Pick-Me-Up Snacks
 

School's starting for me soon, and I'm going to be so busy I'm not going to have time to eat - or sleep - right. And they're going to be times that I'm feeling tired and will probably rely on a snack (or beverage) to give me the boost I need to finish that paper at four in the morning.

I'm curious, what kind of things do you guys eat for that extra burst of energy? During the school term, I'm a professed coffee addict, and at times I resort to those energy drinks. As for food, I'd usually look to an apple, but since those don't come in vending machines, I often go for candybars and the like.

mmm...uni food...lol i run to the cafe and buy food, but it sucks cause it closes at 12. Otherwise just like pop or munchies. Not a big fan of coffee, though i migh thave to one day.

Sounds like my campus, and I'm not a big fan of coffee either. I freaked a coffee-enthusiest out once when I poured four packets of sugar into a cappuchino (sp?).

I normally have fruit bars or packets of cheese cracekers when I have schedules where I don't have a lunch (like last year and this coming semester). I'm normally too lazy to get up for breakfast. Sometimes, I'll have a bag of Hershey's kisses or mini's since I love chocolate, but my last roommate loved to sneak some while I was gone so I hid them and only eat them when I was alone.

I usually have cookies, cereal bars, or crackers whenever I happen to be on campus for too long without much time in between classes to get a proper meal. I don't drink much coffee or soda during the semesters either.

When I have to work a 24 or 36 hour shift for stagecrew, I usually consume fruits, mostly bananas. Coffee usually wakes me up, but puts me to sleep when I lose that caffine buzz, making it a great night drink.

I also always think about my old boss Chuck. He told me when he was in college, he had to cram for six semester exams, and had only a week to study. His buddy gave him two pills and said "Don't sweat it. You'll get it done." At first he didn't want to take them, but when it came down to the final 48 hour stretch, he decided to take em and see what happens. He remembered taking the pills, and then remembered walking out of his final exam. His friends all told him that they never have seen anybody read books that fast while he was on the stuff, and never saw him get a wink of sleep during the 48 hour period. He aced all of his exams.

I'll never touch the stuff, and I depend on bananas and/or cranberry juice.

lol...did you sit in a corner eating your chocolate? every once in a while grabbing quick glances over your shoulder to make sure no one was there?

My roommates and myself had a food bin, we jus thad a bunch of stuff there. lol but yeah, one of em always bought chocolate almonds and i'd munch on em .

I did have english toffee and french vanilla, but they didnt help me stay awake at all...

Supposedly, apples have more caffine than coffee, but I haven't tested to see if it works better than coffee. I wonder what in the world that stuff was. It sounds like caffine pills on acid. Actually, I know either acid or LSD supposedly allows people to stay awake for 2-3 days on end, but I don't think they could allow people to focus on studying.

LOL. Actually, I ate it on my bed while I was studying, but I did peek out of my hallway window occasionally to make sure she wasn't walking toward the room. The chocolate was small enough to hide if she were to walk in, but there were occasions where she would find my chocolate-covered graham crackers or Oreo mini's. For the most part, I lose a lot more weight in college and eat healthier than I do at home...but a woman without an occasional chocolate boost is not usually a happy woman :boxing:.

I have a lot of friends that just dump food in bends and eat whatever. However, most of my roommates--with the exception of the Yankee--were like me: you have your food, I have mine. Ask and I'll let you have some, otherwise leave my stash alone. I don't mind sharing, I just don't want give my hopes up on having a caramel Hershey Kiss and then realize the bag is empty and didn't know soon enough to buy more. I love fruit, but some days are so rough that you need a chocolate boost.

My favourite snack when I was in college and now that I'm working is Smucker's Uncrustables, which are round, frozen peanut butter & jelly sandwiches without the crust. I figured that they were better for me than junk food that I don't like much anyway, and peanut butter is supposed to be good for energy. I like how they thaw out in their little packages perfectly by the time I need them 2-3 hours after leaving home. They go great with coffee or tea too.

Man. That's normal. If you take any of those ADD drugs. Ritalin or Adderall. Take your pick. People sell that shit for $10 a bottle at my school. My friend popped a few Ritalin for his finals. Studies for 24 hours straight. Took the final, and literally passed out. You really need to time those pills because you really do hit a wall once the pill's effects disappear. There have been cases where people who took som ADD pills passed out during finals.

I usually buy those "fun packs" they sell at Costco and munch on those every so often. It has chips, pretzels, cookies, nuts, etc in individually wrapped bags so I just take a couple when I leave for classes.

Pop is my number one choice 99% of the time, and a chocolate bar too. Usually I pick that up around lunch or just after to keep me going until everyone heads home from School. I usually am walking around the University everyday.

Amp energy drinks. Theyre the only ones I enjoy the flavor of. They dont really give me a noticeable boost, mainly a placebo effect.

