HOW TO MAKE A HEALTHY BREAKFAST IN YOUR DORM ROOM (week 5)

Banana Oatmeal by Rachel Hathaway via Flickr

Hello!

On this blog I will be sharing my oatmeal recipe with you!

If you have read the previous blog, you will remember I mentioned that our dorms have a microwave and a fridge. That basically all you need to make my fruity oatmeal. I try to have some milk and fruit in my fridge that I get from our bistro. The oatmeal packs I buy from the grocery store.

INGREDIENTS-

2⁄3 cup of 2% milk

2 packs of instant oats

1⁄4 cup raisins (optional) or 1⁄4 cup other dried fruit (optional)

2 sachets of sugar (or brown sugar)

1⁄4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 banana

PROCEDURE-

1. Mix milk, oats, sugar and dried fruit in microwave safe bowl

2. Microwave mixture for 2minutes

3. Make sure you use a container big enough so the oat doesn't boil over

4. Stir mixture then microwave on high for another 2 minutes

5. Remove oatmeal from microwave and stir

6. Add bananas and more milk if you so desire

7. Let it cool for a little bit

8. enjoy your healthy, fruity, creamy breakfast!

How To Make Oatmeal in the Microwave by Quaker

5 WAYS TO AVOID “FRESHMAN 15” (week 4)

Hi Guys!

If you read the previous blog, you will have an idea of what ‘freshman 15’ is and the top 5 causes of it. If you don’t know what it is or haven’t read the previous blog, CLICK HERE.

This blog will reveal the top 5 ways to avoid “freshman15”.

After being in an American university for four years, I have learned a lot about this myth. As a student, I have taken a couple of on-campus jobs. However, the job experience that inspires me to write this post is being a student worker at our campus bistro or cafeteria.

The 5 ways are recommended for a typical freshman who lives in the dorms, has a meal plan, maybe has a part-time job and or plays sports.

5 WAYS TO AVOID “FRESHMAN 15”

1.WATER- replace energy drinks and alcohol with water.

 

2. REST- Current students generally complain about how they never get time to rest or sleep. However, most of them never mention how late they go to bed. Once you get to college, you begin to appreciate nap time and wish you could turn back the hands of time and take all the naps you missed as a toddler. As much as you can afford. Find time to ret in-between your day. I call them ‘power-naps’, 30-45 minutes of sleep can make a big difference in your day. Lastly, try to go to bed early.

 

3. EAT BREAKFAST- The truth is that college students typically don’t wake up on time, except they have an early morning class. However, to avoid ‘freshman15’, you need to take breakfast seriously. It is not the meal to skip. You might want to skip the kind of dinner you eat by 2 a.m. if you have to skip a meal.

 

4. CHOOSE HEALTHIER OPTIONS- Stay away from food that goes into the deep fryer. Try to eat more salad and snack with fresh fruit and vegetables.

 

5. MAKE HEALTHY DORM-FRIENDLY FOOD- On our campus, each dorm room has a fridge and microwave. You can store fruit and vegetables in your fridge so you have something healthy to snack on at 2 a.m. when you are starving. Also use your microwave to make healthy meals, including oatmeal for breakfast.

 

To keep track of your food intake, my nutrition professor recommended that you use the ‘Super Tracker’ on MYPLATE.GOV to track what you eat. It will help you measure calories and generally show you what you are having too much or too little of.

Here is a link to SUPER TRACKER

I hope this has been helpful to you, please feel free to share in the comment section, any other ways to avoid ‘Freshman 15’ you know.

Thank you for reading.

… Coming up on the next blog: HOW TO MAKE A HEALTHY BREAKFAST IN YOUR DORM ROOM

 

 

TOP 5 CAUSES OF “FRESHMAN 15” (WEEK3)

 

 

French Fries

 

Hello There!

Thank you for stopping by.

If you went to university or are currently going to university in America, you probably know what ‘Freshman 15’ is. But if you’re like me that came to America for university from a different country, you will have no idea what it means.

Basically, in America each year/level in the university has a name.

1st Year – Freshman Year

2nd Year- Sophomore Year

3rd Year- Junior Year

4th Year-Senior Year

Now you understand that ‘freshman’ is the name given to first year students. The 15 means 15lbs (pounds). Therefore ‘Freshman 15’ is a common myth that university students gain 15lbs in their first year.

After being in an American university for four years, I have learned a lot about this myth. As a student, I have taken a couple of on-campus jobs. However, the job experience that inspires me to write this post is being a student worker at our campus bistro or cafeteria.

There are different reasons why the myth exist, but here are the top five reasons that stand out the most to me. These five reasons are for a typical freshman who lives in the dorms, has a meal plan, maybe has a part-time job and or plays sports.

TOP 5 CAUSES OF “FRESHMAN 15”

1.      BUDGET

Piggy Bank

 

 

      In their first year of college, freshmen usually have a meal plan. A meal plan is paid for along with tuition and room/board. Once you have a meal plan, you can use whatever value you’ve purchased throughout the semester to buy food in the bistro/cafeteria. Since they have to eat what is available at the bistro, they really have no little control of what they eat.

