So my new dorm this year has a kitchen, which means I can finally cook on campus. That being said, I find myself in the market for a good cookbook that would fulfill my specific needs as a college student. What that means is

a. the meals should be easy to make a require minimal prep time (aka convenient)

b. they shouldn't require anything too expensive (college lyfe ftw)

c. They should be paleo (duh)

I was thinking about buying a paleo themed insta/slow cooker cookbook, but I was hoping you guys might know of a more ideal book/concept that could suit my needs. Additionally, a book that discusses how to batch prep meals at the beginning of the week might also be helpful.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can think of.

Brand recommendations please

Hello,

Today I achieved my weight goal yay! Lost 6kg in total over 3 months. I have been eating paleo-style and IF (16-8) plus one cheat meal per week (not an all out crazy cheat meal). I am currently living in China and I have found is relatively easy and cheap to eat a Paleo-style diet when cooking at home - with easy access to grassfed butter and coconut products. China definitely has a lot of high carb food temptations though!

Now i am at my weight goal i am a bit stuck, i really don't want to loose anymore as i would be at the risk of being underweight. But how can I maintain weight going forward. Should I maybe drop IF and monitor weight? Add some weight exercise to my daily routine?

thanks :)

I'm trying to figure out how other people navigate ordering from restaurants and determine which meals are safe for them to eat.

Currently working on something that might be able to help make figuring out safe meals more easily accessible for folks by learning more about out what they already use to do it for themselves.

Some companies have a massive spreadsheet on their site (with some digging) that lists their menu items and their common allergens.

Others require that you call them up and ask detailed questions (that the employee reads back to you or answers with only a certain amount of knowledge).

Those are the two that I use most frequently, even after I come across a blog post touting a new health-conscious restaurant.

But I dunno how other folks do it! How do you assess restaurants/meals? How much time do you have to invest in advance to do it? What's your research-in-advance process? Have you ever been screwed over?

I have a very tight budget, but I also have little time to go to the store. I can sometimes find time in the week to just prep. Does anyone have experience freezing things. I can cut sweet potatoes into fries, toss in oil, put in a ziplock bag and bake a handfull at a time. Or should I cook them, freeze them, then reheat them when I'm ready. What other foods can I do ahead of time to save myself time later.

Being a college student sometimes getting breakfast in is a challenge. I'd love if I was one of the people who genetically is predisposed towards intermittent fasting, but the stomache growls low blood sugar and lack of concentration kill me in the morning if I don't get something in.

What I've been doing lately for one of my quick breakfasts- smoothie with protein. Get some spinach, a banana, a berry fruit (blueberry, strawberry, blackberry etc.), some ice, mix some water with whey protein then add in a little coconut oil or avocado and you have a decent tasting, filling shake for the morning that you can make, drink, and clean up within 15 minute while you brush your teeth and get ready in the morning.

I use breakfast bars sometimes as well but those aren't nearly as healthy or filling, I may try larabars at some point. Anyone else have any quick low maintenance breakfast ideas? Feel free to share!

Hey everyone, so I ended up going through with the standing desk I was discussing a while back. What I did was first I found a desk lying around my house to use as a base. From there I consulted a guide as seen here and used this desk as a base for my new computer. The parts from IKEA were relatively cheap, after shipping they ended up being around $30-40. Afterwards I decided if this was to be a permanent setup for my computer office, I needed a way to use a chair when I am tired of standing. I went to staple's website and bought a drafting chair here which after a coupon I used was $90 shipped.

Now that I've been using this for around a month I can give a bit of a review; having a standing desk without the chair can definitely be a pain at times. With the chair here though I can work, skype, game and socialize with my computer all day and I tend to end up standing around half the time. I notice a bit more focus when I am standing, and I imagine the switch to no longer being sedentary has got to be good for my body overall, but I have also noticed a much better feeling lower back.

For $120 the ability to eliminate being sedentary while on my computer has turned out to be a smart purchase for myself as just in the short term my lower back and focus have improved, and at $120 it is the most frugal option I was able to find.

Here and here are some pics of the setup I'm rocking as well, apologies as it's a bit messy at the moment. For reference I'm 6'3" and the setup has been adjusted for my height, for taller folks you may need a chair that raises higher.

