Staying Healthy Student Style
- Ciara Litchfield
- Jul 24, 2015
- 4 min read
Your first year at Uni can be tough as well as exciting. It’s a time of change and that means you need to alter your routine. Usually at home you will have a fridge and freezer full of shopping that you didn’t have to think about and many meals made for you.
Cooking your own meals can be hard enough let alone shopping for all your food as well. When you’re shopping and cooking for 1 you often skip the healthy home cooked options in favour of a ready to go alternative. Often these are lacking on the nutrition side. Maintaining a healthy diet on a budget isn’t easy but you will feel and look better if you get into the habit of cooking from fresh. Most ‘fresher’s’ pile on the pounds during the first year due to an increase in alcohol intake so curbing other high fat and calorie meals is important.
This article covers how to be a savvy shopper without sacrificing your beer money.
Top Tips:
Buy in bulk – Bulk buying works out cheaper. Buying a large bag of pasta is an obvious one but also going for family packs of chicken works out better. Split larger packs of meat into portions and freeze in individual freezer bags. You will take a hit on the price initially but it will keep you going for a while. Even better load up on the protein for the shops mum or dad are paying for!
Buy from the top and bottom of shelves – The premium priced products take pride of place in super markets appearing at eye level on the shelves. Lower priced items will appear at the bottom or top. More often than not these options taste just as good so don’t be fooled into buying the higher price items.
Try something new – Don’t go for familiar brands as these often cost more. Try the shops basic range and see how you get on. They are priced much more competitively than household brands such as Dolmio or Robinsons.
Check out the markets – Lots of town will have weekend markets selling fresh fruit and veg. Often these don’t last as long so you will need to shop small and regular but they are much cheaper and taste better!
Smart Swaps: I’ve taken a few uni faves and swapped them for healthier alternatives. Often you can make more than 1 portion of say pasta or chilli so freeze them to have next time you’re stressed with an assignment and don’t feel like cooking.
- Pot noodle (Chicken and Mushroom) - £1 each
Calories - 433
Fat – 16g
Protein – 9.8g
Carbs – 58g
Try making your own noodle soup and get in some fresh veggies: 1.23p a portion
Tesco Singapore Noodles 294g
Yutaka Red Miso Soup
Tesco Everyday Value Vegetable Stir Fry 700G
Calories – 192 (Saves you 241kcal)
Fat – 4.4g (Saves you 11.6g)
Protein – 6.5g
Carbs – 33.6g (Saves you 24.4g)
- Pasta (208g) with Dolmio Original Bolognese Sauce - £1.05 a portion
Calories – 402
Fat – 2.8g
Protein – 12.6g
Carbs – 79.5g
Try making your own bulky sauce from scratch and using less pasta – 59.5p a portion
Pasta (148g)
Passata
1/2 pepper
1/2 onion
30g of olives
Calories – 380 (Saves you 22kcal)
Fat – 5.5g (Extra fat is good fats from olives)
Protein – 11.8g (Saves you 0.8g)
Carbs – 67.8g (Saves you 11.7g)
- Bacon Sandwich - Bacon (4) and Best Of Both Bread - £1.09 a sandwich
Calories – 328
Fat – 12g
Protein – 29.7g
Carbs – 23.7g
Try a leaner source of protein and get some veggies in – 90.07p a portion
British Roast Turkey – 3 slices
Best of Both Bread
Lettuce
Calories – 200 (Saves you 128kcal)
Fat – 2.2g (Saves 9.8g)
Protein – 17.5g
Carbs – 28.3g (Extra carbs from vegetables)
- Vodka and Coke - 250ml - 28p
Calories – 105
Fat – 0g
Protein – 0g
Carbs – 27g
Coke is an easy way to top up empty calories, try to be smart with your mixers.
Vodka and soda water – 250ml – 13p
Calories – 0kcal
Fat – 0g
Protein – 0g
Carbs – 0g
Using soda water means you don’t get that horrible sugar over load feeling. Having water with your alcohol also keeps you hydrated thus reducing your hangover. If you don’t like the flavour try squeezing in some lime or adding some low sugar squash. In clubs soda water is often much cheaper than coke or lemonade.
While Diet coke also has no calories research shows that the sweet taste increases cravings for sugary foods. This may lead you to make bad choices later on. The presence of sweeteners has also been linked to the release of insulin into the blood. This means you are essentially in ‘Fat Storage’ mode so any other calories you consume (say from the alcohol itself or from the drunken snacks you have later) are more likely to be stored as fat in your body.
