(Part 3) Best products from r/gainit

Hey! I'm a celiac, so I know the ins and outs of gaining GF. Here's a basic list of some staples to always have in the house / make in a pinch:

• Avocados
  
• Trail mix (almonds, peanuts, cranberries, dark chocolate, cashews, sunflower seeds, walnuts, whatever else really)
  
• Gluten free pasta with a meat sauce and a can of tuna in it. The tuna is really good in pasta, and GF pasta really isn't that different from the real thing.
  
• An omelette (you can throw in cheese, peppers, mushrooms, potatoes, etc)
  
• Sweet potato fries
  
• Obviously you can still eat fish, chicken, beef, pork, etc
  
• You can get gluten free pure oats (you shouldn't eat them in abundance but if you get pure oats you can have some) and make oatmeal out of them
  
• Larabars or equivalent bars are high in calories and gluten free
  
• You could also take a mass gainer. Dymatize makes one that just tastes like chocolate milk and is gluten free
  
  If you've got any more questions about gaining on a GF diet, post in the comments or PM me and I'm more than happy to help!
  
  Edit:
  
  
• You can also cook quinoa and add it to aaaaaaanything. Leftover meat in the fridge? Mix it with some quinoa and microwave it. Some leftover omelette? Mix it with quinoa. Have an avocado and a chicken breast you want to use? Cook the chicken and mix them all together.
  
• Peanut butter is your friend. I live in Canada, and we have this bread here. It's delicious, and toasted, it honestly tastes like real bread. Put some peanut butter on that, or put some peanut butter on a banana, or just eat a spoonful of peanut butter.
  
• Cheese is also your friend. Melt some on any meat, potatoes, pasta, baked good, vegetables, whatever. Buy some old cheddar and melt that shit on everything.
  

Your story sounds almost identical to what mine was a year ago. When I started I had the same idea, it's true that no one will think twice about seeing a skinny guy at the gym (people told me the same thing) but it's a hard mentality to shake.

What I did was go at the asscrack of dawn when it was the slowest time of day (usually got there between 6 and 7AM when it opened). Added benefit to this is that you almost never have to wait for equipment. Also sticking to it forces you to get into a good sleeping pattern which is crucial to staying healthy and recovering after lifting all the heavy things you can see. I can't emphasize sleep enough, not just getting 8 hours (or whatever you need) a night but on a consistent schedule (like 10PM to 6AM every night).

Focusing on the meals, I know the feeling. The last thing I wanted to do during the week after coming home from 10 hours of class and a job was spend time cooking. For the select few that seem to enjoy that, good for them, but let's think about realistic things here.

• Skinny guys gaining mass
  
• Changing sleep schedule from staying up to 6AM to waking up then instead
  
• You quitting smoking (You got this)
  
  These are things that have a good chance of happening, but me ever enjoying cooking and doing it daily? I'm putting that right up there with pig's sprouting a set of wings and flying.
  
  Head over to /r/mealprepsunday and check out what we do over there. Figure out your macro's, come up with a few meals that fit those as closely as you can, then buy a set of tupperware of amazon (like this). Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning go out and buy the ingredients then get home and cook it all. Now you're set for a week of meals that you don't have to do anything more than microwave for a minute or two. Start with simple ones to begin, a few ingredients that are easy to scale up and cook 5-7 portions at once with. Then you'll get a feel for what you can do and what you enjoy making.
  
  This is what worked for me, change, alter, trash whatever is needed to get a working plan for you. When you feel low on motivation think about dem gainz and force yourself to go workout, take out the trash, cook the meals. Whatever it was you were thinking of putting off, don't. It's not one single thing you can do to change everything, it's an entire lifestyle to adopt. You got this.
  

A typical setup might be something like 2×45, 2×25, 4×10, 2×5 and 2×2.5. If you want to reach 225 or more on any lift, you could also add an extra 2×45.

For working on the bench press, I'd also consider looking for 2×1.25 or a set of fractional plates. These aren't mandatory but they're nice. I have this set here and I love it. This is useful because if you put 1.25 on each side of the bar, it increases the total weight by 2.5 pounds, allowing you to improve your bench by 2.5 pounds each workout. If all you have is 2×2.5, you need to go up in 5 pound jumps, which is fine in the beginning, but harder as you get stronger. I'm currently at 160 for 3 sets of 5, and I can currently add 2.5 more per workout with the same rep scheme. If I tried to go up by 5, I'd stall and I'd need to mess with a more complicated rep scheme. More gyms should have fractional plates!

