How a college student learned to eat wisely and remain on a budget....
Megan Connor of Philadelphia, PA left the mall in tears one day. "I was trying on clothes, and nothing I tried on fit, and what did fit looked HORRIBLE," she recalls.
"I knew I had gained some weight, but guess I didn't realize just how much."
"Growing up I was a skinny kid that became a chunky teenager," she recalls. "In high school, I was mostly a size 12-14, so I was overweight, but not obese. I was pretty active, too, so honestly my weight never really interfered with anything day to day.
In college, I found out that I wasn't exempt from the 'freshman 15' just because I already owned a little extra. So, I ended up gaining that weight, plus a few more pounds my sophomore year. I was now a size 16, and was on my way to an 18. I had to officially shop in PLUS SIZE stores, and that embarrassed me, especially since most of my friends shopped in the tiny little junior departments."
In addition to the embarrassment brought on by what she considered "a wardrobe that looked like a frumpy old lady's," Megan was having what she called "fat issues." "I was really tired all the time; I didn't have the energy to do much of anything. Here I was, 20 years old, and my knees hurt walking across campus. I would avoid taking classes on that side of campus, because it exhausted me to walk that far. It was disgusting, and after my little meltdown in the mall, I knew I had to do something about it."
Megan knew she didn't have a lot of money to devote to expensive weight loss programs or gyms. "After all, I was a college student, we're supposed to eat Raman noodles and drink cheap beer. I talked to a friend who had lost a lot of weight using one of those other programs where you have to count everything that you eat. I didn't have the money to attend their meetings, but she suggested that I should start writing down everything that I eat for a week, and then look up their corresponding nutritional stats. She said that I needed to do it before I start any type of diet, so that I can see where my weaknesses are. Once I started looking things up, it was apparent very quickly." For instance, Megan would think nothing of grabbing 10 Oreo cookies as a snack. After she read that 3 cookies is a serving, she realized that she was consuming 535 calories in just one snack.
Megan knew she had to change her bad habits. She started by cutting her calories in half- from about 3,000 a day to 1,500, started building up a walking routine, and continued writing everything down. She lost 10 pounds, and then her weight loss seemed to stop. "I didn't understand... I certainly still had more weight to lose." Megan did some research online about nutrition, metabolism, and weight loss in general. It seemed as though her body had either gotten used to its new routine, or had lowered its metabolism because it thought something was wrong. "I knew I needed to jumpstart my metabolism, so I bought Thermocerin after I read about its thermogenic properties."
After starting Thermocerin, Megan lost an additional 38 pounds in 2 months. "I was thrilled. Once the weight started coming off, it started to become easier to walk farther. I had started with going halfway around the perimeter of the campus to doing 3 full laps. I am now a size 6, and am loving my new wardrobe choices, too. No more plus size stores for me."
One of the largest challenges that Megan faced was adhering to a diet on a budget. While writing everything down key, she found that often the lower calorie or low fat versions of many items in the grocery store were more expensive than their fattening counterparts. Here are a few items and methods that she applied to keep the costs down:
Sugar free gelatin and instant pudding: "If you buy them in the individual serving cups, they are much more expensive than buying it in the box and mixing it up yourself. I then portion them out into little containers that I could wash and reuse," suggests Megan. "This works for large containers of low fat yogurt, too."
Get a friend and go to a wholesale club. "You may not have the room to store gigantic quantities of food, so a friend and I would split some items, and it saved us a lot of money." For example, Megan knew she wouldn't be able to eat all of the oranges in the jumbo bag by the time they went bad. So, she and a friend would each take half.
Walk! It costs nothing, which beats paying to join a gym.
Smart snacks. "Here are a few snacks that I found to be pretty easy on the wallet." Says Megan:
Sugar free applesauce
Animal crackers
Hardboiled eggs: "I know, this is a strange one, but I love them. You have to remove the yolk, and then they are great as a snack, or as a topper for salads."
Instant oatmeal: "Either the plain or apple cinnamon flavors are the best bets healthwise."
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