Moving out -- yet still eating well. What do you recommend?

[AlfilRey]

I´m 19 and I´m moving out within the next 2-3 days. Until now I have had a pretty good, well balanced diet. My mum puts a lot of effort into buying quality food and cooks some very complex meals. (Don´t get me wrong I cook 80% or so of my/our meals, but she does all the shopping and cooks the more complicated meals).

Now that I will be living on my own, I don´t want my health to suffer. In fact, I want it to improve.

I currently weigh 150 pounds and am just under 6, 1". My goal within the next 12-20 months is to reach about 175-180 pounds. I go to the gym and do mostly swimming / running but about 25% of my time is spent doing weights. I might shift that % around in the near future and focus more on weights.

My question is:

What food should I buy as a student who wants to eat really well but doesn´t want to dedicate 2 or 3 hours every day to shopping/cooking?

I figure there are two main categories:

1. Food that you cook, but that isn´t overly time consuming. e.g. chicken fillets, steak, pasta, etc.

2. Food that doesn´t need to be cooked, but that is very nutritious. e.g. fruit, peanut butter, milk, etc.

I´m sure that a lot of people on this forum know a heck of a lot more about this than I do. If anyone could give me a few tips, it´d really be appreciated.

[Doug Funnie II]

Barilla brand pasta- it contains more protein than most pasta brands as well as more fiber.

Lactaid brand cottage cheese- mix in jam for a tasty good source of casein protein right before bed.

Olive oil- good source of healthy fats and is very easy to get a couple tablespoons in with your pasta.

Whole grain bread and all natural peanut butter- good source of healthy fats and carbs with some protein. That's what I eat for breakfast every morning

Eating only these foods its really easy to get all the necessary calories you need to build muscle, and nothing takes too long to prepare. You might sacrifice some in the flavor department, but you can also eat healthily for ~ 8$ a day and hardly spend any time in the kitchen.

[Colt McCoy]

If you're going to put on 25-30 lb. of muscle, you're going to need to dramatically change things.

1) As you mentioned, you have to change your workouts. Minimize the cardio. Start lifting heavy with a simple workout based around the three big exercises (bench press, squat, deadlift).

2) Start eating everything you can get your hands on. Low fat will NOT work when you're trying to pack on muscle.

[AlfilRey]

Another thing, I dislike the taste of a lot of vegetables...a bit in the same way that I struggle to eat 5-7 pieces of fruit per day, although much more extreme.

The reason is, with fruit, I can just make a smoothie / juice / milkshake once a day and that goes a long way towards covering my daily requirements.

Is there a similar way that I could cram a bunch of healthy vegetables into one easy-to-make thing to cover my daily needs there too?

[1C5]

How many calories are you getting a day?

Make sure you have enough else you won't gain much muscle.

[AlfilRey]

umm about 2,200-2300 average id say. some days i will make a real effort and have about 3500-3700 but after a few days like that I end up "not hungry" for several days, and have a streak of 1800-2000 calorie days that counteract my previous heavycalorie streak. How much should I be averaging?