Wheelson Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Well, I have come to realize in the past week or so that next year I will be a poor college student. As of right now I keep a pretty clean diet and stay away from fast food, candy, etc. I also take paleo principles and apply them loosely. I try to limit my grains but, by no means do I avoid them completely. I was just wondering how one can survive in college and still maintain a relatively healthful diet. I was thinking I may have to buy a big bag of this http://www.trueprotein.com/Product_Deta ... 2&pid=6843 ,so I have something to fall back on if all I can find is poor sources of protein and such. Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razz Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Hmm I manage on a college budget. No spare money though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Sjolin Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 Follow the four college food groups;Sugar, fat, caffeine and salt...I guess alcohol should be in there too.I'm looking forward to finally finishing my degree this year, but I do get some of my best workouts done here too.As far as diet goes, if you can get a little barfridge in your room and stuff it with veggies and stuff like that, you'll be okay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex4158 Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Being a college student myself, honestly man take advantage of your Universities dining hall. My Uni's dining hall has so much food and it is all you can eat. When I had little money I would eat some oats and protein for breakfast then at lunch I'd go to the dining hall, eat 4 plates, plus sneak a bunch of food out for dinner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCem222 Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Follow the four college food groups;Sugar, fat, caffeine and salt...I guess alcohol should be in there too. This is pretty accurateLike lex, I take advantage of my college's all you can eat dining. I always sneak food out in styrofoam containers, so I get two for the price of one. Good protein sources are a little hard to find, but its easy to get vegetables (the irony is that most college students spend their time eating fries and burgers even though the dining hall has so many vegetables) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Sjolin Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Being a college student myself, honestly man take advantage of your Universities dining hall. My Uni's dining hall has so much food and it is all you can eat. When I had little money I would eat some oats and protein for breakfast then at lunch I'd go to the dining hall, eat 4 plates, plus sneak a bunch of food out for dinner.Where in the heck do you go to school? My uni's dining hall is really screwy. You have to pay through the nose for small portions, and what you do get is either fried, processed, mouldy, wilted, or some combination of the four. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blairbob Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Find a job at a local eatery that offers a complimentary meal. Worked at a pizza place a few years back and I got to make my own slices and I would just heaps tons of veggies on a thin crust. Besides, sometimes we got to eat fouled up orders. Just make sure you don't get a job that allows you 50% off. Thankyou for paying me jack and offering 50% off your overpriced food that I don't make enough to buy anyways. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fryk Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 I am also on a budget, as I am studying at the university. Though not in the states, so I really cannot be sure that our circumstances can be compared. I would say that it is very much possible to eat paleo-ish diet on a budget, and really not that hard. However, for me it is imperative to have access to some sort of cooking facility, and it sounds like that might be an issue. In that instance canned fish, might be something to consider. In a pinch some protein powder might help, but consider that powders really aren't real food. Whole milk will probably work just as well, and offer some calories besides the protein. Whole animal products are absolutely no. 1 in terms of nutrition, and there really isn't an substitution for that. A strategy would be to look for the cheaper cuts of meat eg. ground beef or especially offal. Buying in bulk is also recommended. Liver is for instance one of the cheapest cuts, while also being absolutely supreme in terms of sheer nutritional value. In order to cut costs you could also try to follow the season vegetable wise. This will also automatically force you to learn how to cook stuff you have not tried before. If you are really into the paleo thing, intermittent fasting might also be something to consider, some do seem to benefit from it. Especially if you cannot get to some decent food it might be an option. If you look into it there is tons of posts on different paleo sites on this exact topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razz Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 The other day my local store had organic meat on discount because it was last sale date so I bought a shitload and froze it. Seems like you Americans don't have access to your own kitchens and/or freezers. That'd make things quite a bit harder. Off topic: Fryk where are you studying? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 This is probably a minority opinion, but get a rice cooker. You can use them to quickly cook rice and steam veggies, both of which will help you get quality carbs on the smallest possible budget. That is the biggest challenge for guys like you and me who are poor, and it works great. I get all kinds of veggies, and I tend to have heavier and lighter veggie weeks since they are expensive but that's fine. I always have money for rice, I mean it's like 20 bucks a month for all the clean carbs you need! Can't get cheaper than that.EDIT!!!!! No microwaves!!! Toaster ovens are small and can help you reheat food without destroying it all. Read the second link that Patrick posted below, it is excellent information for you. Some glassware, a padded lunch box, a small or medium fridge for cooked food storage and you should be good to go. Protein is fairly easy, you can get a George Foreman grill and have all the chicken and steak you want. A lot of people like crock pots and other slow cookers, and I do too, but if you don't have a pretty big sink to wash your dishes in you're really going to have to do without this one unless you wash it in the shower, which you COULD do...Anyhow, those are my