How to eat healthy as a college student?

lionesslindsey

Hello, my name is Lindsey. I'm a college student and it is really hard to eat super healthy as a broke college student, as I'm sure many of you know.
Are there any cheap but healthy options to eat well and gain weight?

I'm new to this app/community so I hope this can help me. I've been meaning to consistently track my diet for a while, to reach my higher calorie goal every day. I'm actually really excited for this, but also kind of nervous because I'm nervous about finally being over 100 lbs. More than anything, though.. I want to be healthy.

Anyways, I hope to hear from some of you who are also gaining weight. Thank you in advance c:

Peace and love!

lionesslindsey

Oops! Meant to say *...also kind of nervous about finally being over 100 lbs.

NEWMEKELLIB

if your broke the best thing is to remember fast food cost way more than food from the grocery store and you get a whole lot more for your money...a dozen eggs is $ 2.30 / cheese burger at least $2.00 for something decent that still leaves you more hungry.
good luck on gaining weight...im in the other postion losing ... but im in the broke category.
being mindful is key, your body is like a baby nourish it and care for it and love it endlessly.
adding things like peanut butter and brown rice ...are always helpful

jimmmer

Cheap, fatty cuts of meat can be bought economically and batch slow-cooked and portioned out. Lamb, braise steak, pork shoulder are all excellent and cheap.

Potatoes, rice, pasta can all be bought cheaply and eaten in sufficient quantities to add cals to your diet.

Buying a whole chicken, roasting it and shredding it for lunches is cheaper than buying already butchered chicken in breast form.

All depends on your cooking skills and your dedication (and also what foods/food groups you specify as verboten)

mccindy72

Eating take-out food is more expensive than buying your own food, no matter if you are a college student or anything else. When it comes to maintaining weight or gaining, healthy fats like avocado, peanut butter, whole nuts, hummus.... these will all help you. cheese is another good addition.

365andstillalive

Eating healthy as a college student is hard, but gaining as a college student on healthy foods is likely even harder.

For me, I kept my food cheap by looking into local options (farmers market, local butchers etc). Since graduating, I've kept going to the farmers markets, they're just so much cheaper; I literally get twice as many fruit/veggies as when I go to the grocery store.

The other thing is really just buying foods as they're on sale: discount meat especially. If you have any good, local butchers in the area, a lot of them offer deals like "buy four, get two free" on things like pork chops, chicken etc.

I also frequent Bulk Barn (and other stores like that) a lot to grab some of my basics like lentils and other dried beans that I can use to beef up meals protein wise on the cheap.

Last tip, repetition. If you aren't picky, it's cheaper to buy the ingredients to make only 3-4 different meals that you'll eat through out the week rather than something different for every day. Chili and crock pot pulled chicken are two of my (fairly cheap) faves.

melimomTARDIS

how about healthy shelf stable foods?

Like individual boxes of soy milk,a big jar of peanut butter, wheat bread, nuts (peanuts especially, because of cheapness), apples and oranges (these can be bought cheaply in bags.) Maybe a higher fiber cereal for snacks (frosted mini wheats or the like?)

lionesslindsey

To everyone who replied: thank you! I wasn't expecting advice so quickly. I love cooking and experimenting so I'm up for any of these suggestions (as long as it doesn't include bananas lol). Thank you all again and I will definitely be saving your advice to my notes!

lionesslindsey

Also, @NEWMEKELLIB‌ your comment on how the body is like a baby, to nourish and love it, was beautiful. Thank you.

I'm learning how to do that more, in my yoga class. It's a great stress reliever. I'm learning how to accept myself as an awesome person just doing their best, which is hard but rewarding. It's tough but the philosophy and workouts have helped me so much. It's wonderful.

NEWMEKELLIB

@Lionesslindsey I take a lot of inspiration from many people... check out breelovesbeauty on youtube, she taught me this. I too am learning self love.

NEWMEKELLIB

good luck on this endless journey we call life enjoy every single day. good or bad.

