Athletic Suppliments-- Follow up questions

[theczar]

In the other thread we were discussing how athletic suppliments are not needed if you eat a balanced, healthy diet.


But my follow up question on that is what if you know you're not eating well, and there isn't much you can do about it? For instance, durring the school year, I am required to have a "meal plan" with the university, and I don't have a kitchen in my building. So, I either have to eat what the cafeterias offer on a dialy basis, or get something that is microwavable, which will get expensive. And, I've already spent the money on the cafeteria food, so I'm not going to let that go to waste, so I eat there. The food they have is definatly NOT healthy. Everything has some sort of grease (or grease-like) substance dripping from it. This is not limited to the deep-fried stuff either, all of the meats and pastas are oily and greasy also. Even the salad is greasy! (how they managed that, I'll never know ). Anyway, what can I do in this case? I try to eat as well as I can in the cafeteria, but everything that is "sort-of" good for you is usually the most disgusting excuse for food I've ever tasted.

I'm eating well now that I'm at home, but the school year is coming fast and I need to have a plan! Any help?

[nitro]

i would say if your not getting enough of something and theres a vitamin that has what ur lacking then to take it

[bvpv07]

I think that czar is hinting that his problem is more significant than what can be made up with a single multi-vitamin.

Have you talked to your coach at all about your eating situation? Are there any other places on campus that offer less greasy food? I'm sure that other athletes must have taken some notice of the situation and have formed similar objections/concerns.

[rainbowgirl28]

That sounds JUST like the cafeteria at Lindenwood. I feel your pain. We also were required to purchase the meal plan because of the way the scholarships worked.

Here are some of the tricks I tried and comments I have.


Salad bar
- Our salad bar lettuce wasn't greasy, but it was just nasty, almost transparent (and nutritionally worthless) iceberg lettuce.
- Luckily, they sometimes had baby spinach out, so I would take advantage of it whenever it was there.
- Salad toppings we sometimes had that I liked were: mushrooms, chopped celery, pico de gallo, tomatoes, cheese, sunflower seeds...
- Sometimes chopped up fruit can be good in salad. If your caf is like mine, you have a lot of barely ripe apples and pears. They might not be so good by themselves, but if you can chop them up and get them in the salad, yum. They are really crispy. The hard part is getting the worthless butter knifes to cut them up.

Soups
- We had 2 soups every day. Usually some incarnation of chili and some random soup.
- I ate the chili pretty much every day. The beans have lots of fiber, and they don't usually add as much grease to it.

Deli
- I was not a big fan of the meat they had, but you can usually get some of your best choices from making simple sandwiches from the bread, meat, and cheese they provide.
- We had a deli section with misc other things. They had hard boiled eggs and I always got 2 and would just eat the egg whites.

The main course
- I pretty much stopped going to the main course section. 99% of the time it was greasy and disgusting.

Pasta
- We had a pasta bar. Sadly, no whole wheat pasta, but I would sometimes suck it up and eat the regular stuff with marinara sauce.

Drinks
- I only ever had water. If you don't like the water there, your next best bet is probably to fill your cup with 1/4 to 1/3 juice or gatorade and then make the rest water. Or milk!

Dessert
- Mmmmm ice cream. OK in small doses.
- If I was still hungry and craving something sweet, I would usually get a bowl of cereal.


Certain combinations of things can be good. Some of my favorites:
- Usually the salad bar has some good choices of things that can help.
- (I learned this from John Ryland) Take a bagel and slice in half. Toast in toaster. Apply strawberry cream cheese to both sides. Slice a banana and put the slices in between the bagel slices.
- (Not healthy, but delicious, and only available on weekends when they did brunch) Put a pancake in a bowl. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Add maple syrup.
- Chili with veggies and cheese from the salad bar.
- Salad with meat from the deli on top.
- If you like grilled cheese, don't eat the ones they make. Take some bread and toast it in the toaster, then add cheese and nuke it in the microwave. Way less grease than the cafeteria styles ones.


OK that's a start, I'll post more later.

[mcminkz05]

Sounds just like the meal plan food where I go to school at Eastern.. finding food that isn't absolutly terrible for you is one of the hardest parts of my training for track

[theczar]

that sounds strangely similar to what we have here at Rolla, and those are some good suggestions. I'll try anything I can stomach, and even some I can't .


but this still leads me back to the original question...what can I do to suppliment this unhealthy crap? I already plan on taking a multivitiman (one that has around 50% of everything, I don't think that the "1000%-of-everything" stuff is good for your liver).

[vault3rb0y]

lol yea 1000% probably wont do you much good. I would say take advantage of the milk at your school as much as possible. If you drink 4 glasses of skim milk a day you are getting at least 50g of protien, tons of carbs, and tons of vitamins you need every day. Thats a start, the multivitamin probably isnt a bad idea in your case. Eats lots of sandwiches and maybe consider investing in a blender for smoothies. I know you said you dont want to spend a lot, but if you can just buy some bananas and strawberries every week, you will have a delicious and amazingly nutritious snack. I know you said your pasta is greasy, but the advantages you get from pasta and tomatoe sauce might outweigh the slightly greasy feel of olive oil (i assume) they put on the noodles to keep them from sticking. You could even talk to the cafeteria people and see if they can make a batch with less olive oil. I dont think they should mind, seeing as its their jobs. I dont know for sure, but those are just some things that come to my mind that might help. Good luck in your quest for the nutritious!!

[jumpbackin]

At my college they would bend over backwards to keep the residence happy. Special meal plans were available for anyone who asked. Have you checked with them to see if they are willing to make special meals for you?

I don't know what they are putting on your pasta, but if it's olive oil, don't worry about it. Enjoy it, it's good for you.

[theczar]

I don't know what they are putting on your pasta, but if it's olive oil, don't worry about it. Enjoy it, it's good for you.

...in moderation anyway

[rainbowgirl28]

I doubt it is olive oil. It is probably whatever the cheapest (and least healthy) oil on the market is.

Do what I would do, get the pasta and put the sauce in a separate bowl or whatever. Get a bunch of napkins and use them to get the excess grease off.

I seriously doubt it is olive oil.

[rainbowgirl28]

At my college they would bend over backwards to keep the residence happy. Special meal plans were available for anyone who asked. Have you checked with them to see if they are willing to make special meals for you?

You're lucky. I've been to schools like that. Not every school is, especially when it is mandatory to be on meal plan. They tend to be about the bottom line. If you ask for more healthy choices you might get a blank stare and confusion of why the salad bar is not enough of a healthy choice.

[vaultmd]

One thing you could do for decent protein is get 3 or 4 or 5 sandwiches from the deli line (yes, I know you'll have to stand in line each time) and toss the bread from most of them. Those transparent, paper-thin slices of alleged meat do add up. You also benefit from the multiple slices of cheese.