what are you guys taking to work???

[melaleuca]

cooked food refrigerated?
raw uncooked food???
giving up soy milk creamer in my tea and all the fat
and cutting back on my beans (none for now)
and increasing my appetite, i am feeling the need for something while i am still @ work

thanks,
melaleuca

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

I can tell you what Mr. D takes to work.

One grapefruit, one apple, one banana (or a pear or orange subbed in)

Bread, either home made heavy and hard sourdough that's 100% whole cracked and home ground grain or the German thin sliced rye, toasted and dried.

Raw red peppers, carrots, cucumbers.

This is almost the same every single day and must be boring, but he doesn't mind. Some days he takes two or three baked potatoes that he microwaves in the morning and they are still hot at lunchtime.

[melaleuca]

i have been trying the potato thing
and raw celery sticks
raw carrots too hard to chew

par-microwaved them the other day-
a little too cooked
love my potatoes...
makes me a little tired

problem is:
if i cook the potatoes @ work it takes too long in the work microwave

if i cook them @ home: i eat them before the time i wanted to and end up hungry later...
they do not last!

some say: to cook them a little before work and refrigerateand finish them off @ brunch time

still trouble shooting

not too fond of digesting all day
was easier to live on my green tea soy latte
and not deal with food...

but have to do what is best...

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

Mr. D found that if he microwaved his three potatoes wrapped in paper towels then wrapped them in a couple of terry towels and put them in a plastic bag, they stayed warm for 4 hours. Not piping hot, but pretty warm. They are also OK left at room temperature for a few hours.

I take potatoes on long trips with me. I travel 7 hours one way very often to visit my parents, and several potatoes will last the whole trip, they are usually cold by the time I get there but they still taste good.

[melaleuca]

thanks
i have access to a refrigerator a small 1 in need of defrosting and a very small slow not clean microwave...

if i bring the food ready cooked
i end up tasting it before i walk out the door
and the rest hardly lasts until my morning break
maybe i am not making a sufficient amount?

[Mrs. Doodlepunk]

and the rest hardly lasts until my morning break
maybe i am not making a sufficient amount?

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

Dr. McDougall says to eat enough food. Maybe you aren't having enough for breakfast, and you need to plan a meal sooner in the day than lunch. That's sort of what I do. First meal around 7, next around 10:30, then 2 and 5.

[TominTN]

- 1 large (or 2 small) baked sweet potato
- ~2 cups of bean, corn, oats "stew" that I make up over the weekend
- an apple
- a banana
- a plum or pear
- sometimes a boiled white potato (we keep them in a bowl in the frig at home)

Over the weekend, I bake sweet potatos and put them in plastic tubs for easy transport. I cook a pound of beans and 3 cups of oats, mix in a pound of frozen corn, add spices and condiments for flavor, and divide it all up into 7 tubs, one for each day of the week. All these tubs go in the frig. My fruit just sits out on the kitchen table.

On my way out the door to work, I gather up the items listed above, put them in a bag, and I'm on my way. I don't worry about refrigerating any of this between the time I leave the house and when I start nibbling at it, typically around 10:30 (but sometimes as early as 8:30 ).

This is usually enough food that I don't get too hungry before I get home at the end of the day, even if I finish off the lunch a little early.

Since everything is in tubs or discrete units of fruits, I don't tend to sample while assembling my lunch, so it all usually makes it to work. I can imagine that if I were trying to prepare stuff before leaving the house, it would be more difficult. It really helps me to do all the prep on the weekend.

Sometimes on the weekend when I'm making the "stew", if I want to sample it, I do. I just take a small bowlful out of the pot before dividing the rest up into the seven tubs for the week. Once they are sealed up and in the frig, they aren't a temptation.

Keep tweaking and posting. I keep learning new ideas for streamlining life from the folks here.

[Riva]

Because I have access to a fridge, microwage, rice steamer and electric pressure cooker at work (can you tell it is my own business and I set up the kitchen?) I have it easy?

