#18 – Food for thought

First of all, let me tell you when I started uni in 2015 I was about 10 stone, I had size D titties, I have wide hips and I did alot of squats in college. I am telling you this because whilst I was at uni I went through a big change, ie I gained a lot of weight and I gained it in my ass, tits, legs, ankles and arms.

I have always been a picky eater and I have a phobia of throwing up, so I stay comfortable eating the same food all the time, I rarely broaden my pallet of taste. Moving away from home helped me but also hindered me. I didn’t have the home-made meals that my mum made, but I gained independence.

I learnt how to make new recipes, how different food takes time to cook and it was great to cook food for myself and burn things to learn what I need to do in the future and what tastes I like. You learn how to clean pots – this is very stupid but I dind’t.

When you’re a student you have a little bit of money, you’re living by yourself in a place that has a lot of takeaways and discounts codes. When I lived in Preston Dominoes opened until 3 am and had a 50% discount and I relied on this a lot, it also didnt help the fact that my boyfriend’s mate was the manager at one the Dominoe branches and gave us free pizza.

All of the takeaways I ate have stayed on my body, I am now around 14 stone and a bigger girl than I was. When you’re at uni you have to be wary of what you eat and put into your body as food can influence your mood and energy.

I have only just recently started to eat onions. My flatmate in the second year made bolognese with onions and peppers and I just thought that I want to try that so I made it the next day. It was difficult for me as I didn’t want to throw up , but now I have incorporated them into my cooking and I now haw onions on my hotdog!

So why am I writing this post? To help you when you’re at uni as it can be difficult to make food for yourself with the environment you’re in with outside pressures such as time, stress, money and other flatmates. It is easy to stick a microwave meal in and have that (I had that almost every day) but that wasnt great for me or my body.

Here are some of my tips for ‘food’ when you’re at uni:

1. Have something new every week to broaden your tastebuds.
2. Allow yourself some junk food. Uni is very sressful so don’t limit yourself snacks or a takeaway, maybe have one day a week you indulge yourself like on Friday’s have a chippy tea.
3. Shop at Aldi, Lidl, Poundstretchers. At Aldi the products are really good, there’s lots to choose from and its really cheap so it doesn’t put a dent in your pocket. You can buy a whole weeks worth of shopping for £30.
4. Create your own recipe book. Write recipes down in a notebook, or find them from magazines or friends and family members.
5. If you want to eat/do something different, do meat-free Monday. This will broaden your pallet and will introduce a different dynamic to your cooking and you won’t rely on meat to put an ommpft into your meals.
6. When you cook with a lot of oil, let the pan sit on the side for an hour, then go back and wipe the excess oil with kitchen roll, then place it in the bin. This way the oil won’t clog the drains and the dishwasher.
7. Clean as you cook. For example, if you are making mash and you place the potatoes in the pan and they are boiling, clean the chopping board and knife and wipe the side. Doing this will make it easier and you won’t feel defeated when you finish and there’s so many things to wash.
8. If you want to lose weight eating healthier will help towards that, even if thats not your goal, just incorporating healthy eating habits into your life will help you in the long run. This is the time that habits stay with you, not just eating habits but also sleeping habits and working habits etc.

I hope this helps you understand more about food and uni. And I hope this has helped you a little bit. If you want, I might make some recipe posts about the stuff I ate whilst at uni, cause that might help you as well.

Keep broadening your pallet!

KatyNella xoxo

 

 

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