Meals on the Go

I’m a bio major at Temple University, on the pre-med track and am also doing a business minor. I spend a lot of time studying and doing a bunch of extra curricular stuff and blah blah blah.

One of my biggest problems is my nutrition. I have a very sensitive blood pressure, so Ideally i try to make a lot of my own food because everything on campus is loaded with salt. I usually make chicken with brown rice or something like that in bulk and just microwave it during the week. The problem im having is that i find myself barely going back to my apartment and i just end up taking my meals with me and eating them cold. At first I was able to put up with this, but im at the point where i’m forcing myself to eat because the chicken gets really dry and the rice tastes like shit.

SO my question to you guys is this; do you have any recommendations on meals that taste good and don’t need to be warmed up, because i am unaware of any microwaves around campus?

Also, for any of you premeds out there or even med students, how do you schedule your days to bust ass in school to get A’s and also find time to lift.

I forget to mention I eat a lot of almonds and other nuts and drink a shit ton of water too.

Dude, most everyone around here has had to deal with shitty college circumstances when gaining and doing this lifestyle. It does kind of suck but it’s doable.

Firstly, I would recommend getting 3-4 really big (32 oz) BPA-free water jugs. Make a few power shakes. Whatever kind of milk you choose, lots of protein, peanut butter, fruits, honey, egg yolks, whatever you find to be necessary for your caloric needs. They will stay good all day if you bring a lunchbox/cooler with you. It may look ridiculous but if you’re serious about this you should feel comfortable with it.

Now, the almonds are a good step in the right direction. Now eat more.

Also, don’t be afraid to eat “real” ‘fake’ food. Pizzas, Subway, even a heaven forbid burger from McD’s or something every once in a while. You don’t look like a guy who’s teetering on the edge of fat, so don’t be afraid of calories. If you notice some added sloppiness, either deal with it or correct it.

What does “sensitive blood pressure” mean? I was pre-med also. I ate what I could but didn’t cry because it wasn’t “clean enough”.

I have never diagnosed one patient with “sensitive blood pressure”.

I’ll let these guys answer about nutrition, but as far as scheduling your classes and stuff, I schedule all my classes in the morning. So im in class from 8 to around 12, then I’ll grab lunch and go study for an hour, go train, and I still have 3 til whenever to do whatever I want. You can always study longer if you need it or go put in some hours on the weekend.

if you can’t figure out how to schedual the gym in while you’re in college, don’t even bother trying to when you enter ‘real life’

[quote]Professor X wrote:
What does “sensitive blood pressure” mean? I was pre-med also. I ate what I could but didn’t cry because it wasn’t “clean enough”.

I have never diagnosed one patient with “sensitive blood pressure”.[/quote]

What I mean is that if I’m not careful with what I eat, my blood pressure rises easily. So when in eating campus food for every meal my
Blood pressure rises over 140/95.

[quote]illadelphia91 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
What does “sensitive blood pressure” mean? I was pre-med also. I ate what I could but didn’t cry because it wasn’t “clean enough”.

I have never diagnosed one patient with “sensitive blood pressure”.[/quote]

What I mean is that if I’m not careful with what I eat, my blood pressure rises easily. So when in eating campus food for every meal my
Blood pressure rises over 140/95.[/quote]

You are saying your blood pressure is normal all day long until after you eat that food specifically?

[quote]HolyMacaroni wrote:
if you can’t figure out how to schedual the gym in while you’re in college, don’t even bother trying to when you enter ‘real life’[/quote]

Truth.

If you have to shut everything down because you have mid terms, good luck making it when paying rent and working a real job is a major concern.

Thanks SCC.

And yeah I get that probably everyone goes thru it, I’m not tryna make it seem like I have more things to worry about the anyone else.
Sorry if I came off that way.

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]illadelphia91 wrote:

[quote]Professor X wrote:
What does “sensitive blood pressure” mean? I was pre-med also. I ate what I could but didn’t cry because it wasn’t “clean enough”.

I have never diagnosed one patient with “sensitive blood pressure”.[/quote]

What I mean is that if I’m not careful with what I eat, my blood pressure rises easily. So when in eating campus food for every meal my
Blood pressure rises over 140/95.[/quote]

You are saying your blood pressure is normal all day long until after you eat that food specifically?[/quote]

No, sorry for not saying it right

It’ll be like that daily if I’m not careful about what I eat

I get that me complaining about not having time right now is pathetic, but school hit me real hard this semester and I wasn’t ready for it. Instead of trying to figure things out as they go next semester, I was just coming onto here to look for some advice from people who’ve been thru it with great success. You guys coming on here saying things about not being ready for the real world I honestly do appreciate and I think I can take what i learn from you guys now and use it later when i enter the real world.

So basically what I really want to get out of this thread are great meals to take with me on the go that taste great without being warmed up.

And Professor X, you are truly amazing to still be a monster with the career path you choose; I hope to look half as good as you when I get there. I have a bunch of friends tell me stories about their first 3 years in residency that make me wanna jump off a building, but im still going into medicine because the human body is a great piece of engineering to me. i would love to hear how you made it through all that and found time to hit the gym hard.

make sandwiches. all kinda! pb&J, cold cuts, tuna, whatever. on the topic of tuna, in grad school i carried cans of tuna, packets of mustard, a fork, and a can opener everywhere i went.

you can also make sludge or puppy shit ( i think thats what H4M calls it). its just a mixture of peanut butter and chocolate protein powder. i usually do a cup or so of peanut butter and a scoop of protein mix it with a bit of water until its a good consistency.

I took a page out of Waylander’s cookbook and started blending oats into my shakes. 2 cups oats, 100g protein of your choice, ~10 tbsp EVOO or fat of your choice = more than 1000 kcal in a shaker cup. it’s kind of gritty, but tastes ok depending on your choice of protein and tastes the same cold or room temp.