 

 

 

 

2.      TIME

Tired Student

A fulltime student has at least 12 credits of classes. These classes do not necessarily take a lot of time. However, the study time, group work and extra-curricular activities are the things that take time. At this point, freshmen are new to the routine and find it difficult to adjust so the stay up late nights and sleep at odd hours of the day. This time factor causes the freshmen to eat whenever they are awake.

 

3.      STRESS

Study Notes

The pressure from reading, turning in assignment, group-work and tests can cause stress. I have found that this stress makes freshmen seek satisfaction and most of them settle for food as a safe form of satisfaction. Working in the Bistro, I have had freshmen come up and make statements like “Can I get two orders of mac-n-cheese bites? I just got done with a test, I think I need to treat myself.” By the way these are deep fried bite-size mac-n-cheese portions. Mind you, this might be before or after a heavy meal already and they might just get ice cream (because Penn State’s creamery makes awesome ice-cream) or a milk shake to go with it.

 

 

 

4.      INCREASE IN ALCOHOL INTAKE:

Drunk Freshman

 

      Even though most freshmen haven’t gotten to the legal drinking age, for most of them it is their first time away from home. This freedom makes them vulnerable to peer pressure that leads to increase in their alcohol intake. I have to mention that my campus is a dry campus and that means no alcohol is allowed on campus period. However, students will sometimes go outside campus or find a way to drink and break rules.  

 

 

5.      ENERGY DRINKS: I didn’t know how much energy drinks students consumed until I started working at the bistro. Every time we had to restock drinks, energy drinks were always almost all gone. Because of the high caffeine content in most energy drinks, freshmen drink a lot of it to stay awake and have energy. However, the high sugar content in them contribute to the ‘Freshman15’.

I hope this has been helpful to you, please feel free to share in the comment section any other causes of the ‘Freshman 15’ you know. If it is called a different name in your country, please share it with us, it would be great to hear from you!

Thank you for reading.

… Coming up on the next blog: 5 WAYS TO AVOID FRESHMAN 15

 

 

POISE: How to keep calm! (week2)

Hello everyone, hope you’ve had a great week so far! Here is something I thought you might be interested in. It’s a great virtue that helped me get through the craziest scenarios. Ok, here we go…

What is Poise?

Poise is simply the ability to keep your cool under stress. It’s a special virtue that you will need when you are tempted to freak out or get mad at someone.

On a daily basis, you can be faced with situations that can ‘test your patience’. It may be a group member in your class that refuses to do any work or show up to any group meeting that frustrates you, your roommate that turns up the volume of their, music so high that you can hear through his/her earphones or a coworker who’s always on her phone and loves to take credit for all the work you do when your boss comes around.

 5 ways to keep calm

1.     Keep your bubble calm

Imagine everyone walks in a bubble. No matter what kind of situation you find yourself in, the calmness in your bubble is enough for you to express poise. Make up your mind that your bubble is your space and you decide what happens in your bubble.

2 .     Never react immediately

You are human and part of that means that you react to your emotions. When you’re angry, you might want to curse someone out. Try to take a moment before you react. You can count to 10 or more depending on how long you need to overcome your emotions. A friend told me a while ago that the best thing is to sleepover it and confront the situation the next day.

3.     Talk about it

After you have counted to 10 or slept on it, it’s time to confront the matter. Whether it’s a friend, roommate, coworker, boss, professor or whoever. Go up to the person and ask to speak with them. Let them know how you felt about what happened. You might find out that they never meant to make you feel that way and that will help you clear the air between you two.

4.     Think of the bigger picture

Try to maintain a good relationship with the people around you, no matter how much you care less about them. You don’t have to be everybody’s friend but you shouldn’t consciously make enemies either. You never know what might become of your connection with them.

5.     Choose your battles.

Most times, especially after you sleep over a crazy situation that you should have reacted to, you will find that it isn’t even as hurtful as it seemed when at the time it happened.

Thank you for reading, I hope this post helps you to use POISE as a virtue more often. You have nothing to loose and a lot of peace and respect to gain.

WORDS (week1)

Words as Butterflies

The expression “your words will make you or break you” is one that you must have heard at least once. Today, you will learn that words are more powerful than you think they are and hopefully watch how you use them from now on…

According to dictionary.com, a word is a unit of language consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words carry meaning.

Where do words come from? 

They come from your thoughts. Maybe you’re thinking about ice-cream. If you ignore that thought you will resist the urge to have some ice-cream. If you let that thought stay in your heart for too long and you say ‘I think I want ice-cream’ or ‘I’m craving ice-cream’, sooner or later, your actions will be tailored towards getting you the ice-cream.

Thoughts to Reality Process

Where do words go? 

Imagine that your words are like butterflies and every time you say a word, you release a butterfly. They don’t disappear; they fly around or find a place to say. Your words are the same. They don’t die. They can stay on your curtains, in your clothes, in your hair, in your book bag, anywhere around you. 

That is why some people are likable, you just smile when you see them and you don’t get uncomfortable. There are other people who just look suspicious and you get uncomfortable around them… 

Your thoughts and words and make you have positive energy around you.

Here are some words you should add to your daily vocabulary, especially in the morning to help you through the day.

• I am beautiful
• I am smart
• I will be  happy today
• My day is going to be great
•  Everyone I meet today will be awesome

At the end of the day, you are responsible for what you get. If what you think about will become your reality, then fill your heart with good thoughts. Remember to focus on the positive rather than the negative.