Healthy College Eating on a Budget
Lyn’s Food Truck at the University of Pennsylvania
It can be hard to balance a budget, time, and a healthy lifestyle in college.
One thing I learned really early on in college is that planning out meals is important and not necessarily an easy thing to do. On many college campuses, it is extremely important to take advantage of the dining plan. It is a money-saver, convenient, and unique to the college experience. Sometimes, however, it is okay to have low-priced alternatives to what is offered in the dining hall.
Balancing healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle doesn't necessarily mean going to the gym and getting a salad everyday. It can instead mean eating food that you want to eat, especially after long hours of work and needing a food pick me up. As pictured above, a food I truly survive off of at college is an egg and cheese sesame bagel. I love egg and cheese bagels because they offer a filling protein, dairy, gluten combination that provide me with enough energy to take on the day. On Penn’s college campus, the food trucks are a great way to “get a bang for your buck”. At Lyn’s Food truck (my personal favorite on campus), the bagels average to about $3. Some other delicious food trucks on Penn’s campus include, Magic Carpet (Mediterranean), Hemos (bagels and sandwiches), Terry’s (bagels and sandwiches), and Tacos Don Memo (Mexican).
To avoid wasting time, healthy and sometimes unhealthy fast-food alternatives are key to a more balanced schedule. Some of my favorite fast-food chains offered on a lot of college campuses include Sweetgreen, Dig, Cava, Sobol, and more. Snackpass is also an essential college app, which offers users a list of restaurants nearby in which you can order ahead and send rewards to friends. Snackpass is a time and money saver, which is why I love using it. GoPuff is also a great app for delivery of consumer essentials such as groceries, snacks, cleaning supplies and more.
Another college hack that I strongly recommend is making exercise as seamless of an activity as possible. This could mean storing a yoga mat and weights in your room to going on coffee walks as a way to be outside and socialize.
