Weight loss lifestyle for commuters?

I live about 40 minutes away from work and on days I have to work I meal prep lunch and dinner, which is usually a sandwich and fruit/veggies. I get off at six so I'll eat dinner in the break room while I wait for traffic to die down a little. If I don't bring my dinner I'll still bring some baby carrots and a drink as a snack.

I spend a lot of time driving around town for my job, so I have a bunch of portable go to meals and snacks. I keep high fiber protein bars and nuts in my backpack so that if I am caught without an actual meal, I have that as a back up.

Easy to eat, easy to fit in a lunch cooler and easy to prepare:
-greek yogurt and berries
-salad: kale salad mix is sturdier than leaf salad mixes, add a protein, maybe some olives and cheese for flavor, and good to go. I also like red cabbage as a salad base.
-leftover roasted/grilled vegetables with goat cheese and/or leftover proteins. I just had asparagus and lamb most recently. Delish even cold.
-sandwiches
-raw veg and cheese (with bread, if you are into that kind of thing)

I go early and beat traffic. I figured out that if I leave my place at 6 am, I can get to the gym (right next to work) by 6:30 am, workout for an hour, shower and then be to work by 8am. If I leave anytime after 6:15 am, I'm stuck in traffic for an hour.

Find a gym close to work so you can go before. You have time to exercise and eat well, but you might have to re-prioritize your time.

Also, you can easily eat out regularly and still lose weight. Make good choices for foods that fit into your calorie allotment. Really, it's about will-power. You're either committed to it, or you're not.

I go to the gym in the morning before work and pack all my shower/makeup supplies with me. So I end up getting ready for work at the gym. Usually I also bring something simple for my meals. A fruit for breakfast, some nuts/seeds/jerky as a snack, and a salad for lunch. Or, I will take those costco chicken dumplings since they're actually really tasty. For dinner, it's usually crockpot stuff. I do like to cook on the weekends though, and do freezer meal prep.

My commute is a bit shorter now, but used to be a good hour, close to two on bad days (one way).

Going to the gym had to be a commitment. I started getting up a little earlier (15 minute increments), and doing shorter workouts at home to fill that time, and eventually moved the alarm back to where I could make it to the gym, and I'd go there before work. After work simply didn't happen often enough (too tired/worn out/needed to run errands/etc), and being a woman, any lunchtime workout was just a PITA and there wasn't enough time, especially if I got sweaty at all.

I started basically working through my lunch break so I could get out of work that much earlier, and just used my shorter breaks as my "away from my desk" times.

Eating is something that is still a work in progress for me. I'm attempting to get started with some meal prep, where I prepare lunches and dinners in advance (or VERY easy to throw together), and dinners in a couple dishes with maybe one easy side to prep at night. Quick and easy is going to need to be the name of the game for me.

I work 7 days a week between my regular job and my part time gig, so free time is really, really hard to come by. Some things I'm trying to help make this meal prepping more feasible since I don't have a day off to do this stuff:

--Making use of grocery delivery. I put together a menu, figured out what I need, and then have my groceries delivered. Saves me a good hour or two right there, plus the frustration.
--Buying as many pre-prepped items (like pre-cut veggies) as possible.
--Using items I can cook at once and then divide up in different ways (such as roasting several chicken breasts and then slicing, saucing, chunking into various dishes).
--I have the MealPal flex plan for lunches when I really just don't have the food/time to pre-make them. Portions tend to be more reasonable, with plenty of healthy choices in my area.

Honestly I'm new to the whole meal prep thing as most people seemed to spend HOURS a week doing it, something I simply don't have. So, I've been brainstorming and gathering ideas on how to make it happen since it's still a priority, and these are the big ones I've come up with.

I eat fast food or pack finger foods to eat. Generally at McDonalds or Jack in tbe Box I can get plain eggs, or sandwich less meat fillets to eat on the drive. Add a lunch cooler with fruits, veggies, and an icepack and I can eat healthily on my drive. Exercise wise, I can usually get up an hour earlier tomorrow go to the gym, or go between work site sessions, and I try to walk and do stretching exercises as much as I can get away with at work or in front of the TV at night.

r3cycl0ps wrote: »

I have an hour+ driving commute and live between more than one home right now. Finding a way to eat healthy and not eat out every meal has been difficult, as has been finding bandwidth to exercise. Does anyone have advice for losing weight and being healthy during a busy commuter lifestyle?

So my commute is slighly less then 1 hour, but I hade a longer commute in the past, so I know how it feels. I don't like to prepare all my meals before hand, so I just prepare my luch togheter with my dinner, and only chose very simple things to cook that I can cook in less then 30 minutes. As for the time to workout, I do it in the afternoon, I can't do it in the morning. If I get off work at 6 pm I' m home by 6:50, change, pick up my gym bag, and I'm in the gym at 7, then at 8 I'm finished, I go home (I searched for a gym that is near home), shower, then by 8:30 I start cooking and by 9 I'm eating (that is a totally normal time in the day to eat here, and in this way I don't have night snacks because I'm not hungry). So in the morning I just pack what I cooked the evening before, plus some snack to eat before the gym, during the commute, and I'm done. The secret for me was to find the right food to cook in little time. There are some things that I cook beforehand, or maybe I cook a larger quantity and then eat them for more then one day, but generally I cook every evening dinner+lunch. Your commute is longer, so maybe you won't be able to fit everything in there, maybe you can workout during the lunch break (I did so when I had a longer commute, I searched fo a gym very near work. If you have your lunch packed you don't need much time to eat)

Edited to add this: the more important thing is: this is the rough outline of a normal day, but if I don't want to cook, or I want to take an aperitivo with a friend or order takeout with my boyfriend, I do it. It's not one evening when I don't follow the plan or I skip the gym that's going to ruin everything. Otherwise all this feels very constrictive. The more important thing is to find the right balance between discipline and relax.

I commute about 3hrs every day. I spend time on the weekend meal planning and food prepping. I make my lunch and breakfast for the entire week in ready to grab containers.

I park about .5 mile away from my office so that I'm forced to walk every morning and afternoon. It's far enough to get my heart pumping, but not so far that I'm sweaty mess when I get to the office.

I also eat my lunch at my desk so that I can go for walks on my lunch break.

I keep a drawer full of health snacks at my desk. Right now it has: clementines, canned sardines, 100 calorie packs of nuts, Lara Bars, tuna packets, raisins, Epic Bars, and I just looked an apparently there is a random York Peppermint Patty in there LOL

I need to start a workout program in addition to the walking that I do and am looking to join the gym near my office. My plan is to come in the morning dressed in workout clothes and bring my work clothes. The walk from the parking lot to my gym will serve as my warm-up! Of course, this will mean leaving my house at 5am, so we'll see how that actually goes.