I know Costco has the best deals on Coconut Oil, but I don't have a Costco near me. :(

So, I was pleased to see this at ALDI's. It looks like it's one of their special offer items. It seems that ALDI tries out new products by having them available for a limited time and if they sell well then they'll bring them back.

More details:

Ingredients: Organic Unrefined (Virgin) Coconut Oil
Certified Organic by OTCO
Product of the Philippines (I hope that's not bad, let me know if it is)

Hey guys, I'm planning on trying out a standing desk over this summer and hopefully using it for school. As someone with ADHD they are supposed to be particularly helpful, but I feel that seeing as the amount of sitting we do is definitely not paleo (not to abuse this term or feermonger with "not paleo", but sitting is proven to be extremely harmful for you).

Anyway I found this guide here for an economical standing desk vs the traditional super expensive commercial ones, and I will be building it over the summer and would love to provide you guys with updates on how everything goes.

I think for me at least a standing desk could be great, because sitting still is unnatural to me. As a kid (hell, even as a 20 year old) I tend to stand up when I'm playing video games, I walk around when I'm on the phone, and I stand when I'm excitedly or anxiously finishing some work and practicing things. If anyone has experience with standing desks I'd love to hear some opinions.

I've been using opti-men for a while by optimum nutrition and I'd like to try another multi. The opti-men vitamin tastes awful and has a massive amount of B vitamins, turning my pee to a mountain dew color. I'm looking for alternatives, preferably something you can swallow and either tastes acceptable or is blocked from taste by a capsule coating. Open to any suggestions, for me cheaper is usually better but not at the expense of quality.

Vegetables are linked to so many health benefits, are widely under consumed (especially for guys!), and have virtually no promotion in society other than your mother's nagging "eat more vegetables!". So let's face it; getting those vegetables in can be a huge pain in the ass, it's something that a lot of us don't want to do, but you really really should do it. So I'd like to discuss some strategies for getting more vegetables (and fruit) in your diet.

1-Pick one or two that you like, and everytime you eat out always ask for it. I personally have grown to love peppers and mushrooms so I'll always request them wherever I go.

2-Suck it up when they are around. I've grown to find Brocolli and Spinach acceptable to eat. They aren't even close to my favorite, but I definitely don't mind eating them either.

3-Green smoothies- Get a blender, some cups, and start making a few days worth of green smoothies. In my dorm I have some solo cups I keep filled with smoothies that consist of:

a-Two Bananas along with ice and water for a base

b-(a few servings of one of these) Blueberries, Strawberries, Blackberries, or Raspberries

c-Mix it up between several servings of spinach, several servings of brocolli, or several servings of kale.

I drink these in the mornings along with my fish oil, vitamin D, and a high quality multivitamin, and they are definitely worthwhile for keeping me healthy. This is how I get the right micronutrients in the morning, and this gets me ready to minimize unhealthy stuff (wheat, added sugars) and get in those macros (tubers like potatoes, protein sources like eggs, milk (I tolerate milk extremely well, I drink as much whole milk as I want) and healthy meat, as well as sources of fat like nuts, coconut oil, olive oil, and avocados).

I am visiting family in Southern California and Denver for about a week in early June. I just started Paleo, but am already worried that once I'm on vacation I'm going to want to eat nothing but Mexican food. And I'll be staying with family, who eat nothing but unhealthy microwavable food & fast food. How do you all deal with being Paleo on a budget while on vacation?

Hey everyone! Been a while since we've had any discussion going on in this sub but I'd like to talk a little bit about exercise. Exercise is one of the most important things you can do in your day and provides a lot of "feel good" hormones as well as brute willpower that transfer over to the rest of your day that can make you more productive, social, and happy.

For me personally I cannot afford many exercise programs but the local gym gives me access to freeweights around $20 a month which is cheaper than I would be able to access cable. We also have university hiking classes which can be attended with minimal equipment (boots, backpack etc.) for the low low price of free.

I've made it a goal to exercise and meditate every single day for a while, and when I keep up with it (usually around 75-80% of the time) I feel awesome and have the energy to pick up more shifts at work, get my homework done faster, and put more effort into other hobbies. What say you frugal paleo? What exercises do you like to do that are accessible to the everyman and you find very effective?

