Plumerias wrote:A few questions and/or observations.............
How do you commute? As in, are you driving for two hours each way, or on some kind of public transportation?
You're going all day long on rather minimal starch/food and then eating a huge meal what seems to be shortly before bed. Is there any reason why you can't better balance your meals and eat lighter before bed? I ask this in part because if I waited all day to eat my major meal and then went to bed shortly thereafter, I wouldn't sleep well. Plus I'd likely be a very unpleasant person, as I'm cranky when hungry or improperly fueled. I need more of my calories much earlier in the day.
Eat some breakfast please. If you're out the door at 7 am and aren't eating until noon, no wonder you're hungry, you're playing catch up. It doesn't have be anything heavy. I like sweet potatoes, banana or pineapple, and tamarind chutney sometimes.
It's coming up on (or is) summer time in the northern hemisphere. Go someplace where they sell picnic coolers and see what there is available. If you drive, you have the space for a decent sized cooler, which can stay in the car. If you don't, find something smaller, more portable to use. We (DH and I) can travel by air and be well fed on the contents of two soft sided coolers, the size that fits six twelve ounce soft drink cans, and a few things that don't need to be kept cool. You can also look for the small ones where they stock the back to school items, as in children's sized lunchbox coolers.
Remember that last night's leftovers work perfectly well for today's lunch, reheated in that office microwave. There's also nothing wrong with cold salads. Remember that salads don't just mean spinach, a carrot, and some cabbage.
For some ideas, when you have time (?!), do a search here for some of the travel and travel by air threads, of which there are many. That will give you some other ideas.
One last thought, it takes time to understand what works well for you. So don't be afraid to experiment. Just always remember to do as dog and Vegankit suggest, keep some shelf stable back up items in your desk to keep you on plan.
Good luck.
1. I walk half a mile to the train, take that to a boat, then take a subway to a ~10 minute walk from work. I carry my purse, the big Trader Joes bag I carry my food in, and my stuffed duffel bag with my martial arts stuff in it. This is also my commute home.
2. The reason I wait to eat my large meal at dinner is because my problem with the CICO diet was I'd eat my nice vegan bento meals at work (tofu, trader joes fried rice, veggies and fruit), have small snacks throughout the day, get home and not be hungry...but feel the urge to finally sit down and eat. Being able to sit down to a big bowl of rice before bed is highly emotionally satisfying to me. I've always loved rice, so it feels like a "reward" for a hard days work. I work a high stress office job, so there's not a lot of time to eat throughout the day as well.
3. My boyfriend and I are both vegans, and he is a firm believer in combining the McDougall method with Intermittent Fasting. I have noticed when trying this in the past, it would take 2-3 cups of steel cut oats for breakfast (that's a lot of calories!) to satisfy me, but then I'd just be hungry again before lunch...so for me..it's like..why not just be a little hungry until lunch, instead of stuff myself in the morning, feel sleepy, then just be hungry again at lunch?
4. I saw in some Chef AJ videos that she has purses that double as coolers. I am trying to find something like that to replace both my current purse and the trader joes bag I carry.
5. Really I just want to know how much food I should be eating to lose weight as a 5'0" girl. I don't want to eat too much, but I am always feeling hungry. For the record, I typically walk at least 45 minutes of my hour long lunch (this is usually to Whole Foods downtown) and back, then after work I have an hour long Martial Arts class, and on the weekend I ride my bike/go on long walks with my dog. I used to run in the morning, but I wasn't getting enough sleep...I still don't get enough sleep =[
If someone can lower NYC rent for me so I can live closer to work, that would be <3 <3 haha