But on the many days that I can't cook at the office I have stored already there:
cans of no fat refried beans and garbanzo beans
apples
grapefruit
frozen vegetables like string beans and broccoli and corn
Frozen brown rice packets

Then I am home free and I eat whatever I want from that Palette.
Riva

P.S. What I cook there when I have time is brown rice with those dehydrated vegetables from Harmony House - celery, onions and mushrooms. REally yummy.

Also I might pressure cook some cannelini beans, a real onion chopped up and a frozen box of vegetables. These two things will last 3 days and I add the fresh apples or grapefruit.

[melaleuca]

it turns out i am coming down with a cold or allergies.
i am not sure how that affected my appetite and energy levels.
i am up drinking some tea, with a little honey...
i haven't heard of anyone drinking tea with stevia as a remedy for colds or congestion...

that is my biggest vice...
honey in tea...
i am trying to wean the amount...
not sure if sugar substitutes, though natural, like stevia, increase the craving for intense sweetness
i would like to be able to perceive a hint of honey...

anyway...

minus the honey...
i suppose i am going for the mini mcdougall...
bean hiatus
not sure how that is working for me
perhaps my regular dinner of beans salad and potatoes has been a staple for years...
minus the years that i sprouted the beans and was adamant about no canned beans-
the canned beans i buy have literalliy no added salt, only beans
but i wanted to go to vegetables and potatoes for @ least 10 days
not that hard since they are my mainstays

not sure that eating a lot @ work is working for me
i like to eat @ home...
if it were like a soup i would like it better @ work
or a "chip"

the closest i can find to a chip are kettles baked chips
still a little oil in the lightly salted
depending on the amount
trying to slice my potatoes thin like cottage fries...
but as i mentioned...
they are too good
don't last me too long...


i have to see about cooking a lot of food and refrigerating it
always concerned about cool down temperatures and refrigerator temperatures
i suppose i can buy a thermometer...

not sure if we will have rolling blackouts during the summer and i will have no idea that the refrigerator was off for hours
and then i will come home and have foodborne illness....

i love my potatoes!

not sure if anti-beans for a time is the path to my goal...

was drinking too much soy milk for a while and trying to clean up...
wearing the soy milk right now...

vegetarian for 20 years
and close to vegetarian prior to that...
my standard is beans with salad and potatoes for dinner
and very little during the day
usually my green tea soy lattes and honey
maybe a baked potato or baked chips midday

that is my fall back
sometimes i take an advance on the beans
or have salad with garbanzos @ a salad bar...
my excuse to consume high salt beans
forget what salt is sometimes
i usually restrict it so much....
all produce and canned beans that have no added salt

but the soy milk and ? the honey in my tea is catching up with me
have to have a new plan
the aging process catching up with me

the 20 something metabolism is a thing of the past...

although i suppose in the school days...
we walked to classes...
we walked home...
we walked to the library...
a lot going into the metabolism...

[Jan Tz]

Just wondering why you are giving up the beans? Are they not agreeing with you?

I don't worry too much about refrigeration, cool down times, etc. when I am just eating all plant foods. They don't go bad as quickly as animal foods. If you pack a lunch of beans, potatoes/other starch, fruit, vegetable and take it to work with you in the morning, it will still be fine by lunchtime. You could also get an insulated lunchbag at Walmart for very little. I got one for my husband to take to work. It has one of those re-freezable "blue ice" packs in it and the food stays cold for hours. But he has meat and cheese in his lunch, so that's important. It doesn't really matter so much if it's all plant foods, even if they're cooked.

[eaufraiche703]

my daughter bought me a few of the "Fit and Free" lunch carrying systems that have their own snap in ice thingy. I have the soup n' salad, which is perfect for about 2 cups of salad and the same amount of potato in the soup compartment. I also have the entree sized salad carrier. Generally, I'll put dressing in the bottom, throw a chopped up baked spud on top of the dressing, add a layer of chopped up crispy veggies and then top it with about 4 cups of greens.

Stuff stays cold in these til lunch. She also bought a Fit and Free that's like a huge divided dinner plate - but it carries too much food for my purposes.

The Fit and Free carriers are at Target near gladware and rubbermaid food storage items.

feel better, Melaleuca! (adding honey to tea seems a very minor infraction in the major scheme of things, so indulge!)

