In September I am going to be a full time student again as well as working part time in the evenings, like last school year.  This is hard to do.  It’s much harder to keep a healthy consistent eating plan.  I’ve come up with some ideas to help with that:

• Use the locker – keep things like bottled water, nuts, apples, protein bars, cereals, trail mixes, teas, travel mug, instant oatmeal
• Chose 1 or 2 days a week where you can buy your lunch from a healthy place.  I will pick the 2 days I work, so that I don’t have to bring 2 meals plus snacks with me every day
• Make sure to eat breakfast, and make it a big meal
• Hard boil some eggs at the beginning of the week to bring with you
• Cheese sticks are a good and portable snack to bring with you
• Dry cereal and dried fruit mixed together is a healthy and cheap alternative to trail mix, stash in your bag
• Plan for leftovers for lunch the next day
• Go to your locker to grab a snack in the breaks of the long classes. One big gorging meal in the middle of the day will cause digestive problems and you to become sleepy
• Buy a mini cooler bag to take your lunch in
• Bring a thermos full of soup or stew – both are cheap to make, add cheese and crackers to round it out

I find it easier to manage when I know I’m buying lunch 2 times a week.  I don’t feel overwhelmed when it comes to food.  Also eating smaller amounts sporadically over the day is easier to plan for than carting a huge package of leftovers.