Also, if you're new to lifting, I recommend looking at a good beginner program. Two popular choices are Starting Strength and Strong Lifts. Either of these will show you how to get a lot stronger quickly, using good technique, and will answer hundreds of questions. They also both have good apps.

I think you and I have a similar problem re: milk. I can have all the dairy products you listed, but milk and ice cream give me problems. My brother is very lactose intolerant, if that's relevant.

Are you just looking for a milk substitute for shakes? If so - maybe don't use milk at all. I know water makes for a pretty mediocre shake, but I've recently been using iced coffee as a base for protein shakes and it tastes great. I always have iced coffee on hand at home, because any time I want coffee, I make an entire pot and then pour about half of it into a pitcher in my refrigerator.

I'm sure this isn't as great as some of the shake recipes other people have, but something you could use for gaining would be something like iced coffee, chocolate protein powder (I use ON Gold Standard 100% Whey Double Rich Chocolate), and then some chocolate syrup (I use Torani Dark Chocolate if I'm doing this, but I'm not trying to gain right now, so I just leave the syrup out).

Edit: I also subscribe to this protein shake on Amazon (in three different flavors - vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry) and it doesn't bother me at all like milk does. With the subscribe & save discount, it works out to like $2.75 per shake and it's great when I want to bring a shake with me somewhere without preparing one ahead of time (or if I'm just being lazy). I think they taste really good.

So I had a chance to look at Re-Power, and it has a similar amino acid profile to beef. All the extracts are pretty much garbage:

Chemical | Weight | %DV
---|---|---
Chicory Root (as Cichorium intybus Extract) & Rocket Plant (as Eruca sativa Extract) Blend| 500.00 mg|
Chinese Skullcap Root Extract (Scutellaria baicalensis) Catch Tree Bark Extract (Acacia catechu)| 62.50 mg|
Olive Leaf Extract (Olea europaea L.)(as Maslinic Acid)| 200.00 mg|
Olive Fruit Extract (Olea europaea L.)(as Hydroxytyrosol)| 50.00 mg|

Some do have studies done them but most results are nothing more than unremarkable in terms of use for fitness. Chicory root is a coffee substitute good for removing internal parasites. Rocket Plant is just arugula, so you might as well just eat it. Didn't see much studies on the benefits. Chinese skull cap seems to be a traditional Chinese remedy for various ailments with some conclusive evidence for efficacy but mostly it is a nootropic (smart drug). Cool but wholly unnecessary for this application. You'd be better off with Creatine as it is both a nootropic AND performance enhancer. Also, really cheap. I cannot find any info on even what a "Catch Tree" is so no conclusive data for what the extract might do. Olive Leaf/Fruit Extract seem to be super expensive antioxidants with anti-HIV properties. If you don't have HIV just drink Black coffee or tea or eat olives.

So, the good stuff in here seems to be Beta Alanine an Betaine, but Beta Alanine is cheap and Betaine is in beets (super cheap) or is made in your body from Choline (from eggs).

If you have any more questions please let me know. If you can't return these things then I guess just take them until they are gone, but definitely don't buy them again.

One tip for cooking, do it all on the weekend. Bulk cooking and packing food for the week. If you have an hour to spare one day you can cook 90% of the food you need for the week.

First, buy these.

Next are some super easy meals to cook and get everything you need.

• Slow cooker chicken - throw chicken breasts in a slow cooker with a jar of salsa. 4 hours on high or 6-8 on low and BAM, shredded mexican chicken. Great on a salad, great in a tortilla, great on rice.
  
  
• Rice - Buy the microwaveable brown rice bowls/packets. Take bag out freezer, put in microwave for three minutes, now you have cooked rice. It can go with your shredded chicken, inside tortillas, throw in some mixed frozen veggies (also microwave) and you have mediocre fake fried rice!
  
  
• Veggies. Easiest way to make veggies ever: put fresh veggies in bowl (broccoli, string beans, maybe aspargus? Not sure about asparagus) with two-three tablespoons of water, cover with plate and microwave for one minute. BAM, steamed veggies. Put them in salads, put them in your lunch box with your chicken and rice. Eat them by themselves because you eat for ease and nutrition not because you want delicious food.
  