I also started blending solid food and making some really disgusting looking stuff that SSC calls baby shit:

Imgur

there’s 1.5 lb of chicken, 2-3 cups quinoa, some Chinese broccoli and ~10 tbsp EVOO in there, also easily over 1000 kcal. I threw some salt and pepper on top and it tasted much better with it than without. I’d recommend it as a macro-dense side, kind of like mashed potatoes but a lot more protein and fat. I might make the next one with potatoes and a grilled steak actually… maybe some garlic and broccoli… then it would taste like steak and potatoes instead of a nutty chicken salad sandwich…

ANYWAY it takes next to no time or effort to eat, which is great at work, and it goes down much more easily compared to the same amount of solid food, where it felt like I’d get fuller sooner. and my stools were no different than with solid food.

frol, THanks, i’ll give that a shot. It’s gonna be entertaining to see the faces of people when I pull that out haha

I see that your from jersey, what gym you go to? I’m looking for a gym with a good price during the summer time when im off of school… I usually do LA fitness but it gets kinda annoying when I’m basically the only one pulling or squatting.

[quote]illadelphia91 wrote:
frol, THanks, i’ll give that a shot. It’s gonna be entertaining to see the faces of people when I pull that out haha

I see that your from jersey, what gym you go to? I’m looking for a gym with a good price during the summer time when im off of school… I usually do LA fitness but it gets kinda annoying when I’m basically the only one pulling or squatting.[/quote]

haha I go to a LAF in Wayne. despite the high ratio of guidos, wannabes and juiceheads, a good amount of people do use the racks to squat, MP and pull (though usually with shitty form).

it’s whatever, man. if you show up regularly and do things right, the vets give you respect and the small fry stay out of your way. can’t do anything about the punks though.

I probably should’ve mentioned this waay early, so sorry!

But i’ve been following 5/3/1 for 9 months now (with great success!), after a year and a half of lifting with no purpose… My goals are basically to pull over 500, bench over 300, and squat over 500. My max pull is 425 and i bench 285. I’m still not comfortable with my squat form, so i never tried my 1RM, but my 5RM is 255X8.

I’m currently in college and I’ve maintained a pretty stupid schedule for awhile (days starting at 6AM and running straight through until 10PM between class and work, with gym time being the only real break), and for me it’s come down to a few options:

  1. Go with liquid nutrition. Shakes with protein, carbs, and fats. I used Metabolic Drive or just some plain whey isolate and/or casein with oats and nut butters. I like Biotest’s FINiBARs too when I can afford them. I cut 30lbs this past spring going with almost all liquid nutrition, and it was pretty bearable.

  2. Find a relatively healthy place to eat near campus. I’m actually not too far from you (at Villanova), and my go-to’s right near campus are Chipotle and a made to order Mediterranean food place.

  3. Just sack up and eat shit that doesn’t taste good/has terrible texture because it’s clean and nutrient-dense.

I’m going with option 3 right now. I don’t enjoy eating and have to force-feed myself at times. But I’ve never been stronger and I’m at just about my leanest ever as well. I find that it comes down to gritting my teeth and just doing what needs to be done to get results, even though it might not be that pleasant.

Yeah, eating dry-ass chicken and bland rice isn’t fun, but I do it every day at school because it’s fueling good workouts and helping me lean out. It’s just part of the mentality required to keep fitness as a priority in spite of a heavy academic schedule. You need to be willing to make some sacrifices, like waking up two hours early to prep food and get to the gym before classes or only having a social life one night a week. There’s only so much time in the day, and you need to decide what is really important and what needs to go.

I know ryanbCXG is a recent grad who’s heading off to med school in the near future, so maybe he will weigh in. He’s pretty active on the Indigo spills so if he doesn’t find his way in here, maybe you can catch his attention on there or something.

Good luck with everything.

If youre lookin for microwaves at Temple you can always try to use the ones at 7-11, the one on liacouras walk and the one on cecil b moore both have ridiculously strong microwaves. If you need a summer gym, the IBC is open most of the summer.

The most important is to keep a balance between liquid and solid food. If you only take liquid shakes, you are most likely to feel bloated, encounter mad diarrhea and pee all day long and lose precious nutriments etc… because your digestive system will basically will saturated with water.

But we don’t even have your objectives ? How many pds do you want to gain ? What is your weight ? BF% ?

When I was in college, I used to do 4 meals a day :

  • A huge breakfast, whole bread, peanut butter, nutella, fruit, milk, approx 700 cals
  • A huge lunch, I was taking refills of vegetables / carbs, everything, to eat more than 1200 cals
  • A snack @4/5 PM, lots of carbs, proteins : for instance 2 whole bread sandwiches with turkey, poultry, ham, bacon, or whatever available, and some dessert, or something like oatmeal + cott cheese + banana + some honey, aiming for 600 ~ 800 cals
  • Dinner, lots of cals too, aiming more on proteins / fats than carbs, 1000 cals objective
  • Sometimes snack or protein shake before bed, mostly protein

I gained 50 pds and trust me I was hell of a hardgainer, but I did not really care how clean I ate.

Eating clean, doing homework, training, sleeping, going at school, doing the dishes & whatever was totally impossible to me

I kept the shake for after W/O or before bed and did not have a blender so no fancy heavy shakes

That was the best way for me to mass up

Also, don’t hesitate to eat pizza, burgers, from time to time, and to do a “epic meal day” when you eat tons of food all day long if you’re a hardgainer

edit : another easy option is to buy tons of poultry or ham, rice and pasta, cook a ton of them 2 times a week, take them with you and microwave them to eat. Cleaner than my options but probably less caloric