Carlos Santos
The Paw Print
Being a college student here at Adams State University is pretty awesome; the school has lots of events, friendly faculty, a favorable female to male ratio, and good sports teams.
The facilities are modern and have all the newest equipment ranging from Mac computers to the Climbing wall, and there are plenty of resources to help with studies.
Most students seem to be involved in some sort of physical recreation and work studies and school amounting to a full schedule. That is why I am writing about the key aspect of student life that suffers most in these years of living alone and staying busy: diet. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not a nutrition expert by any means or an athletic trainer; however, it is becoming more apparent to the average bum how diet affects quality of life.
I certainly love my steak and eggs breakfast with gravy topped hash browns and some Coffee and OJ on the side to start the day; but honestly speaking, who has the funds to eat this breakfast every day or the time to prepare?
Not I and I have tried eating big breakfasts daily to see if this will allow me to go through the day and not have to eat so many meals hence saving money and time between classes, work. However, as most of the athletes have learned, it is much better to eat many smaller meals throughout the day and snack healthy in between. Personally, the recent nutrition fad known as the Paleo diet has been an eye opener; eating unprocessed proteins and grains as well as raw fruits and vegetables has made a big difference for many including myself.
Basically, you just eat like a caveman or hunter-gatherer did, which was fruits and vegetables readily available and meat that you hunted or fished for.
It has been much easier stocking up on raw fruits and bookending the days with proteins at breakfast and dinner, than trying to consume some type of large meal in between.
The basic schedule I would recommend for the typical active student goes like this: breakfast of 2 eggs with 1 cup oatmeal and fruit juice; mid-morning snack of 2 raw fruits whether apples, oranges, or bananas; basic lunch of BLT or if no time to cook bacon, tuna salad sandwich; mid afternoon snack of raw veggies either carrots and cucumber or broccoli and cauliflower. Then finish your day with a large serving of protein for dinner with 1/3 of your plate being vegetables and grains; perhaps sneak in some dairy if you like in one of the meals either by shredded cheese or a glass of milk.
Of course desert is not restricted either, but instead of Snickers and a Coke try Nature Valley and an Odwalla. As many students have probably already learned this whole nutrition bit in attending classes, everyone soon learns that preparation and discipline take the most effort. It is easy to eat garbage food since it is tasty and easily prepared, but a wise man once said “if you eat fat greasy food, you become a fat greasy dude.”
So just think of this phrase when looking over your options in the mesa and SUB building before the next meal. Everyone is different, but if you can eat right you will see the difference it makes for yourself.
What’s Been Said…