Study snacks are out kids

Study is hard. Getting assignments done is harder. And these two things become incrementally harder again when you add the facet of having to eat throughout each of the practices.

Study food. Comfort to many, nuisance to some, unknown to none. We all have that little treat we wander over to the pantry for between proof reads of a 3003 piece and revision of week 5 3005 questions. And if any of you are like me, and have an unknown and undiagnosed disease that causes you to procrastinate between EACH AND EVERY DARN PARAGRAPH you’ll know only too well that these 20-second snack breaks can turn into 2 minutes noodles (which everyone knows takes at least 5 minutes including boiling kettle time), 20 minutes sandwiches, or, my personal favourite, 2 hour “I’m going to bake a cake from scratch” sessions. And, inevitably, the calories start rolling in the door as well.

So alas, my sweet-toothed-but-busy friends, we search evermore for the perfect study food; Quick, Easy, Healthy and Cheap. Here are my top three. Below that are all of your fantastic suggestions (yet to be added).

1. Berries and Yoghurt

I’m a bit of an unofficial advocate of berries. I love the suckers. I’m not biased either, any kind will do. Frozen is cheaper. And most articles say the nutritional loss isn’t that significant, like this one and this one. I say do whatever your sweet heart pleases so long as you get back to writing that essay quick smart. Trick is, pop them in some unsweetened, fat free yoghurt and forego a lot of those tricky calories and extra sugar. I love this one. Not a fan of eating tasteless goo? Pop some honey on top. And nuts. Cos no one hates nuts (unless you’re allergic and then that’s a pretty good reason).

Just for your entertainment, this guy also loves berries, although he appears to like his with cream.

2. Peanut butter, banana & honey on rice crackers.

This one’s a bit naughty, I have to admit. I wouldn’t say it’s ‘rob a bank’ naughty, but it’s probably up there with throwing your apple core our your car window. However, the lovely lovely lady that introduced me to this little treat wisely noted, “You don’t have them every day.” Simple steps:

• Rice cake (or two, or three, or however many you want)
• Peanut butter on top (go easy)
• Chopped banana on top
• Honey on top
• Easy as pie

Literally, the hardest thing about this snack is trying not to get different concoctions of honey/banana/rice cake/peanut butter all over your keyboard as you FINISH YOUR ASSIGNMENT (winning!).

3. Coffee

It’s so stupid it’s brilliant. I’m not suggesting here to drink seventeen cups of the stuff rather than eating a balanced diet including regular, portioned meals. However, I do find that sometimes when I have eight-hour stretches of essay writing ahead of me and a house to myself, my fingers tend to find their way to the fruit bowl, and then the nuts bowl, and then, more often than not, the lolly bowl. And before I know it, I’ve eaten 1000kjs without even noticing. So when I recommend coffee as a substitute, I should explain here that it’s because it’s a bit more of a conscious process than just reaching for sweets. If you’re lucky enough to have a coffee machine, you’ll need to take a quick break and make yourself an espresso (surprisingly mediative I find), or even pop down to the closest shop to find one. The other thing is, it reminds you that you may not, in fact, be all that hungry, but require liquids instead. Of course, if we’re trying to avoid empty calories here I need to mention all the things that find their way into your cup along with your shot. If you have milk, be mindful that it counts, same with sugar, and same with anything else you fancy in your skinny-mocha-latte. It all counts. So just be mindful. If you can, try out a long black or something to that effect, which doesn’t have milk. The other thing I must mention is that coffee, incredibly enough, contains caffeine and WILL KEEP YOU AWAKE if you’re writing essays at 11pm. So if you have trouble sleeping like me, watch your dosage and try and keep your last cup o’joe pre 1pm.

Floor is open to you, my wonderful friends. Jump on, have a boogie, do a dubstep or whatever you kids call it. And then give us your favourite study snack suggestion before you leave.