  
• BBQ Chicken: Buy chicken thighs (cheap & tastier than breast; and shut up about the fat you need the calories), put on baking sheet, cover in bottle of bbq sauce (not a lot because of sugar) and put in oven for 20min at 350. BAM, bbq chicken. Put in on a salad, in a tortilla, on rice, with veggies.
  
  
• Ever made a casserole? all that means is a giant bowl of crap on purpose put in the oven. This is more prep time than most, but you get a ton of hearty food that will last you the whole week. First, buy some easy curly pasta, or whatever pasta you want. Boil water and throw it in for a couple minutes til its cooked. Congrats, hard part over. Next grab 2 pounds of ground beef, throw it in a pan, cook it, add a jar (spaghetti) sauce, now take a big baking dish, mix pasta and meat and sauce, sprinkle shredded cheese on top, throw in the often for 10 minutes at 400 and BAM, you freaking made a casserole you asshole! A big, fat, hearty casserole you can easily get 4-6 meals out of.
  
  
• Other snacks: Sweet potatoes, throw them in a microwave with cinnamon on them, bam, you got your complex carbs!
  
  
• You need more protein? Grab some freaking cottage cheese and put it in a tupperware! Total prep time: Buying cottage cheese and putting it in a tupperware. Don't like plain cottage cheese? Put cinnamon in it, put strawberry jam in it, put some salsa in it and dip some freaking chips in it.
  
  
• Need protein, fats, and some carbs? Buy some raw almonds. 5 pounds will cost you $20-25 and every 1 serving (23 almonds) has about 150 good calories.
  
  
• Bananas. Look at this hairless chimpanzee, freaking jacked with huge nuts.
  
  
• EDIT:More snacks/breakfast: Costco beef jerkey/steak strips. Breakfast: make a massive pot of steel cut oats on the weekend then during the week, throw in the microwave in the morning and dice up some banaynays, BAM breakfasts covered. Need protein? scoop of protein powder in your oatmeal. Here's another one, get a big pot, put water in it, put 12 freaking eggs in it. Keep it covered, once it starts boiling put 5 minutes on the clock. When its done turn the heat off and let it sit covered til water is cool. Hardboiled eggs! Want easier? Costco sells jumbo packs of hard boiled and peeled eggs ready to go, no prep time.
  
  The most involved part of all of this is the casserole, and it takes probably thirty minutes. The rest is max 5 minutes prep time per each, the cooking you don't do anything but wait, and then you separate it out into your tupperwares, clean up your messy ass kitchen because I can guarantee its gonna be messy. PROTIP, tinfoil everything you cook on because then you just peel it off and throw it away. Don't want to clean your baking sheets/dishes? Get the throw away tin foil ones. Now all in for 1 shopping trip per week, plus 1-2 hours of cooking, you have 90% of your food for the week in neatly packed grab and go containers.
  
  As far as the lifting goes, #1 and #2 priorities are sleep well and eat properly (notice there was no "junk" food on that list, might not be super clean, but its not junk). Lastly, if you want to get big you will have to lift. Luckily for you the most time consuming work out plans (super sets, drop sets, 4 different isolation lifts to hit all fourteen heads of your triceps) are not the best at packing on some man meat. I'm sure you have heard it over and over, but strong lifts or other compound lift focused work outs will make the biggest impact on your size and strength. If you can get to the gym 3 days a week for 45 minutes it will make a world of difference. Push day, pull day, leg day.
  
  Push
  
  
• Dumbell bench press & incline barbell press
  
  
• Overhead press
  
  
• Dips/push ups (diamond, close grip, wide grip, cock pushups)
  
  Pull
  
  
• Bent over row
  
  
• T-bar rows
  
  
• Pull ups (wide grip, close grip, neutral grip, single hand, upside down)
  
  
• Bicep curls in the squat rack
  
  Legs
  
  
• Squats
  
  
• Deadlifts & Romanians
  
  
• leg extensions Squats
  
  
• Calves: you don't need no donkey press, calf apparatus, you just need to repeatedly stand up onto your tip toes fast, with full range of motion, A LOT. Your calves will be freaking toasted like toaster strudles, and if they're not, keep going and flex the whole time.
  
  Muscles that squats and deads work out: quads, hammies, calves, traps, abs, lower back, forearms, lats, obliques.
  
