Feasible College Diet

[Mitch]

I've seen Leo's video "Advice for High School & College Students," and I know he essentially says to eat clean (notably, no bread). However, I don't know how to go about this really, since my food needs to fit either in my mini-fridge or in my cupboard and ideally needs to be affordable.

Currently, my average diet looks like this:

Breakfast:

• Oatmeal prepared with water in the microwave
• Golden flax seed and cinnamon is added to this
• Vitamin C (500 mg), D (2600 IU), Fish Oil (1200 mg), Calcium (1000 mg), Magnesium (400 mg), Zinc (25 mg)
• Note that I do not have dairy as it seems to have an effect on acne, so Calcium I see as fairly necessary

Lunch:

• Grilled chicken from my dorm's dining hall
• Looking at nutrition facts, it's perhaps the best protein to calorie and fat option available, but it's served on a bun

Pre-Workout:

• An apple

Dinner

• Giant salad that is a mixture of spinach and spring mix
• Sliced carrots, onions, broccoli, red and green bell peppers are often choices I pick
• Grilled chicken slices and hard boiled eggs I often add to the salad
• A lite basalmic vinagrette is used since they don't offer olive oil or other such things to make a dressing with at my dining hall
• This is my post-workout meal as well, so I will add canned tuna for the low calories and high protein value

Snacks:

• Peanut butter on a bread slice – not toast, because our dorm hall doesn't trust us with toasters
• This is one of the worst things I can see in my diet right now, so if I can replace it, that would be good

What are some ways to modify my diet to be more clean (and without bread) without going broke and still being able to store food? I find I will eat anything so long as it's not horribly greasy or fatty or isn't something like cat food (though, I did mention I eat tuna, often times right out of the can).

Thanks.

[Guest SCM]

@Mitch Overall your daily meal plan looks really good in terms of eating clean. Are you feeling good also or are you on the hungry side? I'm just wondering if you also have an athletic goal since I see you are working out (daily?)

 

 

 

[Mitch]

@stephanie

I tend to want to eat more at night after working out (weekday basis), but I don't actually feel my stomach growling, which is how I determine if I'm actually hungry or simply want to eat since I need some sort of stimulation. Generally speaking though, I feel like adding something else to throw in maybe right before bed might be good.

I've cut out peanut butter and bread but haven't replaced it yet, so I have been having salads with chicken in two times a day and generally two apples a day. I feel cleaner without the bread and peanut butter, but it's difficult to not get hungry eating this modified diet.

[Guest SCM]

Calorie wise you are very low, especially for a guy:-) But if you don't have any aspiration to grow muscle mass and feel generally good I would say add some more fats into your diet. Almonds/nuts in general are easy to carry around and you can get a big bag at Costo for a good price.  

Do you know Ezekiel bread? It's sprouted bread and generally gentle on the stomach. I can even eat it untoasted. You could take 2 slices with you for lunch, add the chicken and some mustard. Before bed, you could have some almond milk. When I was on Paleo it didn't matter how large my portions were, so when ever I felt hungry I just sized up the portion or threw in a hard boiled egg here and there.

[Mitch]

Good suggestions. There was a time when I actually had Ezekiel bread often, but that was when I was in elementary school.

I do want to build muscle, but at the same time, I'm not overly concerned about getting it because there really isn't any need other than aesthetically looking good: I don't play sports like I used to in high school. The problem is that protein is never cheap, so I'm trying to find ways to get good forms of it cheaply. However, if it comes down to it, being healthy and having to pay a little extra is still worthwhile in my book, it's just that I want to explore all possible options first.

Thanks.

 

[Guest SCM]

Another food that came to my mind is Chickpeas/Garbanzo beans - 1 cup: Carbs=45g, Protein 15g, Fat 4g. It would make a good post workout food.

Generally I don't like beans, except of these. You can buy them canned/unsalted and take them with you in some tupperware, adding the chicken or just add them to your salad. You can also buy them dry, but they are a pain to boil - takes forever. 

Actually there are some great health benefits to muscle mass i.e. keeps metabolism fast, burns fat and keeps you young, good for the bones/organs.  Just wait and see once you get older