The Paleo Diet is a protein-filled diet that excludes dairy products, grains, and processed foods. It’s supposed to be modeled off of cavemen so participants essentially eat what prehistoric humans ate: meat, seafood, fruits, and veggies. It can be tricky to navigate on a college campus and can be pretty expensive off-campus, so I compiled a list of cheats so fellow Eagles can remain Paleo without leaving the Heights!
1. Grilled Chicken is your new best friend
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Chicken is by far the easiest thing to eat at BC and coincidentally, happens to be a huge part of the paleo diet. Take advantage of the fact that BC offers grilled chicken every night for dinner. You can eat it with the sides offered, or mix it with veggies from the salad-bar and make a nice filling dinner salad. Either way, it’s extremely simple and really tasty. Not to mention, it will fill you up so you’re left satisfied with the healthy dinner you ate.
2. Wait in the Eagles Salad Line for Lunch
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You will not regret this. While the salad bars at Lower and Mac have a lot of ingredients, the ability to change up the base of your salad is crucial. Having a full-packed salad for lunch can also help you avoid getting hungry too quickly later in the day. With all of the options offered at Eagles, you’re sure to have a good lunch. Plus, if you decide to have a salad for both lunch and dinner, you won’t get bored eating the same salad for two meals a day.
3. DON’T go to late night
Photo by Tori Weber
Whatever you do, avoid late night like the plague. There is nothing you can eat there (unless you peel the fried goodness off of the outside of the chicken tenders and just eat the chicken on the inside and that is so gross so don’t do that).
4. Eggs. Eggs. and more EGGS.
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Breakfast can be a very tricky meal when you’re trying to be paleo on a college campus. The best thing to do for breakfast is eat eggs any way possible. Luckily, at the BC dining halls the option to have eggs in the morning is essentially endless, so take advantage of it!
5. Stock up on fruit
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I rarely ever take a bunch of fruit from the dining hall back to my room. But, when you’re on the paleo diet you should take advantage of the baskets of fruit and take as much as you can carry. Your snacking is limited, so save up on bananas, apples, and pears to eat as good snacks when you’re away from the dining hall.
6. Don’t shy away from dining hall seafood
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Trust me, I will be the first one to scoff at dining hall salmon and accuse it of being laden with food poisoning. However, the seafood at BC is actually pretty good. Salmon and veggies make a great dinner option and you can count on BC dining to have it every night.
7. Be Creative
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Above all, this is probably the most important thing. The BC dining options can get boring even when you aren’t restricting your diet, so try to experiment. That leads me to my last point…
8. TRY NEW THINGS
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The paleo diet may make you feel a little restricted, but if you’re open to trying new things you will not get bored. You might have to do a little maintenance, picking out some ingredients you can’t eat, but don’t let any preconceived notions you have about food scare you off. BC prepares a lot of great test kitchens, like these awesome kale bowls. Take advantage of this, even if it isn’t your usual meal! It’s okay to mix it up sometimes.
This diet is not an easy one to stick to, regardless of the resources available to you. With these tips you can stick to your meal plan with the resources in our very own dining halls. Get eatin’, eags!