  Push ups, bench, overhead press: chest, shoulders, tris, lats (weird but true), abs
  
  Pulls ups, rows: forearms, biceps, lats, rhomboids, traps, abs
  
  The amount of time and energy it would take to work out all of those muscles individually with isolation lifts is obscene. All those workouts can be done in easy 30min-45min and you can do it three days a week and it will make a difference.
  
  The whole idea of starting to meal prep and eat healthy and find the time to work out and do everything you need to is really daunting and can be overwhelming, but when it comes down to its not that you don't have the time, its that you are spending the time on other stuff not relating to your goal. Chances are every single day you are making yourself food, running to grab and buy food, or doing something. You prep all your food on the weekend and you just freed up all your cooking time during the week. How much time do you spend on reddit/instagram/snapchat/farmersonly every night before bed? or lying in bed in the morning? Forget that and get an extra bit of sleep to make up for waking up early and going to the gym before work. Tuesday, thursday, saturday work out days. That means during the week you have to only wake up 2 days earlier than you normally would. When you break it down and really think about it it makes it a lot more reasonable. You got it man. It takes a special kind of someone who can work 9am-10pm as an autotech. If you're pulling that off chances are you have the mental grit to work out for 45 min 3 days a week, its just a matter of doing it. Everyone who wants to make a change has got it in their head that all of a sudden tomorrow they are going to wake up and something is going to be different and they're all of a sudden going to be able to work out and eat healthy and finally commit to what they've never been able to do before. Truth is, tomorrow is going to be exactly the same as today and the day before. All it comes down to is are you going to actually do it. There's nothing actually stopping you. You're not too busy or too tired. It simply comes down to are you going to do it or not. Get busy living or get busy dying.
  
  EDIT: Formatting

> can ask somebody at the gym. I always work out alone, and usually stumble upon a friend now and then in the gym but i just say hi and maybe chat a little but i never work out together with someone else.
> Nobody is watching you, nobody cares. Don't be self-conscious, there's no reason, you're just some guy working out.
> To help solve this problem, you coul

Personally I wouldn't wear overear headphones like that at the gym because I think they'd get in the way (but I've seen some people with them). If you are looking to blend in earbuds are probably your best best. I see you're in Canada so here are some options for cheap but decent quality headphones.

Sennheiser MX 375 ($30)

MEE RX18 ($13, $10 if you get white)

Or pretty much anything from this list! Haha.

I'll throw Jarrow Whey into the mix. It's not near the top of the list, but somewhere in the middle. I've bought it on Amazon from anywhere between $18-25 dollars (shipped -- sometimes free shipping, sometimes not). Works out to 39g protein/dollar at the best value, and about 28g protein/dollar on the higher end.


One of the big perks is that they have an unflavored variety, so it's not clashing with some of my smoothies I blend. And the chocolate flavor is pretty good. And in the "study" that went around a while back that showed how much protein was actually usable by different brands, they rated pretty favorably.

INTP/ENTP "spiritual person" here. Your routine and motivation is not the root issue. The self-hate is the root issue. The way you view yourself and how you relate to yourself (and by extension, the world) is very very dysfunctional, and I guarantee it's fucking up your life in more ways than one.

The negative self-talk is not reality, not objective, and not who you really are. The voice in your head is not only wrong and destructive, it's not even you.

You have a disconnect between different parts of yourself. You hate being "grounded" because when you're in that state, your ego isn't in charge, and you're forced to look at everything inside you you've been fighting. Learn to sit with that pain and not fight it... just let it happen, and watch it swell and then recede. This is, in essence, mindfulness meditation.

Try reading some of these, based on what stands out to you. They are all helpful.

• The Power of Now --A book about the true nature of self and reality. Heavy Eastern influence. This book has influenced me the most out of the list, and maybe even altered the course of my life.
  
  
• Radical Acceptance --A Buddhist book about loving yourself fully and completely. You are worth it!
  
  
• 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos --A book by a brilliant man about how to live in a world defined by pain and suffering. Heavy Jungian influence. Quotes and references the Bible a lot, but from a Jungian/Campbellian perspective. Occasionally questionable politics.
  
  
• Iron John --A sort of esoteric book filled with poetry and fairy tales about how to be a man. Heavy Jung/Campbell influence.
  
  
• The Enchiridion by Epictetus --This is one of the best introductions to Stoicism, and it's free. Written circa 125 CE.
  
