What do you eat? (2)

Triathlon Forum
1

I have a very healthy diet, but I find I struggle with what to eat mid-day.

5am Awake & glass of Orange Juice (usually fresh from my tree)

Workout

7am Home-milled porridge (from whatever grains I can get that month) topped with fresh fruit (banana, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, mango-if in season) and homemade soy milk (from Laura Soy Beans). Coffee. Hands down my favorite meal of the day.

Mid-Morning Apple. If in season it is substituted with a soft fruit (mango, peach, pear, etc.). Scoop of peanut butter (straight off the spoon).

Lunch… my least healthy meal of the day usually…

Afternoon. Handful of nuts. I mix it up - nuts are either from local farmers or from Trader Joes. Sometimes there are treats in the office… I indulge about once every other week. Most of the treats aren’t that great and I don’t have any self-control issues.

Dinner. 15+ vegetable salad with homemade salad dressing. Chicken or Fish on either pasta, rice, or a tortilla accompanied by more veggies (usually the hard veggies). Always cooked pretty healthy format (no deep frying or breading etc). Maybe once a month I have a burger. Maybe 4x per year a steak (at a restaurant).

Salad makings: spinach or leafy greens, peanuts, radish, beet, bell pepper slices, avocado, hard boiled egg, bean sprouts, broccoli sprouts, alfalfa sprouts, baby carrots, sugar snap peas, asparagus, broccoli, red cabbage, cabbage, shredded brussel sprouts, tomato. Sometimes I throw in peas or corn. Most of the ingredients are from Trader Joes.

I’m very happy with breakfast and dinner and have been for years. I definitely eat my fruit and veggies.

My lunches are all over the board. The firm I work for feeds us, on average, once a week. More when we are busy. Whatever. It is the usual sandwiches, tacos, burritos, thai, etc. Lunch stuff.

When not fed lunch I pull from the following options:
Can of tuna + mayo + pickles + crackersJust crackers (TJs Multigrain Pita Bite Crackers)Trader Joes frozen macaroni and cheese (usually only in a pinch)Eat nuts early and end up with junk food mid-afternoonMore coffeeNothing
I really don’t like eating out and probably only go out for dinner 4x per year (outside vacations). I never have breakfast at a restaurant. Lunch is whatever.

What do you eat? I need ideas, but I don’t want to spend tons of time prepping lunch… and I don’t like crappy food (lunchables, TV dinner, subway, etc.). It just isn’t worth it. I can do better, but I don’t need more fruits and veggies. My tummy needs stuff that sticks a little better.

2

Subway sandwich for lunch.

3

It looks like there are three Subway shops in SLO.

4

What about taking sandwich stuff to work and making your own PB&J or cheese sandwich for lunch??? It doesn’t like you eat much meat but if you do on occasion you could have ham and cheese or similar. On a Monday, I’ll take in a sack-full of bread, PB, jam, cheese, etc, and have enough for 10 lunches, and more convenient/less expensive than going to Subway.

5

How about a pbj or a Noosa yogurt? (The big noosa yogurts have about 300 calories - the fat is really satiating).

6

Don’t be scared of red meat, as it is arguably the most nutritious single food available. A hamburger (ground sirloin, round, or lean ground beef) for lunch makes a satisfying meal, unlike much of the lean fares people often opt for (canned tuna or tuna salad for instance). I find, as mentioned already, a Subway sandwich with bag of potato chips can be good too. A mini snickers bar for dessert finishes off the patate very well, and doesn’t leave you wanting.

7

most days lunch for me is a PB&J or leftovers from the night before. Making extra for dinner takes care of lunch (stir fry, indian, pasta, etc all taste good the next day and easy). I usually add a greek yogurt, some nuts, and maybe a bag of fritos if I am craving salt and call it done. PBJ never gets old, never is amazing, and never is as terrible as the options in a workplace cafeteria…

8

Other than when you substitute tuna- your diet seems to be pretty devoid of protein until dinner.

