<p>Paradox, when I have time to go to the grocery store, I do. However, most of the time, I do not. Vegetables only stay fresh for so long and I am a vegetarian so a meat sandwich is not possible. I cannot bring PB&Js to the school because one of the students has a severe allergy to peanuts. </p>
<p>All I get at McD’s is fries to hold me over. It’s not like I get a whole meal there.</p>
<p>Well, I’m not sure skipping meals is a good idea either. 
Haha, I’m sorry if this comes off as me judging your eating habits, because that is not the case. I’m just trying to understand college students! </p>
<p>Frankly, there’s always enough time to go grocery shopping at least once a week…and I’d buy the vegetables frozen. As for being vegetarian, Boca burgers are one option you could consider…and even cook using a microwave.</p>
<p>So is this just a convenience issue for college students, I guess? I must be odd, but again, I simply hate eating out and don’t find it that inconvenient to make my own lunches. But…obviously that’s not “normal.”</p>
<p>Paradox, it ultimately comes down to a time issue. I do not have a freezer so I cannot freeze Boca burgers (although I love them so I wish I could) or vegetables.</p>
<p>The problem with shopping at least once a week, it is frankly difficult lately. I do not have time on weekdays (morning classes, work, night classes) and with the bus I need to allow at least an hour of transportation time in between here and the grocery store. And on weekends I have had to go home because of family problems and I don’t want to transport groceries with me and many groceries will not be good after the drive.</p>
<p>Oh, wow, you are quite busy, and I am truly sorry you are having family prolems at the moment.</p>
<p>Well, * that * is understandable. If you have no freezer, trying to keep anything fresh for a week (or longer) will be difficult. Haha, I love Boca as well, especially their vegan burgers. :)</p>
<p>But as I was saying earlier, most college students are under less time constraints than they perceive. If a working mother of several children can find time to grocery shop, so can a typical college student. Is this maybe more of an “appearance” issue? Sometimes I feel awkward bringing my own food, and no one has mentioned how they would view such a person yet. It seems as though individuals with health issues (gluten intolerance, etc) are not frowned upon for refusing to eat out, while students just trying to eat healthy are.</p>
<p>I have not heard of anyone being judged for bringing a sack lunch since we were like… eleven. If that. I have to wonder if you are imagining things or else taking a comment that was meant as a joke too seriously. I bring a sack lunch sometimes but I don’t like to carry it around and if I did that for EVERY time I have to eat on the go, I would literally almost never have hot food. Ever. I leave at 8am and I don’t come back til 7pm, there are at least two meals I have to get in there, and then there are all of my non-class responsibilities. I eat at home as much as possible but eating nothing but the occasional frozen dinner, fruit, and bagels isn’t much healthier than stopping at Mcdonalds once or twice a week. There isn’t enough room in my dorm for anything else. And there simply isn’t always enough time between 8am and 7pm to go and eat at least three times a day with my class schedule, I don’t have enough time between classes to take time out to go to the cafeteria and after classes I have to start all my work. If I can’t eat at the same time as doing something else, half the time I’d end up having to pick between the two.</p>
<p>Hmmm, maybe. The problem is I do not eat my lunch alone, but rather go to a fast food place with friends and * don’t * order the fast food. 
I can see how they, or anyone, might think this odd. Still, often we each order our own thing and just meet up at Subway or something to eat our various food choices, so it can’t be as bad as I’m imagining it.</p>
<p>The scheduling issues are definitely annoying, I agree. So is not having a kitchen, but I can still usually make something relatively healthy and cheap for lunch. And yes, late dinners are pretty much a necessity due to time contraints, but I also don’t really like hot food anyway. ;)</p>
<p>Maybe I’ll just stop caring what other people think and live my own healthy and happy life, lol. :D</p>
<p>ParadoxUnknown- You sound like my grandpa ranting about wasting money on fast food. Lighten up.</p>
<p>Batllo–haha, trust me, I’m really not trying to rant here. It’s a total lifestyle change for me, and I happen to dislike it.</p>
<p>I just skip meals unless I’m with friends. But then again, I’ve been known to cook full-blown meals (not just munchies) at 3AM.</p>
<p>I have one eating schedule-eat when hungry. Period. If it’s 3 in the morning, so be it.</p>
<p>Transfer to my school. People don’t eat out much here… mostly because there’s like four ****ing places to eat out at. You get bored of pizza, taco bell and wings pretty quickly. It sucks, because the school recognizes this lack of competition and charges you 9 bucks for a few tortellini and a salad.</p>
<p>And I’m pretty much the exact opposite… I ate out ALL the time when I lived in DC, so many great restaurant options. Now I’m in Cali which in theory should have tons of great stuff, but I’m in a damn suburb.</p>
<p>bigwill I know but last year I attended Purdue even though they had a good dining court. It’s just that Purdue had a pretty terrible rotation of food that I got sick of it at night. At JWU now the food is pretty darn good and rotated well!</p>
<p>Because it’s easy to just grab a meal and go.
I personally usually set at least an hour for my meal times (or my schedule usually just turns out that way) so I eat out like once a week at most… I like cooking for myself and experimenting. I also like to know what’s in my food so I can cut out the unnecessary fats/msg/etc.</p>
<p>and romanigypsyeyes, what about vegetable sandwiches? I know you are concerned about veggies staying fresh for so long but most veggies for me tend to stay fresh for at least a week (do you have a refrigerator at all?) I eat them all the time (hummus or vegan mayo for you I guess, I eat them with normal salad dressing,hummus or mayo I add stuff to) and they are really delicious. I dont know how portable it’ll be but its an idea. ;)</p>