Sent by Sarah

Seriously! A week of hard work and healthy eating can be wasted on a night of drinking. Drinks have so many empty calories associated with them. Alcoholic beverages will make your weight loss journey more difficult so if you are planning to go and drink on your weekends, try to drink only one night. You also have to drink in moderation. The most important reason to drink in moderation is obviously for your safety but moderating your drinking will also save you hundreds of empty calories. Plus drinking makes you get the munchies and that too will lead to empty calories and fattening food choices.

Ramen contains just about everything that you don't need when you're trying to eat healthier and lose weight. Ramen is appealing to many college students because it's easy to prepare and it's incredibly cheap. Ramen is also full of preservatives, sodium, and bad carbs.

Eating breakfast is a great way to jumpstart your metabolism. Breakfast gets your body working sooner and therefore burning more calories all day. Breakfast eaters tend to weigh less and have more energy than their nonbreakfast counterparts. More benefits of breakfast eaters can be found here.

Another part of losing weight is eating at the right times. You should eat smaller spaced out meals and snacks versus three big meals. You also shouldn't eat a few hours before you go to bed. If you do that you're taking in a lot of calories that will just waste and be stored for later because you won't be using them in your sleep. I found the above image here. 

Studies have shown so many benefits to drinking milk. Especially for women. Milk gives you tons of great nutrients that help you build strong bones. Milk drinkers also tend to be thinner. There's a lot of ways to sneak milk into your daily diet; some of the more obvious include eating cereal or oatmeal with milk or mixing milk into your coffee. You can get milk benefits from other dairy products as well. I don't eat cheese or yogurt personally, but they are milk derived products.

You can read all about the benefits of water here. Water drinkers tend to weigh less and drinking water can boost your mood too. I recommend investing in a reusable water bottle like the Camelbak. Buying a good water bottle will save you money from buying a bunch of plastic bottles but it will also help the environment. You can't beat losing weight and reducing your carbon footprint at the same time! You should be drinking at least 64 onces of water a day (the old 8 glasses of water 8 times a day rule.) But your water intake also depends on your activity level and the temperature, among other factors. If you drinking cold water, you will feel hydrated faster but drinking warm or room temperature water will make you fill fuller. Drinking a glass of water right before a meal will also make you fill up faster and therefore avoid eating more than you really need. 

Salad are a great side to a meal but they can also make great meal! Instead of getting a chicken sandwich and eating it along side a salad, try the chicken on the salad. This will save you extra carbs and calories. Learn to love your greens. There are so many great salad recipes online. There are salads with fruit and others that are traditional vegetable ones. 

Duh! Fruits and veggies are the best things for you. Eat and get your daily servings of them! To get the best ones, try to eat seasonal fruits and vegetables. Here is great poster of seasonal fruits and vegetables broken down by months from University of Missouri.

You don't need a lot of carbs and it's really easy to eat way to many of them. Try to limit your carb intake, especially when eating "bad" carbs. Try to consume your carbs through fruits, veggies, and whole grains. Do more research so you can become more familiar with what is good and what is not so good for you. Here is some more information. 

Hope these tips help you lose a little extra!