Here we go again, another finals season and another fight to stay afloat among projects, presentations, exams, homeworks, while trying to squeeze in a few hours of sleep at some point. Notice anything missing from that list? Something arguably more important than any of the others, but it somehow gets pushed to the bottom of the priorities for a lot of students around this time in the semester: Eating!
The involuntary psychological phenomenon where one loses interest in eating is called food fatigue. It can happen when you feel you’re too busy, focused on the task at hand, or even just too unmotivated to take some time to stop, find some decent food, and eat it. Food fatigue can even happen when you’re simply just bored of the food options you have available. This leads to that lack of motivation or desire to eat that can cause some pretty negative side effects. However, there are a few ways to fight food fatigue during the overwhelmingly busy finals season. I’ll lay out a few here. Why don’t you grab a snack and see if any can help you out?
The first, easiest, and maybe most seemingly ridiculous tip is to set an alarm. When you’re working on assignment after assignment, then studying for exam after exam, time can really start to run away without you even noticing. Having an alarm set to remind you to eat something every few hours is a great way to break away from staring at your laptop for hours. Whether it’s just a granola bar or a sweet, sweet swipe into Pierce from a freshman with more meal swipes than they know what to do with (take notes freshmen), just having something in your stomach will help fight off food fatigue and could even improve the quality of your studying.
That brings me to the next tip: trying something new! Maybe you’ve been getting the same chicken parm sub from Piccola Italia everyday for the past week because it’s easy, quick, and you know it’ll be solid every time. Though this may sustain you temporarily, this can lead into that monotony that tells our body to stop craving food and lull you into food fatigue. Some great on-campus options for a unique meal are the build-your-own sandwiches and salads from America’s Cup, the unlimited food available at Pierce, and the Rotate station at the UCC Marketplace. It could even be a good idea to try cooking something yourself and making one of the biweekly recipes from our resident chef (and Outreach Chair) Kayden Cannilla’s column. Switching up your order often can keep you more interested in eating and who knows, maybe you’ll find a new favorite!
Maybe eating on campus isn’t your thing because you live off-campus, or you just really don’t like the food here (no one blames you). Meal prepping on weekends for the upcoming week is a practical, efficient way to fight food fatigue. Making a large batch of a few different meals so you can package them up to spread out throughout the week will not only save you time during the day, but also make it convenient to have a few options for each meal. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but having a few containers of spaghetti, sandwiches, or stir fry and rice ready to go in your fridge is a huge help when you’re overloaded with schoolwork and your eating alarm goes off, assuming you followed tip number one.
At the end of the day, food fatigue is a very real thing that can happen to anyone, and being prepared is the best way to fight it. These three tips are a great start to getting yourself ready for finding time to eat during the finals season grind, though there are a number of other ways to keep yourself from falling into food fatigue that may work better for you. Find what works and stick to it as best you can. Good luck on finals, enjoy the last days of warm-ish weather, and remember to eat something!
