Office Workers - What do you eat?

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KatherineStar
KatherineStar Posts: 56 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Morning All,

I'm looking for inspiration from fellow office workers on what you eat during the day...
i've been having porridge & a banana for breakfast, sushi & miso soup for lunch and then home cooking of an evening. i feel like im falling into eating the same thing every day because its easy and i dont need to think too deeply about it but sure it will get boring after a while. i def feel the need to eat HOT food as its so cold which rules out salads at the moment for me! what does everyone else do? x
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Replies

  • AverageUkDude
    AverageUkDude Posts: 371 Member
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    Do you have a fridge and a microwave in your office? Invest in tupaware :) if so and make the night before and reheat at work.
  • elkeefo
    elkeefo Posts: 6
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    +1 on the fridge and microwave. Also, make enough to do you 2 or 3 days and keep it in your fridge at home. It's more convenient than convenience food that so many people on here, including myself, used to rely on.
  • maryf78
    maryf78 Posts: 6
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    During the day - I eat a salad but also open and heat a tin of soup - in the salad I alternate between salmon, egg and chicken. I do eat the same soup every day but its my favourite - you could easily try different flavours for variety. I also have different daytime snacks for variety - yogurt, fruit, seeds etc. Can't say that I will get bored with these foods - when I see the weight coming off - it'll be worth it :-)
  • melindanew
    melindanew Posts: 150 Member
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    I bring my lunch daily. We do have a microwave.

    I have 2 boiled eggs and about 50g of cheese for brekkie. I have a protein and a salad for lunch. Usually I bake chicken breasts on the weekends with some nice seasoning. I cut them in half and freeze them. I measure my salad dressing so I don't go over calories.

    I don't snack. If I want to snack I chew gum.

    It's really easy - the night before (if it's a gym morning) or in the morning, I grab the eggs, cut cheese and wrap it in saran wrap, pull half a chicken breast out of the freezer, grab a container, throw in a hand full of lettuce, cut up a tomato and maybe a cucumber, put on my salad dressing, throw that in my bag (I have a bright, fun Mexican oil cloth lunchbag), and off I go. Take 10 minutes to put together, tops.

    About three days a week I try to make enough dinner for leftovers. So today instead of my chicken breast, I had some low-carb, low cal Chicken Parmesan I made extra of. When I do that, when I put it in the fridge I do it in portions. If I have to measure, I won't take it. That way I don't get sick of chicken breasts. Last week I did the same with Thai Beef Salad.


    My NY resolution was to not buy lunch this year and take my lunch every single day except on the rare occasion I have a lunch meeting or a team lunch. That's maybe once a month. I was buying my lunch twice a week, just from the lazies.

    My brekkie is always the same though. I need the protein, I need the fat, and I tend to low-carb because carbs just make me hungry. That gets me through till lunch without getting hungry in the middle.
  • Can_Change_Natalie
    Can_Change_Natalie Posts: 109 Member
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    Hi this is normally a common problem for me when i have dieted before. im only two weeks in to my new healthy living and determined to make it a life change this time.

    Over the last two weeks i having been having tuna pasta with sweetcorn, tomato based pasta sauce with mushrooms and veggies, different soups, chicken wraps, salads and sometimes some dinner from the night before, always followed by a low fat yoghurt or fruit.

    So far this has worked really well for me but im always on the lookout for more exciting ideas to keep me from getting bored of the same foods.
  • chelseybennett1
    chelseybennett1 Posts: 275 Member
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    I make 4 serving recipes out of a low cal recipe book and bring it in the next day. Then I'm stalked up for 4 meals.
  • lisaanne1704
    lisaanne1704 Posts: 8
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    a cucumber & tomato sandwich and a cup of coffee
  • KatherineStar
    KatherineStar Posts: 56 Member
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    Thanks all, some great ideas. we do have a microwave somewhere in the building im sure - ill find it!
    like the idea of making it the night before i was thinking i wouldnt have time to cook stuff in the morning and get it all ready so will give that a go. and cutting chicken in half sounds like a good plan too.
  • JacquiDawn
    JacquiDawn Posts: 43
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    Poached egg on toast everyday for breakfast.

    I take with me to work:

    Some kind of soup
    Two portions of fruit
    A yoghurt
    A breakfast bar

    If I know I'm going to the gym later/will be burning extra calories I treat myself to two light chocolate digestives as a treat :)

    I did nearly die of hunger yesterday - I went from meeting to meeting 8.30am-3.30pm and only survived on my breakfast and an apple.
  • tryclyn
    tryclyn Posts: 2,414 Member
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    I make "stoup" in the crock pot, portion it into ziploc bags and freeze. When I reheat at work I add at least a cup of water to turn it into a big bowl of soup.
  • KatherineStar
    KatherineStar Posts: 56 Member
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    Poached egg on toast everyday for breakfast.