suggestions. Personally, I am getting very lean this way and my strength is just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quick Start Test Smith Posted January 29, 2011 Share Posted January 29, 2011 I suggest you do a little reading about microwaves before you start eating a lot of microwaved food. As far as I know, it has some pretty hefty negatives attached.http://www.goodhealthinfo.net/radiation ... estern.htmhttp://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... zards.aspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Wow. So the first link I was like ok... I know about how the microwaves mess with us and I understand this article but I do know know what the heck this has to do with microwaving food!Now, that second article is the reason I burned my microwave. Excellent article, thank you! No more microwaves for me.One small statistic for those of you who get frustrated with the site's initial interface:Microwaving your broccoli with some water to quickly steam it destroys 90% of the antioxidants in the broccoli. Steaming it conventionally destroys less than 11%. Read the site, it is quite well referenced and is using peer reviewed articles that are good science as sources. These microwaves are bad news all around, with the exception of killing germs. They are very good at killing living things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Sjolin Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Crockpots and toaster ovens are probably the only tools you'll need to make some nice meals in your dorm room (assuming you live in one). Also kettles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fryk Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 All very nice strategies. I have lost a bit of confidence in the official ecology sadly. What does it even mean here in Denmark? I would much rather have a grass fed brand, but the only grass fed item I have found is butter. This may be a bit off topic, but the cheapest butter you can buy in Denmark is grass-fed (imported from New Zealand) it has a beautiful yellowish color, whereas the organic 50% more expensive brand is pale white, and therefore obviously not grass fed. Ecology does not equal superior quality, at least in this case. So being on a budget also means that one has to know what to look for. If the cows are just fed ecological soy and grains then it does not really matter, and I fear that is the case. The butter seem to indicate it. I think that if you want good quality beef, the only real option is to find a farmer where you can see the actual cow - and see what he is feeding them. In terms of the poor college student, a chest freezer this might be an option - over a year or two the freezer will have paid for itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razz Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 From reading on most forums and people were telling me that organic meat here in Denmark would also be grassfed. I later found that out to be wrong. They are free-range and have access to grass, but if they decide to go inside and eat there will be grass and there will also be grains. Still mostly grassfed but not enough :S Fryk what's the name of that NZ brand? Never seen that here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fryk Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Green Lea: http://arla.dk/Produkter/Brands/Andet/g ... dsk-smoer/ (Work and family safe)The butter is from New Zealand, but it is sold by Arla. I have only seen it in Superbest, where it is their cheapest butter, which is great. Since I found I haven't used any other brand. I think that during the summer the ecological butter could also be considered grass fed, as cows are on pasture in this period. It is very easy to check because the color of the butter reflect their diet. Butter can also be frozen for up to 3 months. So stocking up on ecological butter in season would be an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Razz Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 Ah cool, thanks. Will have to check it out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samuel Carr Posted January 30, 2011 Share Posted January 30, 2011 I've slowly adjusted to being able to eat pretty much any vegetable raw/plain without anything added to it. Yeah some can be pretty hard to swallow but when it comes to fast, cheap, and easy pretty much nothing can beat it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lex4158 Posted February 3, 2011 Share Posted February 3, 2011 Being a college student myself, honestly man take advantage of your Universities dining hall. My Uni's dining hall has so much food and it is all you can eat. When I had little money I would eat some oats and protein for breakfast then at lunch I'd go to the dining hall, eat 4 plates, plus sneak a bunch of food out for dinner.Where in the heck do you go to school? My uni's dining hall is really screwy. You have to pay through the nose for small portions, and what you do get is either fried, processed, mouldy, wilted, or some combination of the four.Haha thats too bad, i go to the university of california Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbryk Posted February 14, 2011 Share Posted February 14, 2011 I have an all you can eat meal plan where I got, pretty good food, nice variety. I feel bad for those that have to pay per serving as many schools in my state are still on that plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rower Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 I have to dig this one up. The Slizzardman mentioned the George Foreman Grill. I am thinking about buying one of those. Not because I want to avoid fats (quite the opposite, actually) but because I live in a Loft, and after every chicken breast i cook, my room (including my bed) smells for hours... Which is bad, because I eat a lot of those. So will be the Grill an improvement over this situation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Naterman Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 That's a good question. Are you frying your chicken breasts in vinegar or something?If nothing else, you'll have a tasty grilled fragrance instead of a steamy, somewhat chicken-y smell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rower Posted August 14, 2011 Share Posted August 14, 2011 A pinch of salt and coconut oil. That's all. I use no spices at all, that only adds to odour intensity.I might just have to buy one and try it out. I thought that the closed lid will keep the smell to a minimum, but who knows.At the very least, I have a chrismas present for my mother Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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