bad eating at work

Nice pony!

When I worked long hours in an office, I used to do big batches of cooking on the weekend that would get me through the week until Thursday. You could also make even more and freeze some. I also made hard boiled eggs to bring to work for snacks, and stocked carrots and almonds there as well. Also, it just takes a few minutes to put together a sandwich - maybe do this the night before?

Are there healthier choices you can get at work? One of my cooking gigs was as a short order cook as a bowling alley, and despite the plethora of high calorie foods, there were also lower cal choices. Of course, I went for the chicken wings and bacon, but you can do better than I did

What about cutting your hours? How many days per week do you work 12-14 hour days?

Agree on the eggs/protein for breakfast. It's taken me a long time to realise that this is what fills me up. I usually eat breakfast around 6-6.30 and this keeps me full until about 11ish... I then grab a piece of fruit. Lunch for me is usually 1.15. I have a similar schedule to you - work long hours and have my horse who I see to after work and is currently in an exercise rehab for an operation so it's definitely hard going. What I do is make up some extra meals on the weekend and one night a week I make my "cooking night" so I will spend a little more time, but I try and cook a couple of things up at the same time. We don't have any options in work so I have to bring food in. I do find all the cooking a little tiring and sometimes I really can't be bothered so I am really strict with my lists and shopping!

Make the time, to pre pack foods. WHEN it becomes important enough, you will just do it.

ultrahoon wrote: »

Stop considering foods to be individually bad or good, look at the diet as a whole.

Sustained weight loss is entirely about a calorie deficit. Eating 500 calories more than you burn of 'good' food will still cause you to gain as much weight as eating 500 calories more than you burn of 'bad' food in the long run.

Use the food log on this website, get a food scale to weigh things for accuracy, be patient, be consistent, and let MFP do its thing.

I hate when people say that

Meal prep, it only takes an hour or so a week to cook and pack everything. I do mine on Sunday. Get yourself a big lunchbox, Tupperware, and a couple cool packs. All you have to do is scramble some eggs in the morning and you are out. the. door.

Work has always been an issue for me too... Busy schedule and even when I plan ahead and bring "good stuff", I often cave into the constant string of junk food that's always available (we seem to have cake, cookies or donuts at least 3 days a week, plus an endless candy jar).

There have been a lot of good food suggestions, so I'll give you a couple of more "logistical" ones:

If you don't have a matching set of containers to carry your meals in, consider inventing in a new set and pitching all of the old un-matched stuff. Something that stacks well and you have all the lids too. Being organized with this will make packing food so much easier.

Also, make sure that you have a dedicated and washable lunch bag. Having to sort for a bag to carry your lunch in in the morning is just a pain.

If you're going to do the hard boiled egg thing, peel your eggs before-hand and bag them one or two at a time (how ever many you plan to eat at a time). I pepper them in the bag. It sounds like you might legitimately be too busy to stop to peel them, so this will help avoid setting yourself up for failure. Basically... I'd just avoid having to prep *anything* at work.

Water is key... but hard to get in when you're busy. So try to set up a system. If you need to, fill a whole gallon and drink from that all day long so that you can see your progress.

I can sympathize with not feeling comfortable in your skin. I have been at that point several times in my life (including now, which is why I'm here again). It stinks, because when you feel like crap, it's so much easier to eat like crap. Pre-logging really helps me with this. If I'm prepping my food ahead, I log the next day the night before so that I'm focused and have a plan.

Good luck! You're getting lots of good advice... pick and choose what works for you. If you need friends, feel free to add me :-)

Jen

I am also a fan of batch cooking. I cook and freeze single serve portions of meals. I have a special hand knitted and felted bag. . . every morning I pack it with baggie of granola, microwaved cinnamon apple slices, 2 slices of precooked bacon, a banana, a frozen lunch (stir fry, pork tenderloin and rice, whatever), a container of steamed veggies, an afternoon snack (string cheese, strawberries, boiled egg, popcorn). The only meal I eat at home is dinner, and that is my lightest meal of the day. I bring that bag every day. All I need is a fridge and a microwave, which my work has.