As a college student I'm always strapped for time and the vegetable selection in my schools dining hall is lackluster at best. Vegetable and fruit intake however is pretty strongly linked to cognitive health, skin health, and longevity so I started making green smoothies lately with my Blendtec. I'll grab a smoothie in the morning that has bananas, a lot of spinach/kale/brocolli in a rotation, and some sort of berries such as blueberries or strawberries. Even if it's partly placebo I feel great on days when I drink them, and now that I've been consistently drinking them I feel a little more clearheaded and my skin has improved. You can usually get bananas and spinach cheap as dirt, another fruit for taste can be thrown in as well. Do you guys enjoy smoothies?

First submission! Hoping there are still users in this sub. I've been lurking for a while.

I just decided to start making a spreadsheet to track how much food costs, where/when I bought it, and how that amounts to cost per meal. I'm curious to see how much I spend and if there are areas that might be too pricey to be sustainable.

Here's how I organized my grocery expenses, with the exception being they're in categories like meat, fruit, etc.:

And here's a setup of how I did a meal cost breakdown:

I took the total cost of the item from my grocery tab and divided them by the portion I used. Two items that I noticed to be rather expensive are shrimp and spaghetti squash.

My breakfast yesterday was a bargain. 0.75 for 3 scrambled eggs, a banana, and a cup of peppermint tea!

Does anyone else do this? Do you have any suggestions? What meals have you made that come out to be rather cheap?

Hey guys, I probably won't use this because if I have this many Larabars in the house, I'll eat them all and that's probably a bad idea.

However, if you have more self control than me, here's a coupon for $4.00 off a box of 16 bars. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/coupon/larabar-fruit-nut-bars/A1D4JTGU7ONZOB?

I've been experimenting with cocoa powder and green tea back into my diet. Both of them are extremely cheap, chock full of healthy nutrients and give me an awesome mood/productivity boost. I know these are "technically" not paleo in the sense that a paleo person obviously would not have access to these foods in the same quantity we do but they are paleo in the sense that we can add them to our diet. What spices/herbs/foods do you guys add to your diets for improved health that isn't technically "paleo" but gives you a noticeable improvement of health?

What I mean is that let's be realistic, sometimes life hits us and it hits us hard. Sometimes in the big picture being paleo isn't always the right call. I try to eat 75% strict paleo and give myself 25% to eat whatever I want. Whether I am on vacation, it's a special occasion, or someone just bought girl scout cookies (Woo!) there are plenty of times I completely forgo paleo. This isn't a bad thing, moderation is the key to life. IMO paleo is about understanding that a.) we really don't know that much about nutrition and the more we try to mess with it the worse off we will be and b.) we have a decent idea about what foods our ancestors had access to, they are probably the healthiest foods for us to consume.

So anyway other than being moderate about paleo, sometimes eating paleo simply isn't an option. Sometimes I am going to have to make the choice between grains and legumes, between dairy, soda, and gatorade.

So guys: what I'm saying here is being 100% paleo is unrealistic and setting yourself up for failure, so let's discuss how fast I can speed without getting a ticket, and if I do get a ticket how I can get the fine lowered.

I've been doing Intermittent fasting on and off for a while and it's pretty great. Instead of spending money on some less than healthy stuff at 7-11 or spending a long time to make egg omelets (boiled eggs and almonds would be ideal here, I just don't have access to a pot currently) I can head over to the gym and get a nice rowing session in, meditate for a little bit, and I'm feeling energized for the rest of the day. I'm not currently doing IF because I am under a high-stress situation but it's definitely a good tool in the frugal arsenal. Any thoughts here?

So I'm going to be purchasing a vitamix soon (it's definitely not a "frugal" item, I know I know but I believe it will save me money and time longterm) because honestly being without a kitchen means that when I want to consume fruits and vegetables puts me at the mercy of my college's cafeteria for the most part. So anyway some foods that are shake-able for me that add a noticeable increase to my health are blueberries, coconut milk, olives, bananas, cocoa powder, spinach, kale, and random other fruits/veggies as well as BCAA protein powder.

So anyway does anyone else consume health shakes regularly? Technically again not paleo but let's be honest getting 8 servings of shredded healthy fruits and veggies every single day is much more paleo than struggling to get a fruit and possibly a vegetable daily. For me the convenience and time savings make this without a doubt a frugal item for me. Any ideas for other shakes?