My typical lunchbag for my 11 hour days is as follows:

a Dannon Light n' Fit yogurt
1 cup of frosted mini wheats (eaten dry)
2-3 servings of fruit
1 cup of raw veges (snap peas, broccoli, carrots)
last nights leftovers or a tuna sandwhich

I usually have and egg, 2 Boca sausages, and a crumpet with a wedge of Laughing Cow Light on it for breakfast at about 7am. I eat a snack (yogurt and fruit sometimes the cereal) at about 10:30am. Lunch at 1:30ish, and remainder of snacks about 4:30. After work I have a small dinner usually around 8:30 at night.

I need to go shopping, but what I usually bring for lunch is :

1 low fat/fat free yoplait yogurt
1 mozzarella cheese stick
1 sandwich (just lunch meat and cheese)
1 piece of fruit (whatever I have in the house)


My problem isn't so much what I eat at work, because really I don't eat too badly, its when I get home that I have the problems.

~Liz

I do the same--I usually take last night's leftovers. But then I do that on purpose--I make extra so I'll have lunch the next day because odds are, if I can't just grab it out of the fridge I won't pack my lunch!!

I keep a few frozen lunches in the freezer too, just in case.

If I'm making a lunch especially FOR lunch, I either pack sandwiches (lean roast beef and spicy mustard or tuna fish or turkey with lots of veggies, and I pack all the ingredients separately and assemble it at lunchtime; more effort, but I gag on soggy sandwiches) or a salad. For my salads, I buy the pre-washed spring mix of lettuces, throw in some baby carrots, grape tomatoes, maybe quickly chop some cucumbers or radishes or green onions, throw in a little grated cheese and some chicken... I like to cook a couple chicken breasts in different flavors and shred them and keep them in the fridge for just such a purpose. Or, you could use last night's leftovers!! Then low-fat/cal dressing in a separate container and I'm out the door...

I keep a bowl of fruit on my desk and bring in enough for the week every Monday. Not only is it pretty, but I'm more likely to eat it if it's sitting there staring at me all day... I'll never touch it if I have to walk all the way to the community fridge...

In my desk drawer I keep a portion baggie of crackers and a wedge of Laughing Cow Light, some single-serve sized light popcorn, sometimes a granola bar, a box of tea... and sometimes I'll bring string cheese, but that does have to be kept in the fridge.

I wish I liked oatmeal, it's got practically a cult following at my work, every morning there's 30 people gathered around the coffee pot for hot water for their oatmeal. I can't stand the stuff. :P

I usually take breakfast, lunch, and a snack to work. I bring yogurt, cereal, and a piece of fruit for breakfast and eat them throughout the morning. For lunch it really depends on my mood - turkey sandwiches in whole wheat pitas, salads with chicken, cheese, and/or black beans on top, vegetarian chili, pasta salads (usually whole wheat pasta tossed with diced tomato, chunks of fresh mozzarella, artichoke hearts, olive oil, etc.), black beans mixed with corn, tomato, avocado, red pepper and served on baked chips, cheese and whole grain crackers. I try to plan out what I'm going to eat for the week on Sundays and do as much of the prep as possible on the weekends like cooking a bunch of chicken breasts, cleaning and chopping vegetables, making a big batch of chili or pasta to eat all week, etc.

For afternoon snacks I usually bring fruit and peanut butter, cheese and crackers, and always bags of carrot sticks and red pepper strips to munch on.

I also plan out my dinners for the week on Sundays so that I don't have to think when I get home. I've even had groceries delivered at 6 AM when I was working 80 hour weeks and could not make it to the store because I was never home. Crazy workweeks are why I love my current location - 20 minute commute, a gym, a grocery store, and a 24-hr drug store are all within a block of my apartment, and there's a weekly farmer's market across the street from my office building.

Yeah, planning is definitely the key. The weeks where I take the time to think out what I'll be eating I eat much better than those weeks where I don't.... I mean, if it's 7 o'clock, I'm starving, and I have no idea what there is to eat in the house, odds are I'll just give up and run out to Taco Bell. But... if it's 7 o'clock and I'm starving but I know that tonight is Chicken Vicious night, I'll run into the kitchen and start chopping cuz the sooner they cook the sooner I eat!!

