Gaining...fast.HELP! Advice 4 a college student!

karissastephens

So this summer I was so active and fit I loved it!

now...since school is back I have gained 5 pounds in a few weeks.....

This is my situation:

1) I am always on the go. Get up early, go to classes, study on campus, go home & dress for the gym, work out, then go back home and study then bed by around midnight. I work too on weekends

2) my workouts are pretty good. Cardio everyday for 25-40 min. Strength training/circuits 3-4 days a week.

Problems:

1) SUGAR and CARBS. I crave them constantly and find myself eating them a lot because they keep me going and are easy.
2) Im really into snacking more than eating full meals because I never have time to sit and cook...and I do not know HOW TO COOK! I rarely am eating meats because I don't have time to cook it
3) My roommates are crazy about their food. they eat so unhealthy and I feel like im too weak to say NO to anything unheathly but tasty! Examples : Pizza, fries, ice cream, alcohol, cookies, cakes! etc....

Helpppp. What do I do to help me not gain anymore!?! Give me some tips on cooking or ways to say NO to foods, or anything for that matter that would help me stay fit and healthy during college

maletac

FRESHMAN 15!!!!!!!!! lol jk jk... try snacking on fruits and veggies more.. youll get a lot better of a weight result.. even if you eat lots of celery and brocolli or carrots it would be good calories for you

and in regards to the roommate thing just try to get go flavored yogurt... its like 100 calories... and it tastes great .. and then you can cut calories and eat healthy.. theres always some healthy alternatives...

and you can always learn to cook.. simple things... like... baked potatoes.. chicken in the oven..

kappyblu

Karissa, I understand about being a college student. I am a full-time student and a full-time mom to four beautiful kids. Just the fact that you came here means you want to be healthy. You are probably not getting enough sleep or enough water. Drink at least a gallon a day. Also, you do not have to eat what your friends are eating. Remember what you felt like when you had the healthy lifestyle. Have the courage to say no. If your friends ridicule you, it is just their own insecurities they are projecting. But all that pizza and alcohol isn't going to help you. This is your life, not theirs. It is ultimately your choice. If you are into snacking, make them healthy snacks. There are tons of choices out there. Spend a few hours in a grocery store and find what your options are. Maybe having healthy habits will even rub off on them.

I like rice cakes with hummus or the light laughing cow cheese wedges on them. There are also fresh fruits and veggies you can have as snacks. Fiber one bars are great on the go. Pack a lunch and take it with you. You'll save money and eat healthier. I started doing that this semester and feel so much better. Try to get to bed sooner. Carry a water bottle with you everywhere you go. Pack healthy snacks for yourself. Your workouts sound great, but with the stress, pizza and lack of sleep, you will probably keep gaining. Remember that you are stronger than any pizza, stronger than any beer, stronger than any cookie, and stronger than any french fry! Good luck to you hon!

SouthernBell86

I just graduated from college in May so I can really relate. I gained a lot of weight my first two years, and then managed to not gain weight the second two. Now that I have graduated I have been able to start losing weight. The things below are some of the tricks I used for not gaining weight during my second two years.

Okay, well first of all I think you should keep a variety of healthy things you like in the house that are easy to eat that you can grab if a roommate offers you something crazy.

Some people don't like this, but I keep large carrot sticks around because they are very low calorie, but take a while to eat and are super filling. Make a deal with yourself that if you want to eat potato chips, first you have to eat an entire carrot stick. Chances are by the time you finish it you won't have any interest in the chips anymore. Carrot sticks are also sweet, so sometimes they satisfy my sweet tooth as well.

For protein, keep some nuts (almonds are great!) in the house and try to eat at least an ounce of those each day. Beans are also a good source of protein, and you can eat them with a huge variety of foods.

You should try and find a way to incorporate more meat into your diet though, because if you are very active you need that protein. I have two suggestions for you.

- One is to get a George Foreman Grill and cook chicken breast or turkey breast on that right before you study at night. It's quick and painless even for someone who doesn't know how to cook. Only drawback here is that you might get kind of bored with this (or maybe not, just depends).

- Second suggestion, which I HIGHLY recommend is to invest in a crockpot (you can get one for 15 dollars or less...get an actual crock pot not an off brand). Then use this website: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

That blog has tons of recipes for crock pots that are super easy, not expensive, and a lot of them are healthy. You can throw the ingredients into the crock pot in the morning before you go to class, then come home to a complete dinner at night without doing anything to it all day. A lot of the recipes have veggies and meat in them so you really do get balanced nutrition from it. Then the next day you have leftovers you can reheat. It really doesn't take cooking skills to use a crock pot, just bare ability to follow a few directions. Cleanup is also not that hard with only one dish used!

