meal, I would. And if it weren’t gross to bathe in burger meat, I’d probably do that too. (Don’t judge.)

So why on earth would I give it up for a month? Surprisingly, I have loads of reasons. First, I was inspired by the Vegan/Vegetarian club here at Loyola and their participation in Meatless Mondays, the idea being that we can all improve our health by just giving up meat one day a week. That got me thinking: if I could get healthier by trading out meat just once a week, imagine what I could do if I cut back even more? And seeing that it might not be that hard, I thought I’d go full throttle.

I want to go meatless to see what it’s like, how it makes me feel, and how it makes me look. I am also hoping it will inspire me to stop eating ice cream and chips for meals and actually do some real cooking.

For me, going meatless for a month is a drastic change, but one that I’m excited to try.

The benefits of not eating meat seem to be endless, not to mention that the less animal products you eat, the more the health benefits increase. As I’ve had it explained to me by real, full-time vegetarians, vegetarianism is not eating meat (obvi), fish, or eggs. Some (AKA vegans) even give up all dairy and anything that might have an animal product in it. To just give it a try though, they recommended that I start slow by just eliminating meat. Read More »

[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. And this month Meredith is giving up junk food. Yes, really. Her first week was good. Great, even. Then life got in the way. She began turning things around last week, and now it's time to see what this month taught her.]

It goes without saying that this month didn’t go according to plan for me, but interestingly, I think I learned a lot more than I had originally expected.

I created this challenge for myself, as I stated in week one, to figure out a way to cope with my problems that didn’t involve eating junk food. Going in, I was struggling with boyfriend and family problems that had been causing me to eat random sweets that I’m not sure I was even enjoying. I wrongly assumed that this pattern would continue. Instead, I lost my interest in food completely when my boyfriend and I broke up.

This has been such an interesting journey for me in so many ways, especially because I went through different phases throughout the month. I started with a sweet tooth, then I transitioned into a complete distaste for any food, but now I am accepting the fact that I have to work food into my daily routine. This is why I will not be giving up junk food again. I have a very different perspective on it now, mostly because now I’m not dreading my cravings. They are what they are, and if I make the right choices most of the time, those (wonderful) moments with mozzarella sticks won’t be such a big deal. Read More »

[Meet Margaret, a freshman at Yale. We've been checking in with her every week to see what she's doing, who she's meeting, and what new college surprises she's tackling (or freaking out about) as she embarks on the journey we call college. Or as I like to call it, the best thing since dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter cups.]

At my old high school, we were never served veggie burgers, nor did we have to choose between vegan and non-vegan options in the cafeteria. I’m from Cincinnati, a city that boasts about its chili (which is really just a runny sauce on top of noodles…). Needless to say, the infinitesimal number of students who identified with vegetarianism at my school only did so for religious reasons. And some of them cheated.

Keeping that in mind, entering the dining hall at my college was like entering the land of some kind of lotus-eating, vegetarian haven, or, in my case, a carnivore’s personal version of hell. It’s not that they don’t serve meat; they do. But they also serve various other reinterpretations of meat: tofu ravioli, lentil hamburgers, vegan minestrone soup.

Upon seeing these, I became bitter and questioned why tofu ravioli was necessary when ravioli is obviously meant to be stuffed with beef and cheese (at least according to my man, Chef Boyardee). Didn’t all the vegetarians here realize what they were missing out on? Chicken tenders and steak? Bacon and sausage links? What was the point of all this? It’s not like one vegetarian will directly save the life of a cow or singlehandedly better animal welfare. Vegetarianism is pointless. Read More »

[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. And this month Meredith is giving up junk food. Yes, really. Her first week was good. Great, even. Then life got in the way. This week, she's turning things around.]

I ate mozzarella sticks. And I’m not ashamed.

Not much has changed since my tough week last week. I’m still adjusting to the single life, which I love more and more every day.  The nausea is the only thing that has really persisted, which means that I will unfortunately probably have to see a doctor just to make sure that nothing is medically wrong with me. Though I’m convinced it’s nothing more than the residual effects of Lady Gaga’s meat dress. Ew, I don’t even like thinking about it. Even if she was wearing a lean protein.

So finally on Tuesday, I felt up for a late night snack at the dining hall. The good news is the mozzarella sticks smelled like heaven. The bad news is they definitely did nothing for my post-breakup bouts of nausea. I could have sworn that they would have healing powers, that I’d take one bite and instantly feel happy and free and content. But alas, I woke up the next morning as sick as ever. I’m definitely not mad at myself for eating them, though. If everything this month had gone according to plan and I was eating like Jillian Michaels every day, then I probably would be pissed at myself for eating disgusting fried cheese mid-month. But, that’s not the case and if anything, I needed the calories. Read More »

[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. Last month we followed Ariel as she went a(n almost) full month sans Facebook. This month Meredith is giving up junk food. Yes, really. Her first week was good. Great, even. This week, though, life sorta got in her way....]

I had a vision in my head for how this month would go. I would give up junk food, be healthier, maybe slip up once or twice, but succeed overall. I would end the month being skinny, beautiful, and confident. My life situation would remain the same; it would be ME that changed.

I made a very big lapse in judgment. As Knocked Up taught us, “life doesn’t care about your plans.”

My boyfriend and I broke up Saturday night. I WOULD publicize all of the fun details, but Destiny’s Child put it best when they said, “You know I’m not gonna diss you on the Internet, cause my momma told me better than that.” Now, before you start to pity me, don’t. I am much happier and I have so many amazing people around me constantly. I adore being single again (some think maybe even too much…).

But I do have a confession. My friend and I ate some ice cream on Saturday night. The truth is that it didn’t make anything better, obviously. We ended up walking four miles that night on our quest for lots of fresh air, which, in my opinion, cancels out the ice cream. Judge for yourself. I immediately was junk-food-free again on Sunday. Read More »

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

Do you eat when you’re not hungry?  Sure, we all do to some degree!  Food is one of the necessities of life, but it’s also a source of comfort for those times when you are feeling sad, stressed, homesick, angry, or [insert emotion here].  This occasional indulgence usually isn’t a problem, but when you start responding to every emotion with food it becomes a problem in more than one way.  Can you say weight gain and feelings of zero willpower?  You did just eat that entire bag of Lay’s Potato Chips after all!

It’s time to stop beating yourself up.  So you slipped up and let your stress get the best of you – so what?  Forgive yourself and move on.  But what if it happens again, you ask?  What are you supposed to do the next time you are struck with a bout of good old-fashioned homesickness?

Follow the three steps below to learn how not to eat your feelings. Read More »