[Faith in DC]

yes hope you feel better. I have this large bag probably 2x2 feet with my name on it, and folks call it the Faith bag and always in amazement all the food I bring in for the day.

breakfast is oatmeal dry, quick or regular cut, with frozen blueberries and I pour boiling water over it (electric tea kettle) and have my tea. I always bring two fruits in season too.

Lunch is a huge salad. It's the ziploc 7 cup container and it's packed of lettuces and veggies in season. In the second smaller 14 oz container I have wet ingredients, roasted red pepper, chickpeas, greek seasoning, a couple kalamata olives, tomatoes, artichoke hearts and when I have it, vegan feta from sunergia. I keep red wine vinegar at work for dressing. I also bring a cup of my homemade vegetable soup, and have wasa crackers at work. So that's lunch, which is also snack for the afternoon since it's so big.

I am full and don't think about eating until much later in the evening.

[melaleuca]

thanks for the tips
no beans if for now, the modified "mini mary"
potatoes, greens, non-starchy vegetables...
i traded the fruit for a little honey, goal of max 1-2 tbsp a day...
3-6 tsp...
6-12 half tsps
i carry the tub with me to work to see how many servings are lasting me a week...
i find that allowing myself to have it has inhibited me from overcompensating by not having it and later wanting a lot of it'
i did that with soy milk years ago. limited the container to work, so that i wouldn't drink it straight @ home, only in tea, and it started to last me longer than a 5 day work week. My goal is that I will be able to get to where 1 tub of honey lasts me a week or 2 and maybe I will learn to drink the tea less strong, without any sweetener.
i am learning to cook mushrooms. i am open to suggestions for cleaning & preparing portabellas & rehydrating shitake.
is costco still selling bulk dried mushrooms????

i took my potatoes to work uncooked in pyrex and am cooking them @ work during the midmorning break. the microwave is slow however. it is a lot of work.

i am not "fat" by this nation's standard...
but i am a 6-8 petite up from a 0-2 petite...
for my frame, that is a lot of weight...
i can't support it...

i would be content with returning to a 2-4.
my metabolism is slowing
i am giving a good fight. increasing my physical activity, the bike before work & increasing my steps @ work.


if you look @ the medical problems attributable to excess weight...
it is unwieldy...
from bone & joint problems...
to cardiovascular...
to glucose intolerance...
hypertension...

and the fat mediated cancers...

this overfed society...
is it worth it???

[Faith in DC]

lol you threw me for a second. I saw the I'm a 6-8 petite up from 0-2, and I was thinking you were 6'8" and thought that ain't petite. So yes, sounds like you are small boned. Anyone who can wear a 0 is small boned in my book.

You did good increasing your exercise.

[melaleuca]

hi faith,
thanks!
i slacked off yesterday and the day before. i felt dizzy on the bike in the morning, less than 5 miles and i am not sure about the steps & the day before, thursday, i changed my shoes to what i thought were better for walking, and they were worse, no arch support, less than 4,000 steps. the day before that in my flats, that i was feeling were too flat and the soles too thin, but they are rubber, i did >11,000 steps.
i have a new pair of petite small elastic waist wider leg pants that are knit and stretch comfortable for sitting & for walking & biking. i can dress for work & continue to work out & can walk @ work.
still working on the walking shoes. i am still waiting for ups to deliver my new shoes.
my foot is narrow & i broke the base of my toe 2 months ago, and it is very hard to find shoes that fit comfortably that are good for walking.
i feel like the soles are too thin on these shoes.

has anyone seen the MBT reverse incline shoes???
i am not sure if that would be beneficial. the pairs i have seen didn't fit or weren't available in my size, but there are several i haven't seen, maryjanes and such...

i will say this:
@ the time that i was wearing 0 petite suits, i didn't have to hem the pants, but the arms of the blazer were a little short & i did think that if i had to change a lightbulb on the ceiling or reach for something on a high shelf, the blazer would tear...
probably not coming back down to that weight again.
but we'll see...
i had a generous meal plan @ that size, but i think i had my age in my favor.

anyone have the perfect walking shoe, for narrow feet???
something that looks okay @ work???

melaleuca