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RAW...in college?

RawsikiRawsiki Raw Newbie

Is anyone else a raw college student? Holy cow is it difficult! How do you have time to prepare your meals and what do you usually eat? Do you have a meal plan? My school was informed about my living diet and I was granted a special meal plan where I still have to use the cafeteria once in a while, but I can have leftover money to buy my own groceries. How do you do it?!

Comments

  • I’m raw in college! I don’t have to have meal plan though which is nice. I just have a cheap blender no other special tools. I eat a lot of smoothies and salads. Or ill make wraps with collard greens. I grow sprouts sometimes, which my roommates find pretty weird/funny. I have a green smoothie most mornings sometimes I have to make them the night before as to not wake my roommates. It does help that my parents may for most of my groceries otherwise I don’t think I could make it. Its kind of isolating I def don’t go out as much anymore or hang out with people as much now that I eat raw. When I do go out I normally slip up and end up eating cooked food especially if ive had some alcohol.

  • juicyjuicy Raw Newbie

    exact same situation as smoothielove. how i wish blenders and juicers were quieter so that I could make breakfast early in the morning! going out equals me eating something I would never eat in normal life…I am working on that though! also, groceries are paid for by my parents so organic is the way for me, however I soon will have to start paying on my own which should be tight on my wallet!

  • I’m jealous of you guys who get your groceries paid for! I have a meal plan, but my caf is al about pizza, burgers and fries… there’s a salad bar, but it’s verrry limited. I’ll go a few times a week to steal some veggies (I bring tupperware haha), but other than that, I buy my own groceries. My parents don’t really support my choice, so I have to pay for them myself. big thumbs down So, being raw has been pretttty hard on my wallet lol I eat alot of salads and smoothies as well, cause they’re fast and ease, and all I really have is a blender. Raw is so worth all the trouble and money, though! ;)

  • My caf is the same. It grosses me out to see people eating burgers every day. I used to work there, but was too grossed out by cleaning stoves full of meat oils and the smells nauseated me. Animal flesh that has not been hunted locally (very sad to think where the caf’s meat comes from and how it got there). I had to really bug the school about letting me lower the meal plan. It’s still $880 a semester just for 75 meals a week! I’ve just decided to not be 100% raw anymore and start buying local, whether it’s for food needing to be cooked or not. I try steaming everything with this cheap little tray-like thing that folds open with holes in it—you stick it on top of the pot. Steaming is slow, so it helps food retain most of its nutrients and enzymes. I don’t have a cow over it. I’m not going to die or anything from this. So, whatever. It’s important to make sure you don’t get into debt because of food. Otherwise, how are you going to ever accomplish your dreams? That’s important for being healthy too!

    Oh, and goddam FAFSA thinks my parents are millionaires because they have properties when really, they are unemployed and they rent out the properties for income. We’re actually quite poor, but I can’t do anything about it, and I can’t get food stamps. So, let us all mourn for the poor and insignificant college students. (Haha) You just have to ride the wave, you know?

  • gymjunkiegymjunkie Raw Newbie

    My cafeteria is the standard disgusting, everything cooked and meaty all-American style establushment. I have it worked-out with the cafeteria supervisors to actually buy vegetables and fruit per pound (as salad bar items) in bulk from the school’s refrigerated pantry.As a freshman, this took awhile to negotiate. My parents do not support my choice entirely, so I pay for my own groceries (other vegetables, legumes and grains to sprout) most of the time. I agree, however that although it is difficult, it really is worth it! As an tri-athlete/exercize fanatic I have to be careful to get enough calories, but otherwise raw is wonderful.

  • I don’t really see the point between your parents not supporting your choice THAT’S WHY you have to pay or your groceries, you decide what to buy from the money they give, no? I think sometimes raw food can cost the same as the packaged, all processed stuff other students generally eat.

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    gymjunkie~ That is a creative and brave solution.

    For anyone in college, if you can get a demand identified (others that are interested) for fresh fruits and veggies on campus, you might be able to negotiate with the college to start a student run co-op on campus. It would take a lot of energy and planning to get started and be a really rewarding challenge. At the college I attended there was a student run co-op on campus that students with lots of energy and creativity started before I started attending… something to consider.

