nutrition – Life @ U of T

“Love My Body But I Wanna Be Thin?” A Difficult Conversation

Content warning: discussion of eating disorders and disordered eating. This is one account of disordered eating, everyone’s experience is unique and individual. Recovery looks different for everyone and the content provided is intended to give another perspective to the ongoing…

What You Should Know About Nutrition (According to a Nutritionist)

This week, I spoke to Eric Williamson, a nutritionist, to find out what we should be eating to optimize our health and boost immunity. Along the way, I poke at all the bears: vitamin supplements (are they necessary??), weird diets and the mysterious transformation in which foods that are Very Bad For You become superfoods.

A stick figure sleeping in a blue and purple bed, dreaming that they are standing beside a giant juice box. The juice box says "Juice: 800 servings of fruit, 80% sugar."

Changing My Eating Habits: My One True Love, Juice

Since the start of this semester, I have been drinking juice at most once a week. It’s hard, and here’s why: We were talking in class the other day about aphids, which are sap-sucking insects that basically drink sugar water…

A heart dish of soup and bread in a bowl.

Easy, Nutritious Meal Ideas

Meal prep is something I’ve been experimenting with a lot this year. For lunch and dinner, I tend to circulate between, like, three recipes I make often – I usually have at least 2 different meals prepared in multiple batches…

Self-Care in the Midst of Mental Illness

Last week, I wrote about exercise and mental health. Following up on that, I wanted to share some mental health tips that have been helpful for me! Develop a bedtime routine and stop looking at screens before you go to…

A picture list of complex carbs (sweet potato, whole grain bread, oats) and simple carbs (soda, donuts, white bread, cereal) is shown.

The not-so-sweet truth about sugar: Healthy habits at Hart House

This week, I dropped into the Healthy Habits program that runs every Monday in the Hart House Reading Room from 12 to 1 p.m. Healthy Habits is a laid-back discussion about nutrition and tips for eating well and is led by a holistic nutritionist. What I really liked about the event was that it was informal and thereby unintimidating. We all sat in the corner of the Reading Room on the couches and, in essence, had a chat. The topic varies week to week and you’re welcome to attend just one session or as many as you like, whenever you can. This past Monday, we talked about sugar – very timely if you ask me, given that Monday was also Halloween.

The word "sugar" is spelled out using table sugar. — Source: healthbubbles.com

Fueling my commuter student day

I lived on residence for my first three years at U of T and now that I’m living off-campus I face a real nutritional challenge. I used to pop into my residence repeatedly throughout the day, which gave me the chance to make some food and sit down to eat. Needless to say, these days that’s not exactly feasible. It’s been a learning curve, but I’ve managed to identify some strategies for success when it comes to feeding myself as a new commuter student. I was doing a terrible job of it initially and learned my lesson the hard way when I fell ill and enjoyed a throbbing headache for three whole days. If you take anything away from this post, try to remember that while it can be challenging, time-consuming and expensive to stay on top of healthy eating sometimes – it’s worth the work. You might save an hour or two by cutting corners or cutting meals but you’ll lose much more than that when you’re feeling unwell later on.

Veggies are shown with a text overlay which reads "Those who think they have no time for healthy eating, will sooner or later have to find time for illness." — Source: natural-healing-retreats.com

The Rocky Road to Healthy Eating

This summer, I was enrolled in full-time classes. I would be on campus several days a week from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m.. As a commuter, unwilling to burden myself with more heavy things to carry, I bought pasta every day for lunch. By September, I had twelve dollars left in my bank account. It hadn't taken me long into first-year to realize that I often had to choose between healthy eating and cheap eating. Loaded with extracurriculars, my days spanned twelve hours; I would subsist off snacks, water, or cave in and buy a sandwich or pasta. When I first discovered food trucks, I had been delighted -- finally, a filling meal for under five dollars! But I soon realized that each poutine -- however cheap, hearty, and delicious -- made my body feel bloated and uncomfortable for hours afterwards.

Happy Nutrition Month!

The month of March brings with it many things:

Midterms
Papers
Movie releases (London Has Fallen comes out tomorrow (sequel to Olympus Has Fallen), I’m excited but also skeptical… then again, how bad can a Gerard Butler-starring film really be?)
Warmer weather (hopefully!) AND
Nutrition Month!

Registered Dietitians of Canada celebrate Nutrition Month every March. This year, they’re encouraging Canadians to take a 100-meal journey over the course of March, focusing each week on a new goal such as making quality food decisions and being aware of portion sizes.

Eating Well to Stay Well

I am a lover of food. I tend to be one of those people who scoff when friends stop to take a photo of their food before they eat-- I am too busy lovingly staring at it to ruin the moment with cameras and clever hashtags. This week, I made an exception to my "no-phones-at-the-table" policy to capture my food choices and share them with you.

20151118_204918 — Given the chance, my food (and the lighting in the room) rose to the occasion. Work it, noodles, work it.

Food is my first line of defence against all the sickies that are going around on campus. I focus on maintaining a balanced and nutritionally vibrant diet (way of life) of three meals a day, plus healthy snacks when I get a grumbly tummy between meals.

Tag: nutrition