How to Keep the Doctor Away for Free

The age old saying: an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Most people go through a process in college of being totally dependent on others for food (having no choice but the dorms and a meal plan) and progress to eventually being able to sustain themselves when they eventually move into an apartment or house. That or they still eat out all the time.  The years dining with your dorm neighbors and socializing in the school’s cafeteria can be some of the most fruitful, literally. If you’re lucky, there will be a single swipe all-you-can-eat arrangement where you buy block meal plans at the beginning of each semester. I should note that there is one tool needed that you likely already have and can bring to school, but just in case:

• A backpack. Yea that’s it.

Typically, the guys and girls I ate with my freshman and sophomore year in college would sit around and talk for a little while after we got finished eating. This was a perfect opportunity to make a few more runs through the food area, where I and usually one or two others casually picked up 1 or 2 pieces of fruit or a muffin and brought them back to the table to stow in our backpack’s mesh outer pockets. The fruit and occasional muffins wrapped up in napkins were good enough to hold me most of the time. There aren’t many things as satisfying in college as free food, and if the opportunity presents itself, you make sure you take it. I guess you technically payed for that but, yea still.

Considering the routine a decent amount of people follow in college, which seems to consist of not much sleep and hitting the booze cruise when they can, I would highly encourage you to get as much fruit from the all-you-can-eat caf as possible. A cranked up immune system can really come in handy if you plan on being busy all the time, and being sick when everyone else is having fun well, it just isn’t fun.