Are you dairy free? You could add some greek yogurt to breakfast.

Another observation is nuts and nut butter. I see you eat this with a focus/- yes they are nutritious, but also high in calories. Calories that you may or may not need.

For lunch you could eat and sandwich or the equivalent for lunch- if no sandwich how about some kind of meat, cut up veggies or salad and a side of rice or tortillas?

Last time I was in SLO I felt like it was the sandwich capitol of the world- sandwich places and delis all over the place.

9

7am : 4 eggs, pita bread, glass of whole milk spiked with cuban coffee
10:30 am : Hi calorie portien shake
1:00pm : some type of meat with beans and rice, sometimes Mo’s or pizza
4:00 pm : Hi calorie protien shake or peanut butter sandwitch
8:00pm : some type of meat with potatoes or beans and rice or pasta
10:30pm : cocoa crispies with whole milk or peanut m&m’s
.

10

It looks pretty good to me!(and similar to mine except my salads are more boring than yours;)).If you shop at Trader Joe’s-they have some good lunch options-mine(up in Marin) has chicken soup in the “fresh prepared” refrigerated section that’s good,plus the frozen stuff has a wide variety of options-some more healthy than others.Sometimes I make a batch of quinoa and add tomatoes,beans,corn and some lime juice/cilantro/cumin.This could be lunch for a few days and you could add some leftover chicken or whatever if you like.Sushi is always good in my book,and I eat pb&j …more than I care to admit(plus I bet there’s a few awesome bakeries in SLO?for bread?)I make quesadillas on whole wheat tortillas for my kids and add stuff (spinach,chicken,beans) and I’ll eat those too.Those are easy to bring to work too.hth
.

11

This is pretty much my work week diet. I usually do have a cheat meal with a few beers once every 2 weeks.

Breakfast - Bowl of kashi cereal with almond milk and a large banana with a cup of coffee.

Snack - apple & protein shake

Lunch - My work has a wonderful full service cafe that can cook to order and also has a awesome salad bar. Anyways, I usually get two grilled salmon fillets or three grilled chicken breast with some sort of grilled vegetable and steamed yams or a large salad.

Snack - Nuts and cottage cheese.

Snack again (2 hours later) - almond butter on a few whole grain crackers.

workout

Dinner - chicken breast/or my favorite sun dried tomato egg(3) wrap with salsa. green beans on the side with brown rice.

12

Subway sandwich for lunch.

damaged soybean oil in the breads.

13

Take your own sandwich to work. I normally have turkey on whole wheat with avocado, spinach, tomatoes, and a little cheese. Side of sweet potato and quinoa.

14

I usually take stuff to make “salads” for lunch that are more protein/fat than veggies - spinach or kale as a base, leftover meat (steak/chicken) or homemade chicken salad (chicken from a can, a scoop of mayo, scoop of dijon, celery/onion if I have them), and then a whole small avocado in my lunch salad. When i’m feeling really lazy, i’ll just mix an avocado with chicken salad. The avo is key - it provides enough fat/calories that I don’t feel the need to have an afternoon snack, and helps me resist the post-lunch-boredom snacks. Plus, even though it’s technically a veggie/fruit, it is way more satiating than most. The best thing about these lunch salads is that I can usually just throw ingredients in a couple of containers/my lunch bag, and assemble at work. Not the veggie-free lunch you are looking for, but very filling.

15

Subway sandwich for lunch.

Maybe I’m a little too mother jonesy… I don’t care much for processed deli meats. Don’t get me wrong, Subway can be one of the healthiest quick lunch options and I have no doubt I’ll get a Subway many more times in the future. I’m looking for a pretty healthy, repeatable lunch I can turn to…

16

Don’t be scared of red meat, as it is arguably the most nutritious single food available. A hamburger (ground sirloin, round, or lean ground beef) for lunch makes a satisfying meal, unlike much of the lean fares people often opt for (canned tuna or tuna salad for instance). I find, as mentioned already, a Subway sandwich with bag of potato chips can be good too. A mini snickers bar for dessert finishes off the patate very well, and doesn’t leave you wanting.

