My parents weren't too eager to send me to camp this summer (with the financial crisis and all), so lately I've been trying to find ways to keep myself occupied. Like my grandmother always says to me, "that's the only way we'll ever keep you out of trouble." After a few weeks of half-conscious summer apathy, I realized that she was beyond right: If there's one thing I should definitely not be doing, it's nothing. So I've tried desperately to find something to do, from getting a job to trying out new hobbies- but there's just something so fun about getting out of town and chilling out with new people that those things just don't satisfy.
Lucky for me, I stumbled upon a week-long stage tech camp in Cedar City, Utah, (not too far from my hometown of Las Vegas), that cost just under the amount of money I'd made at my summer job. Being a proud techie-- and bored out of my mind-- I realized that I had encountered gold. My problem? It started the day I found it. Within two very frantic hours, I OK'd the idea with my mother, was entered into the program, packed my bags, bought a bus ticket to Utah, got on the bus, and was on the road to camp! But being anything but a normal camp (c'mon- this was kids who elected to go to a Shakespearean festival), we were staying in dorms and didn't have a dining hall or any real way of getting good food. It was one of those "eat whatever you bring or buy in town" situations. Of course, just perfect for me... Ha.
Most of the girls were surviving off of Capri Sun, Ritz crackers, and the occasional deli sandwich or make-at-home pizza cut up with scissors (this really happened). And the guys- oh, I can't even go into it. Let's just say that a whole French bread, beef jerky, and an energy drink made a well-rounded meal in their books. One in every three of us got sick. Wonder Why?
But I have to say-- while they were dying for good food, I had never eaten better in my life. Those were some good meals I threw together! When my friends and I stopped at the market for lunch (They purchased day-old oil-slathered chicken wings. That meal, I calculated, killed around twelve or thirteen chickens, by the way.) I got a bag of salad, an apple, peanut butter, and pita bread. I cut up the apple into thin slices, slathered the peanut butter in the pita, and made an apple-peanut butter pocket. Sooo delicious! I ate some salad with it, and had a stick of super satisfying, uberflavorful vegetarian jerky. (I bought it in California, but you can find it online... I strongly reccommend getting some. If you buy a lot at once, it's totally affordable!) Had it with some water, and felt really full at the end. It checked all the boxes in my book. When we got back to the dorm, I had a popsicle along with everyone else. Yeah, I had a popsicle... why not? It's dessert, and I earned it! That's just an example of what I ate all week. Needless to say, I certainly felt and looked better than the others by the end of that week. Seriously, our dorm sounded like a nursing home by the end, constipation complaints at all! (I suppose that's the problem with camp: you hear just about everything, including things you really don't want to hear.)
Anyhow, my tactic to staying healthy was to look for variety in what I was eating. I kept it fresh and new, and my body sure did thank me for it. If you're in a program, whether you eat in a cafeteria or not, the key is to look for a variety of foods. Take a carbohydrate (try for healthier complex carbs, like whole wheat products), a protein, a veggie (you'd better!), perhaps a fruit, and even a fat (You know how much is appropriate, even though you lie to yourself and pretend you don't). Also, don't be abashed about what you're eating! I learned not to apologise for what I ate a long time ago. I'm not embarassed at all. As a matter of fact, some of the other girls, when they realized how horrendously they were eating, told me how embarrassed they were of their own eating habits. I was so happy eating my own food that I didn't have time to think about how the others regarded my choices. All I cared about was how good my food made me feel, and anything besides "Yumm" was quickly discarded from my mind.
So that's really it! Whether you're eating in a camp cafeteria, dining hall, or have free reign of the town around, you can still eat fantastically! Just look for variety, and enjoy the delicious food available to you. Honestly- with some imagination, anything can be made to taste good! Mix it up, make good friends, seek out fun, and enjoy camp!
Lucky for me, I stumbled upon a week-long stage tech camp in Cedar City, Utah, (not too far from my hometown of Las Vegas), that cost just under the amount of money I'd made at my summer job. Being a proud techie-- and bored out of my mind-- I realized that I had encountered gold. My problem? It started the day I found it. Within two very frantic hours, I OK'd the idea with my mother, was entered into the program, packed my bags, bought a bus ticket to Utah, got on the bus, and was on the road to camp! But being anything but a normal camp (c'mon- this was kids who elected to go to a Shakespearean festival), we were staying in dorms and didn't have a dining hall or any real way of getting good food. It was one of those "eat whatever you bring or buy in town" situations. Of course, just perfect for me... Ha.
Most of the girls were surviving off of Capri Sun, Ritz crackers, and the occasional deli sandwich or make-at-home pizza cut up with scissors (this really happened). And the guys- oh, I can't even go into it. Let's just say that a whole French bread, beef jerky, and an energy drink made a well-rounded meal in their books. One in every three of us got sick. Wonder Why?
But I have to say-- while they were dying for good food, I had never eaten better in my life. Those were some good meals I threw together! When my friends and I stopped at the market for lunch (They purchased day-old oil-slathered chicken wings. That meal, I calculated, killed around twelve or thirteen chickens, by the way.) I got a bag of salad, an apple, peanut butter, and pita bread. I cut up the apple into thin slices, slathered the peanut butter in the pita, and made an apple-peanut butter pocket. Sooo delicious! I ate some salad with it, and had a stick of super satisfying, uberflavorful vegetarian jerky. (I bought it in California, but you can find it online... I strongly reccommend getting some. If you buy a lot at once, it's totally affordable!) Had it with some water, and felt really full at the end. It checked all the boxes in my book. When we got back to the dorm, I had a popsicle along with everyone else. Yeah, I had a popsicle... why not? It's dessert, and I earned it! That's just an example of what I ate all week. Needless to say, I certainly felt and looked better than the others by the end of that week. Seriously, our dorm sounded like a nursing home by the end, constipation complaints at all! (I suppose that's the problem with camp: you hear just about everything, including things you really don't want to hear.)
Anyhow, my tactic to staying healthy was to look for variety in what I was eating. I kept it fresh and new, and my body sure did thank me for it. If you're in a program, whether you eat in a cafeteria or not, the key is to look for a variety of foods. Take a carbohydrate (try for healthier complex carbs, like whole wheat products), a protein, a veggie (you'd better!), perhaps a fruit, and even a fat (You know how much is appropriate, even though you lie to yourself and pretend you don't). Also, don't be abashed about what you're eating! I learned not to apologise for what I ate a long time ago. I'm not embarassed at all. As a matter of fact, some of the other girls, when they realized how horrendously they were eating, told me how embarrassed they were of their own eating habits. I was so happy eating my own food that I didn't have time to think about how the others regarded my choices. All I cared about was how good my food made me feel, and anything besides "Yumm" was quickly discarded from my mind.
So that's really it! Whether you're eating in a camp cafeteria, dining hall, or have free reign of the town around, you can still eat fantastically! Just look for variety, and enjoy the delicious food available to you. Honestly- with some imagination, anything can be made to taste good! Mix it up, make good friends, seek out fun, and enjoy camp!
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