  • It is a very good idea Bluedolphin. I hope it would work, because in Hungary, in my old school they tried to introduce healthy things to cafeterias such as salads, fruits, herbal teas, but almost nobody wanted to buy these(they went to the nearby shop to buy chocolates and coke instead) and soon they stopped selling them.

  • raw college life is thrillingly challenging!

    i just posted in another forum about how I get my produce for cheap. I dumpster dive, and as gross as it sounds it is how I eat $150 of produce a week. A lot of things like Earthbound farms organic greens are still in packages and when we pluck them out of the V.I.P. fridge their expiration date is that day and they are still fine. Finding time is tricky…waking up earlier, making smoothies, and packing lots of fruit for the day gets me through my 9-5 days on campus. Best of luck

  • I am starting in the Fall. Any advice? Is the social thimg hard?

  • All4Raw,

    The social thing took me a bit to get used to. I’m a college student, and at first i completely isolated myself.

    Now, when I have random yummy things prepared at my house I will casually invite my friends over to my place instead of theirs, and then we usually all end up happily munching out on raw goodies. My closest friends now bring raw goodies to my house instead of regular junkfood, and a lot of them enjoy the raw stuff over processed. Usually we just snack on fruit, veggies and nuts etc. Nothing too fancy..

    I don’t eat out.. EVER. my friends and I call our dinner parties “Raw Parade” and we get really excited about them. [I only have a few friends who are actually into this..]

    The damn stores around here lock their dumpsters so I don’t have the same fantastically great opportunities like MonsieurReality!

    I sort of stopped eating breakfast.. I’ve noticed it’s much smoother in the morning if I give myself the time to do yoga and prepare for other human contact.

    When it gets warmer I generally have a steady appetite and have to bring fruit with me. Sometimes in the summer I keep one of those silly little coleman coolers in my backseat with fruit in it.. sometimes i’ll use the bigger one i have if i need to keep extra water or more food etc. It’s like I’m going on a trip every time i leave my house! So ridiculous.

    Sometimes it does suck though. I just tell myself I’m worth the struggle and move on.

    I’m all for other tips from college studs though.

  • Yeah, guys. As a Professor and not too long ago grad student, I have to tell you—there are oodles of funds waiting around for some overzealous students to claim. Start a raw food club—get the University to sponsor you—do awareness events, etc. If you speak the right language—you can get almost anything you want on campus. Because it’s your campus.

  • I’m a raw food college dude. I spend about 70 80 bucks a week on organic produce! The hardest part is socializing cause its totally based around food. Also I don’t drink so that can be difficult but its still a BLAST!

    james

  • kaitlinkaitlin Raw Jr. Leader

    Rawsiki,

    What school do you go to? I need to convince my school to do that for me but it would help if I could contact your school and ask them how they do it to give my f***ed up dining program a sense of what other institutions are making work.

    Thanks,

    Kaitlin

  • LilEarthMuffinLilEarthMuffin Raw Newbie

    This thread is really helpful. As a going to be senior in high school i have already been thinking about being raw in college. its hard enough alone being a raw teen living at home! although my mom is wonderful i cant imagine being away from my lovely breville juicer.

     

  • ras-saadonras-saadon Raw Newbie

    I'm not in college but I'm starting Uni this December, my plan is to pretty much continue as I do today, take a bunch of fruits with me to last through the morning-noon, then when I come back to my apartment eat a big green salad with some seeds in it, then continue with the fruits or whatever else I'm in the mood for for the rest of the day.. as to the social part, if your friends are really not into it, that can be hard, but I find that compromising once in a while for a cooked vegan meal can be a good experience, after all, humans also need some soul food which I consider humans contact to be, other options are making some raw dishes and taking with you when your friends eat, that way you can socialize with them yet also continue with your raw diet..

  • LilEarthMuffinLilEarthMuffin Raw Newbie

    one thing that concerns me is where am i going to keep my produce, and my juicer/bullet blender?

    i wish i could get a raw vegan roomate that would be amazing!

    can anyone currently in college describe the typical salad bars that your college has?

    thanks :)

     

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