I love red meat. I just really suck at cooking it as yummy as it should be! Great idea though. I hadn’t considered it for lunch. It is probably something that would hold me over pretty well also.

17

Other than when you substitute tuna- your diet seems to be pretty devoid of protein until dinner.

Are you dairy free? You could add some greek yogurt to breakfast.

Another observation is nuts and nut butter. I see you eat this with a focus/- yes they are nutritious, but also high in calories. Calories that you may or may not need.

For lunch you could eat and sandwich or the equivalent for lunch- if no sandwich how about some kind of meat, cut up veggies or salad and a side of rice or tortillas?

Last time I was in SLO I felt like it was the sandwich capitol of the world- sandwich places and delis all over the place.

Good point on the absence of protein until dinner… I’m going to change that. Somehow.

I’m not dairy free, I just have a son that consumes all the dairy in the house and leaving nothing behind. Soy milk is my way of ensuring that there will be food in the fridge for mom and dad. I also employed a pink sock strategy to avoid him stealing my socks, but apparently pink socks for boys are okay. Ha.

I do eat a lot of nuts and nut butters. It is just so easy! And tasty. If I was looking to cut calories I’d probably cut alcohol before nuts (or at least that would probably be the smarter thing to cut). But, as a home brew gal, I do enjoy my beer.

Yes, there are a lot of outstanding sandwich shops in SLO…

18

I usually take stuff to make “salads” for lunch that are more protein/fat than veggies - spinach or kale as a base, leftover meat (steak/chicken) or homemade chicken salad (chicken from a can, a scoop of mayo, scoop of dijon, celery/onion if I have them), and then a whole small avocado in my lunch salad. When i’m feeling really lazy, i’ll just mix an avocado with chicken salad. The avo is key - it provides enough fat/calories that I don’t feel the need to have an afternoon snack, and helps me resist the post-lunch-boredom snacks. Plus, even though it’s technically a veggie/fruit, it is way more satiating than most. The best thing about these lunch salads is that I can usually just throw ingredients in a couple of containers/my lunch bag, and assemble at work. Not the veggie-free lunch you are looking for, but very filling.

I love avocados. I actually have three avocado trees. When they are producing I have 2-3 avocados a day. Mmmmmmmm. I probably only have 3 avos hanging on the trees out there right now that will get picked today. Then, no supply until summer. My trees were in their “on” year this year so this upcoming year will be an off year. (avocados follow an alternate bearing crop pattern - heavy year, light year, repeat).

Our house does not produce leftovers… I’ve tried. The men just gobble it all up. And they are skinny men <6% body fat types. There is never enough dinner. Never enough milk. If I didn’t have a full kitchen at work and a place to stash my food, I might starve or eat out for lunch every day. I’ve learned to do a separate Hillary Lunch shopping trip. One time I bought chips and brought my grocery bag into the house figuring I’d take it to work the next day. I get to work with my grocery bag and my chips and hummus are missing. My kid got home after midnight and decided it was snack time. He probably at the whole freaking thing in one sitting. That would have lasted me a week!

19

Two things have really altered my diet. Reading Vinnie Tortorich’s book “Fitness Confidential” and watching the documentary “Sugar Coated.” I recommend both to anyone mulling over diet issues. I think the key to eating well at work is having a good lunch box and avoiding going out with colleagues. Yeah, I know, it’s not very social and perhaps an egregious C.L.M.* My lunch usually consists of eating tuna, hard boiled eggs, or cold cuts, with some combination of raw veggies.

*C.L.M. = career limiting move.

20

Ah- beer. That should be listed in the 1st post along with nutrition. Because beer is anti-nutrition.
Plenty of calories- nothing good.
I know that people will go on and on about how they “love their beer” or won’t give up their beer- but if we are talking about improving nutrition…
Beer can be the 1st thing to go (unless you also drink hard liquor).