Before you go to the gym, eat some good carbs, and then when you get home try to eat something with a good balance of carbs, protein and fat in order for your muscles to recoop properly.

Also, I don't know how often you eat this junk food, or what you normally tell yourself about being allowed to eat them, but I would try to take a more relaxed attitude towards them. Allow yourself to have a moderate amount once a week, and you will probably have an easier time resisting the rest of the week. If you love chocolate, only buy the fun sized portions, and keep them around for when you really need it. Usually they're only 100 calories or so, and as long as you just let yourself eat one, you'll be fine.

I really found that in college it was very important that I eat healthy food I enjoyed, because if I wasn't enjoying it I was too tempted to eat all the yummy junk food my roommates would dig into at 2 am.

Good luck!

karissastephens

KappyBlu thanks so much for the support! That made my day!

And SouthernBell those were AMAZING suggestions. im def. going to look into getting a crockpot or george foreman..or BOTH! hehe.

Any recipes u guys have that is fast and delicious!?

I tend to get bored of the same veggies, fruits, and healthy stuff i do consume...

karissastephens

I also eat so much sugar that usually that is all I crave and want. I would pick a sweet over anything every time! Any suggestions on how to curb this sweet tooth? Is something going on with my body or is it maybe from my splenda i put in my coffee??

eveunderground

Hi I just looked thru your food journal, your breakfast from today and yesterday looks great, the rest of your meals look like they're lacking enough bulk to keep you full, they're carb heavy which will keep you craving more carbs...you definitely need to figure out a way to get some protein in there to round out your meals and keep you fuller for longer. When you feel full/satisfied it's much easier to resist the temptations of pizza/fries/ice cream/sweets/etc.

The crockpot & foreman grill suggestions from southernbell86 are GREAT, definitely look into those. Both don't require much "cooking" on your part, they do all the work. I have both but if I had to pick one of the two I'd go with the foreman grill...but it really comes down to personal preference of the type of foods/dishes you like to eat.

eveunderground

Oh yeah, and for alcohol, when your friends are having beer, you could instead have mixers with diet sodas- like rum+diet coke, vodka+diet tonic, etc. That will lighten the calories. Or, there's some low calorie beers you could buy as well. That way your not totally missing out.

karissastephens

Ya I just am not sure how to cook meat. I know how to bake it but im not sure what flavors and things to add to make it taste less BLAH

SouthernBell86

Well, making things taste good is a huge issue. First, you must know what you like, so you have to be willing to experiment and try new things. To start with, write a list of your favorite ways to eat meat when someone else has made it for you or at a restaurant. If one of those was "taco meat" you could then try and find a good recipe for making that in a healthy way. This website has some good threads about that, and allrecipes.com has a huge variety of recipes with lots of user feedback on how they turn out.

Start with easy things. Marinade your meat before grilling it. Olive oil and lime juice are an excellent marinade for chicken. Just put the meat in a flat tupperware or corningware dish, then put in a little olive oil and squeeze your lime in. Use as small a dish as you can for the amount of meat. Let it marinade in the fridge for an hour, several hours, or all day, try to flip it around halfway thru if you can. Then grill the meat.

You can serve it on top of lettuce or rice and garnish it with pico de gallo (homemade is easy, cheaper and usually healthier - chop one tomato, quarter of an onion and half a cup of fresh cilantro for about two servings worth, squeeze some lime into that too! Toss it well and let it chill in the fridge for a while to allow the flavors to mingle). Maybe have a little sour cream with it so you have a balanced carb, fat and protein meal.

Just try to think of flavors you like and then google or ask about how to create those flavors in your kitchen.

I usually prepare enough brown rice to last me several days since it takes an hour to cook, and then part of my meal for those days is already taken care of. If you marinaded enough chicken you could cook it all and eat that for a few more days, and try having guacamole on it the next day, and then some other garnish the day after that. Same rice or lettuce (or both at the same time!), same chicken, but different garnishes makes it taste different each time!

So just start with what you like and build from that.

Mookz0r

Ahhh... student days!

My top tip, aside from the fast food and whatnot, is hold off the boozze and sodas - even the diet versions. It's all just junk of the worst kind!

Anyhow, mum-of-two, I'm now [even more of] a quick meal supremo!

- Fish/ Chicken in creamy mushroom sauce: cook chicken/ fish and sliced mushrooms in a little butter, boil up some rice or pasta in a different saucepan. Add 2 laughing cow cheese squares to the meat and mushrooms, add a little milk and melt. Serve.

