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With
the holiday season in full swing our busiest (and possibly most stressful) time
of year often brings us back to our roots and the comfort of home sweet home.
As a student, making the transition from living at school to spending time home
for breaks literally seems like existing in two completely different worlds.
Each place is so unique with different daily schedules, different company,
responsibilities, and challenges. After returning to school from Thanksgiving
break the impact that these key differences have on my diet and general
wellbeing became starkly obvious. I found, among other things, that when eating
at home I generally eat more balanced home-cooked meals where as at school I
tend to reach more for “quick fix” carb-dense foods.
Our diets are undoubtedly influenced by our surroundings and
while I always chalked up less favorable eating at school to restricted availably
of certain foods, its clear that added stress of courses as well as
peer-influence which normalizes the typical junk food laden “collage student
diet” also play a big part in altering my appetite. In this way, actual and perceived
nutrition is constantly affected by multiple aspects of our environment. These
factors essentially determine the feasibility of healthy eating (or how
possible it is for you to adhere to a certain eating pattern) as well as the
likelihood of healthy eating (weather constant influences in an area generally
support or test an ideal diet).
Acknowledging the ways in which different places can sway
our eating habits is therefore a huge step in creating a strong, healthy
lifestyle. By recognizing specific challenges an environment presents we can
begin to make small adaptive changes to our behavior there. When healthy food
is not provided at work, for example, we can plan on bringing a few meals from
home. Some times we can best improve our diet by simply making healthy eating
more natural and enjoyable wherever we find ourselves.
I know when I’m weighed down by stress and work at school
even just taking a day to catch up on sleep and relax can often do away with an
otherwise mounting craving for junk food and chocolate.
How do keep your diet
strong in different locations?
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