Fruit, all the way. When I know I'll spend the entire day at school - morning and evening classes, regardless of what is in between - I'll take (at the very least) a bag of apples. Any fruit will do but apples are usually the cheapest ^___^

A bunch of people have suggested coffee and energy drinks, but I find both of those make me very thirsty. Also, when I'm dehydrated I lose my focus very easily. I suppose I should also add water up there. I usually consume at least 3-4 water bottles (of water) in a normal 9-6 school day.
Also, snack food like candy bars and chips/pretzels/trail mix make me feel full and sleepy. I usually nod off very fast after I eat something at the uni :(

Man...thinking about snacks...anyone remember pixie sticks?...lol for some reason they reminded me of cocaine

but yeah, ive known friends who have those when they're tired.

I don't have snacks on me usually, but when I do it's often either some trail mix bag or a pack of those goldfish crackers. So yum.

COFFEE

and cheese. string cheese to be exact.

and if i have the cash, i'll go for the GOOD chocolate milk. 1.50!!! expensive

Mmm... food
 

Wow, the people who chose fruit/healthy stuff have a lot more will power than I do.

For now, my ideal pick-me-up food is the Cheap-O granola bar with blueberry. The box says that it provides energy, (C'mon, would boxes lie?) so one bar gives me enough stamina throughout the day (whether it's a placebo effect or not, it still works). Plus, the blueberries are pretty tasty.

As for coffee, I've never tried it, and I never will. The caffeine (or quite possibly the sugar) in sodas make me hyper as-is. I already know how to keep myself awake without energetic outbursts, so coffee is unnecessary to me.

Are you talking about the actual cafeterias at your university? You're lucky if you are...the meal halls here only run until 7:00 or 8:00.

Or, at least they would open then if they were running at all yet. I'm wandering a bit off-topic though, I guess.

Hey, those are my two favorites as well...I find that I have a lot more energy when I eat reasonably healthy foods than I do when I eat nasty chips and drink Coke, and I definitely feel a lot better too. I just moved into the dorm earlier today, so I'm kind of limited to Coke from the vending machines and junk food, and I actually feel pretty burned-out right now...so much for caffeine being a wonderful stimulant.

On that note, I was also pretty surprised to notice that soft drinks taste kind of nasty when you're not half-addicted to the caffeine in them.

I don't really bother with energy drinks... I never feel the buzz! I was never into coffee, and I don't want to start making a habit of drinking it either. [although I'm starting to like the taste of it]

During school, High school that is. My schedule was pretty tight, but I still managed to have a pretty perfect food schedule. If I can make breakfast, I'd eat the usual cereal but if I couldn't I just waited until lunch which was like around 12ish to eat my food. Worst days was when I didn't bring anything, and had to leech off of my friends... which isnt as good as it sounds because our school's food SUCKED.

I'm starting college real soon, like the 28th. And I need to figure out what to do with my eating habits as well. It's like $2000 for the mealplan which is a ripoff considering my room will have a kitchen, so I don't know what to do about that. I'll be living in NYC though, so there's bound to be good places nearby. I'll try to stay away from the expensive restaurants though, I just need to find a nice chicken & rice stand or something nearby, but since that'll take time I sitll need to figure out what to do in the dorm.

For snacks, I usually take a banana [quick and easy], or an apple [i love them], but for more of the munching type foods I go for triscuits [garden herb is the SHIT] and nuts [planters mixed nuts low sodium... the SHIT]. Sometimes I can't help but eat Social Tea crackers which look absolutely bland as hell but kick ass nonetheless.

My energy level is usually good and I usually just rough it out without relying too much on the promises of food. But the real problems are when I dont' eat for a while and I just get a blinding headache. That's when I know I just need to eat something... QUICK, so I just try to make some ramen or some good meal that's filling.

Since you have a kitchen, I'd say just have some cereal and sandwich makings and such that will last you until you can find where all of the restaurants are that have the kind of foods you want.

I go for some applesauce, a banana or a nutri-grain bar when I'm in need of a snack, along with water. I've tried energy drinks and sodas but I don't like most of them (Bawls is the best), and they typically give me a headache, so it's not really worth it to me.

What I did first year was eat 2 meals a day, one brunch one dinner. You don't always have to get the most expensive thing (breakfast is usually nice and cheap). (I didn;t have a kitchen or else I would've cooked) I got the regular sized one and by mid-year I realized I had too much money left over, so I got the good dinners every day. Friends came over and I paid for all their meals and then finally I bought boxes of chcoloate and gum (which they charged you as if you were buying 26 individual chocolate bars from them, no discount).

What you can do is estimate how much you can spend per day. like 2000/how many school months you have/days per month you'll be in residence - how many days you plan to cook.

The cafe dinner ran from 6-9ish, just certain places would close after a bit. You could get "real" food till 11 then all that's left are junk food snacks, drinks and prepackaged stuff. So i guess its better than your meal hall, but they did have to have that long of a time because this one cafeteria served 6 residences. But yeah, you could grab grub before dinner time if you wanted (like from the sandwich place or the fried food placE) but like the chinese place, the "chef's table" and custom pasta only opened during dinner and lunch hours.

Sounds like adderall or some other kind of amphetamine. o.o

I usually drink an energy drink or ingest some fruit or cereal if I'm on the run.

I would drink tea, either green or jasmine. I tend to stay away from coffee because it's more bitter and it involves more preparation for it to actually be drinkable. Since I already developed caffeine tolerance, it doesn't really matter when I drink tea.

Cereal works well too. I also like fruits.