    I take with me to work:

    Some kind of soup
    Two portions of fruit
    A yoghurt
    A breakfast bar

    If I know I'm going to the gym later/will be burning extra calories I treat myself to two light chocolate digestives as a treat :)

    I did nearly die of hunger yesterday - I went from meeting to meeting 8.30am-3.30pm and only survived on my breakfast and an apple.

    haha the last bit made me smile. i do this a lot. im trying to avoid bread and pasta as it bloats me out so it does limit me a little. like the idea of healthy snack foods though. you're all giving me some great ideas :) x
  • SabineHansen
    SabineHansen Posts: 8 Member
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    I plan my food for a week, so I dont know what I will be eating next week, but this week its:

    7.00 Dairy product with high protein and some fiber rich cereal ( I think both things are european/danish foods so I dont know how to translate them)

    10.00 100 - 200 grams of veggies this week its either broccoli, cauliflower or carrots.

    11.35 A sandwich with cheese, ham, tomato and cucumber

    14.00 An apple and a small handfull of nuts
  • JacquiDawn
    JacquiDawn Posts: 43
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    Poached egg on toast everyday for breakfast.

    I take with me to work:

    Some kind of soup
    Two portions of fruit
    A yoghurt
    A breakfast bar

    If I know I'm going to the gym later/will be burning extra calories I treat myself to two light chocolate digestives as a treat :)

    I did nearly die of hunger yesterday - I went from meeting to meeting 8.30am-3.30pm and only survived on my breakfast and an apple.

    haha the last bit made me smile. i do this a lot. im trying to avoid bread and pasta as it bloats me out so it does limit me a little. like the idea of healthy snack foods though. you're all giving me some great ideas :) x
    It's fine, as soon as I came out of my meetings then I just took myself off for half an hour and ate everything I had! My job is pretty tough emotionally (working in a rehab unit with people with brain injuries), so I need to make sure I don't do the whole emotional eating - that was definitely one of the factors to why I put on weight in the first place! I don't bring any money with me to work so I'm not tempted by the vending machines with chocolate and crisps.

    I make sure my bread, pasta and rice is all brown to cut out the white processed stuff.

    Best of luck!
  • IsoletJansen
    IsoletJansen Posts: 1 Member
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    Breakfast:
    I alternate between a proteien shake (that I drink on my way to work) or some oats in the morning.

    Lunch:
    Most of the time I cook a little extra (not a full portion) at dinner, so that my husband and I have extra for lunch. As I dish our plates, I dish in the tupperware - I have found that if I leave it to dish later, it sometimes becomes a second helping, which does not help! In summer I top it up with a salad or in winter with some soup if the portion is too small. If we didn't eat at home the previous evening, I would make sandwiches with a proteien (cheese or chicken or boiled egg) and salad (tomato, cucumber, lettuce) on them.

    Snacks:
    I bought mini muffin pans, to cut down on the muffin calories. So I bake more muffins, but a little smaller. I freeze them. They are great for the kids' and our lunch boxes. We also each get a fruit, 100g of yoghurt (fat free!) and on the days that we train, I add some nuts and carrot sticks in a grab bag, so that we don't feel hungry and want to go for potato crisps or worse. Something else that works great is popcorn. I don't add any butter! But just a small bag helps especially if you are on the go a lot.
  • BerryH
    BerryH Posts: 4,698 Member
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    I don't have a fridge or microwave at work, and I can't afford to buy lunch every day, so I bring in a Thermos flask of hot soup and some bread and butter or crispbread. On warmer days, I have an insulated sandwich bag with freezer packs.
  • Silvara_11
    Silvara_11 Posts: 133 Member
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    I keep 2 types of cereal / muesli at work that I eat for breakfast. If I've had a good yoga session in the morning I treat myself to an egg and mushroom muffin at 311cal.

    I keep fresh fruit for sweet snacks and cherry tomatoes for salty

    Lunch is usually a soup or M&S ready meal

    Make my dinners on the weekend and re-heat at home or make up something quick.

    Don't feel deprived and find it pretty easy to refuse office treats - it is a surprise for me!
  • Danni1585
    Danni1585 Posts: 250 Member
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    I'm a bit of a nightmare at work, always rushing around. I need to have stuff ready in my drawer. I have a selection of low fat soups, protein shakes etc. Its not fab but it keeps me from snacking on other stuff and doesnt go off. I bring in a bag of fruit daily
  • kendrafallon
    kendrafallon Posts: 1,030 Member
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    It used to be sandwiches of some sort most days, or a filled pitta bread. These days, it depends on what I fancy :bigsmile: since I have access to both a fridge and microwave at work. - the BBC Good Food website (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com) has some fab recipes you can make & take to work.

    Edit: just to add, here's a direct link to the Healthy section: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/healthy
  • mich1902
    mich1902 Posts: 182
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    Brekkie: 2 boiled eggs on toast
    Snack 1 : small apple, 80g of grapes
    Lunch: homemade veg and lentil soup
    Dinner: Usually a low cal meal 300 cals
    Snack 2: usually a treat for telly-mini choc fingers and monster munch

    **if exercising then will have something extra
  • Skinny_minny_mo
    Skinny_minny_mo Posts: 1,272 Member
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    i bring lunch in too - although i seldom heat anything up.

    todays lunch - grilled chicken with butter lettuce, basil and rocket. yummy!

    boiled eggs are also a good option

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