Brolympus

mccindy72 wrote: »

Eating take-out food is more expensive than buying your own food, no matter if you are a college student or anything else. When it comes to maintaining weight or gaining, healthy fats like avocado, peanut butter, whole nuts, hummus.... these will all help you. cheese is another good addition.

Yup. Eating out adds up quick. On a day to day basis, it might seem like the $100+ bucks you might pend at the store for two weeks of groceries is a lot, bu when you end up spending about $7-8 per meal on every meal, you can see how less than a week of eating out trumps groceries for two weeks.

I dislike cooking, so I tend to make batches of food that last a couple days. Good foods that you can buy in bulk and I have found are fairly cheap (expiration times vary):

• Bone-in chicken breasts
• Round or Chuck portions of beef (you can cook a lot of the fat out, especially if it is ground meat)
• Sweet Potatoes
• Eggs
• Broccolli
• Carrots
• Greek Yogurt (stuff has a super long expiration date)
• Cottage Cheese
• Wheat/Whole Grain Bread

Obviously, you need other things to round out your diet like nuts, fruits, etc. but use the cheaper foods you can find as a "base" for your meals and you will save a ton of money. I saw somebody say farmer's market, those are great for stocking up on produce if you have them available to you.

Also a good idea to try and meal plan a least a couple times a week. Will help you strategize when you hit the grocery store, and keeps you from getting frustrated when you don't know what to cook and giving into a craving to go out and eat. Has helped me a lot.

ndj1979

don't worry so much about "healthy", but worry about eating enough food to gain weight, but, at the same time, make sure that you are hitting micro/macro/calorie targets.

So this means eating things like vegetables, chicken, rish, rice, etc, but then also filling in your day with ice cream, pasta, bagels, cookies, etc...

auddii

Brolympus wrote: »

mccindy72 wrote: »

Eating take-out food is more expensive than buying your own food, no matter if you are a college student or anything else. When it comes to maintaining weight or gaining, healthy fats like avocado, peanut butter, whole nuts, hummus.... these will all help you. cheese is another good addition.

Yup. Eating out adds up quick. On a day to day basis, it might seem like the $100+ bucks you might pend at the store for two weeks of groceries is a lot, bu when you end up spending about $7-8 per meal on every meal, you can see how less than a week of eating out trumps groceries for two weeks.

I dislike cooking, so I tend to make batches of food that last a couple days. Good foods that you can buy in bulk and I have found are fairly cheap (expiration times vary):

• Bone-in chicken breasts
• Round or Chuck portions of beef (you can cook a lot of the fat out, especially if it is ground meat)
• Sweet Potatoes
• Eggs
• Broccolli
• Carrots
• Greek Yogurt (stuff has a super long expiration date)
• Cottage Cheese
• Wheat/Whole Grain Bread

Obviously, you need other things to round out your diet like nuts, fruits, etc. but use the cheaper foods you can find as a "base" for your meals and you will save a ton of money. I saw somebody say farmer's market, those are great for stocking up on produce if you have them available to you.

Also a good idea to try and meal plan a least a couple times a week. Will help you strategize when you hit the grocery store, and keeps you from getting frustrated when you don't know what to cook and giving into a craving to go out and eat. Has helped me a lot.

You forgot rice and dried beans, especially in bulk. I had a friend who was a little older than us when we were in college, so he had real money. He'd buy people 20lbs of rice, which fits in a 5 gallon paint bucket. You can eat off that forever (again, supplementing with other food to round out the diet). Kind of again big investment upfront, but lasts a long time.

jayla73

What I used to when i ate meat was I would got to a Mexican food store and buy however many pounds of chicken i needed. Then i wold buy lots of food thats dry and keep those stocked. For fruits and veggies I would stock up on certain ones and prepare them and put them in the freezer. Also shopping around and setting a budget; another thing is having a list of all the foods you need.

CHDuggin

Chicken and rice. Just started bulking but from reading that is the cheapest best bulking food you will get.