  
• Feeling Good --CBT book clinically shown to be as effective as antidepressants. Your post is filled with things this book addresses directly. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
  
  
• The Happiness Trap --A book about ACT, which is similar to CBT with more mindfulness. Basically CBT tries to get rid of/replace the distorted images of yourself and the world, and ACT tries instead to see them for what they really are, which are meaningless ramblings of an organ using evolved mechanisms to protect its host, and as such are safely ignored.
  
  Tl;dr: Learn to be kind to yourself, love yourself, and accept yourself just as you are right now, flaws and all.

Look here's what I do:

• Get a blender bottle, for convenience sake. It works really well and they're pretty cheap. I use the standard one.
  Amazon Link
  
  
  
• Then get some protein. Flavored protein is fucking disgusting IMO so I get this:
  Amazon Link
  Maybe there is a better flavorless protein out there but I can't find on, and this has worked pretty well.
  
  
  
• Get some oats, I use these:
  Amazon Link
  This is a box with a fuckton of oats in it.
  
  
  I pour a bit of milf into the bottle (to avoid clumping) and grind 1 cup of oats with the coffee grinder then pour them into the bottle.
  Then depending on the amount of protein you need put a couple scoops into the bottle. Then toss your creatine in there. I don't put bananas in the shake but you could, I'd probably have to use my blender for that though.
  
  Anyway now you have a bottle with a shit ton of powder in it. Add some more milk but save room for:
  
  
  Chocolate syrup. (or whatever type of flavoring you want) I put a bunch in there, like 2 big squirts, but find out however much you need to make it taste good.
  
  Then I take a big scoop of peanut butter and toss it in there. I'm not sure how much I put in but I'm pretty consistent, just be consistent. I think it's between 2 and a half and 3 tablespoons. Add milk till it's mostly full. Then shake the shit out of the bottle like you were trying to jerk off the demon from This is the End. The shake will be thick as balls so just open your throat and chug it Remy laCroix.
  
  Wow, look at all that protein, look at all of those calories you got (1k +) without drinking a disgusting weight gainer.

Yeah, the volume seems pretty high. Three days of that should help a lot with making gains. Otherwise, maybe squeeze in a couple of quick workouts at home?

You should also check into buying some cheap gear, like bands or a weight vest to supplement your workout. I wrote this up for someone a while back:

Here’s what I would recommend for starting home training balancing cost and utility. Obviously, if you afford all of it and have the space, just do that.

1-pullup bar or rings

2-resistance bands

3-dumbbells (shop for used, if possible, if space is tight try these)

4-adjustable bench (same, used benches go for as low as $30)

5-barbell set (time to start deadlifting)

6-power rack (don’t go cheap here)

I got one, and it makes it so much easier to get the correct amounts of things. I got a scale to weigh myself and a scale to weigh my food from Amazon. I always weigh my pasta and shake ingredients (unless I can easily measure by volume). So for example, it's super easy to say, okay I need 500 calories from my pasta. Pasta is 100 calories per ounce, so I just measure 5 ounces instead of guessing.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KXZ808/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001N07KUE/ref=oh_details_o09_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Did you know Amazon will donate a portion of every purchase if you shop by going to smile.amazon.com instead? Over $50,000,000 has been raised for charity - all you need to do is change the URL!

Here are your smile-ified links:

https://smile.amazon.com/Premium-Gold-Whole-Flaxseed-96-Ounce/dp/B004579W2Q

---

^^i'm ^^a ^^friendly bot

loving this plant based organic protein powder right now. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J074W94?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

https://www.amazon.com/Orgain-Organic-Protein-Powder-Chocolate/dp/B00J074W94?th=1

Chocolate flavor, all plant based protein, lactose/dairy free. $22 with prime for 2lbs.

I bought this scale about a year and a half ago. It seems to be holding up well. It is at least consistent with a bike scale I have.

When it comes to buying a scale, accuracy isn't super important. What is important is that it is consistent. If you weigh yourself on the same scale every time, you have a consistent frame of reference.

Buy a container of flax seed.

https://www.amazon.com/Premium-Gold-Whole-Flaxseed-96-Ounce/dp/B004579W2Q

2 tbsp gets you 150 calories and 8g of fiber (the 5g of protein doesn't hurt). I add them to my shake every morning. I usually blend them with some oats before adding the rest of my ingredients. This size container has 97 servings for $16.