- Sausage Hotpot: put some rice, chopped onion, chopped (bell) peppers and a couple of sausages/ meatballs/ chicken in a pyrex.dish. Sprinkle over salt, pepper and a stock cube (or spices) to taste... pour boiling water to cover, pop lid on and pop in the oven for 30 minutes. Eat out of the dish (without burning yourself!)

- Easy peasy pasta dish. Get some of the Sacla stir-in pasta sauces (they're yummy and small, so will do 2 meals for one person) - add in whatever veg and meat you happen to have, plus pasta or rice. Serve.

Alternatively, you could make up a large batch of bolognaise sauce, for example, portion it up and freeze it.

I always have fish, sausages portioned up into pairs and individual portions of bolognaise, along with lots of different frozen veg in my freezer. It's then really quite easy to do a pick'n'mix dinner.

carbonbeing

This is portable and very easy. Add jalapenos for heat or drop cheese to remove 25 calories per serving...

Diet Solution Program > Recipes > Sides > Mini Vegetable Frittatas
Mini Vegetable Frittatas

Ingredients:
-3 slices pepper jack cheese

- 6 large organic eggs

- ½ cup plain yogurt

- 1 cup zucchini, diced

- 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

- 1/2 Red Onion

- ¼ cup fresh Spinach

- 1 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt

- ½ tsp. black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a large muffin tin with butter. Whisk eggs and milk together in a large missing bowl. Set aside.
In a medium skillet or frying pan over medium heat. Place Red Onion 1st, zucchini, mushrooms and Spinach and sauté until vegetables become soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in, salt and pepper. Fold vegetables into egg mixture.

Fill muffin cups three-quarters of the way full with vegetable frittata batter. Bake 20 to 30 minutes until frittatas are set and browned on top. Add 1/4 slice Pepper Jack Cheese and melt to finish
Yileds about 12 at 73 calories each...

Serve hot or let cool and store in the fridge for later.

eveunderground

Ya I just am not sure how to cook meat. I know how to bake it but im not sure what flavors and things to add to make it taste less BLAH

Foreman grill ideas:
Chicken breast + oilive oil + garlic powder + rosemary + salt+pepper, throw on grill, done.
Turkey burgers can go straight on the grill without having to do anything to them, top with regular burger fixings, low cal whole wheat bun, done.
Turkey sausages, straight on grill, done.
Steak + steak spice mix (you can find in the grocery store), grill, done.
Brochettes (you can get the pre-seasoned ones), grill, done.
Vegetables (green peppers, portobello mushrooms, zuchini) + olive oil + garlic salt + pepper, grill, done.

These are the easiest ones I could think of that require very few ingredients and very little preparation. And actually when you buy the grill it comes with a small recipe book with other easy recipes.

For the crock pot, there are also simple recipes that involve just throwing in chicken and a can of soup, or chicken and a jar of salsa, you can use allrecipes.com and they have a whole section on crock pot recipes you can just look for the easy ones and read the reviews to see if most people said it turned out well.

karissastephens

Well, making things taste good is a huge issue. First, you must know what you like, so you have to be willing to experiment and try new things. To start with, write a list of your favorite ways to eat meat when someone else has made it for you or at a restaurant. If one of those was "taco meat" you could then try and find a good recipe for making that in a healthy way. This website has some good threads about that, and allrecipes.com has a huge variety of recipes with lots of user feedback on how they turn out.

Start with easy things. Marinade your meat before grilling it. Olive oil and lime juice are an excellent marinade for chicken. Just put the meat in a flat tupperware or corningware dish, then put in a little olive oil and squeeze your lime in. Use as small a dish as you can for the amount of meat. Let it marinade in the fridge for an hour, several hours, or all day, try to flip it around halfway thru if you can. Then grill the meat.

You can serve it on top of lettuce or rice and garnish it with pico de gallo (homemade is easy, cheaper and usually healthier - chop one tomato, quarter of an onion and half a cup of fresh cilantro for about two servings worth, squeeze some lime into that too! Toss it well and let it chill in the fridge for a while to allow the flavors to mingle). Maybe have a little sour cream with it so you have a balanced carb, fat and protein meal.

Just try to think of flavors you like and then google or ask about how to create those flavors in your kitchen.

I usually prepare enough brown rice to last me several days since it takes an hour to cook, and then part of my meal for those days is already taken care of. If you marinaded enough chicken you could cook it all and eat that for a few more days, and try having guacamole on it the next day, and then some other garnish the day after that. Same rice or lettuce (or both at the same time!), same chicken, but different garnishes makes it taste different each time!

So just start with what you like and build from that.

Yummm thank you! Ill try these

karissastephens

Thank you EVERYONE! These all sound delish! I cant wait to try these

The mushroom one sounds amazing...actually they all do haha