Hello--self-proclaimed Queen of Food Planning, here! Monday-Thursday, I leave my house at about 5:30am and get home between 9:30-11:30pm. I work two jobs, and I don't have time to go all the way home between jobs, so I usually end up running errands, going to the gym, or working late at job #1 to make up for that extra hour and a half in between. The second job is as a waitress, so I am on my feet all night long and cannot take breaks (how busy the restaurant is each night is what determines how late I have to stay and what time I get home that night). Fridays are like a vacation since I only have to work my full-tim job (6am-2pm)

So anyway, I eat breakfast at home, and everything else is packed in my lunch bag (which is insulated, and I use ice packs to keep cold food cold--the community fridge in my office is a dangerous place). For breakfast, I usually just have a bowl of cereal with fruit and skim milk (example: today I had half a bowl of Puffed Kashi mixed with half a bowl of Kashi Go Lean with sliced banana and strawberries and skim milk). If I don't have time for that (I get up late or whatever), then I grab a bagel (small Lender's, not the huge bakery ones that are actually about 3 servings each!) and my container of fat-free cream cheese and eat when I get to work. As for planning...

I do lots of cooking on the weekends. I go grocery shopping on Friday night or Saturday so I know everything is fresh. Then on Saturday and/or Sunday (depending on how much I have to do and when I have time), I cook meals for the week. Last weekend, I cooked up some low-fat keilbasa and peirogies with barbecue sauce, the week before I made whole-wheat pasta with tomato sauce and parmesan cheese, before that I made a huge wok of chicken and veggie stir-fry and brown rice--whatever I decide to make, I ALWAYS count the calories of everything that goes into the pot (or pan or bowl or whatever I'm cooking in), then I divide the total calories by how many servings I make to determine the calories per serving. This also helps me decide how many servings I should get out of the batch--if there are more calories, I'll make smaller servings so there will still be a reasonable amount of calories per serving, etc. Anyway, I then dish out the batch into individual containers (I have a vast collection of cheap Gladware containers), and I toss them either in the fridge or freezer so that during the week, I just grab 2 each day (one for lunch, one for dinner). I also end up with an assortment of foods so I don't have to eat the same thing every day. Then I just grab yogurt and fruit as snacks, and my day is set.

Example--here's what I have packed for today (after I had breakfast at home):

La Yogurt low-fat, no-sugar-added strawberry yogurt
1 string cheese (great calcium and protein quick convenient snack)
1 plum
2 cups of fruit salad I made over the weekend (watermelon, plums, green and red grapes, pineapple, and strawberries) with fat-free Cool Whip
1 serving of low-fat keilbasa with 3 peirogies and barbecue sauce
Chex Mix (I bought a big bag and then scooped individual servings into those little snack ziploc baggies)
Salad (bagged lettuce, bagged baby spinach, red onion--sliced over the weekend, shredded cheddar cheese, diced hard-boiled egg--cooked over the weekend, pieces of boneless skinless chicken breast--cooked over the weekend, cucumber--diced over the weekend, and organic dijon honey mustard dressing--measured into a separate container so I don't take the whole bottle and use too much!)

It's really a LOT of food, keeps me satisfied, and allows me to eat every few hours (as recommended to keep up your metabolism) while staying below 1500 calories a day. I also drink tons of water at the office (job #1) and sometimes can spare a few seconds to drink water while running around the restaurant at night. It's also a VERY low-fat diet, and the only sodium I encounter is usually in sauces and such (the teriyaki sauce in the stir-fry, pasta sauce, salad dressing, and sometimes I'll drink diet soda at job #2), so I think it's overall pretty healthy (though I know I need to eat more veggies--I just don't like them!), though I have not had it looked over by a doctor or anything.

Anyway, that's my biggest suggestion is to make big batches of stuff and invest heavily in Gladware (they should be paying me for this kind of marketing and PR ). Cook whenever you have time--if weekend are tight, cook at night while the kitchen is already messy from dinner It's not all cooking, either--cut up fruits and veggies for salads and such so it's easier to just grab a handful of this and that and toss it in a bowl rather than have to take the time to make the whole salad from scratch--I pretty much have a Gladware salad bar in my fridge In any case, I hope at least some of this babbling has helped you, and I wish you luck!

wow, what a huge help! It's information like this that really gets me excited about this lifestyle change (I'm a nerd for organization...I love it, but I never have the time to do it! I guess I'm just going to have to start making time)...

Thanks for the tips! Hope you're having a great day at work

Sounds like your already on the right track by keeping snacks handy. I am probably just repeating but here is a few things I like to keep on hand. In case I get hungry between meals.

Some fruit on my desk, usually apples b/c the fiber makes them filling and they will last in case I don't get around ot eating the for a couple days.

Jar of PB- For on the apples or with crackers

Box of tea bags, usually green- b/c it is a great way to hold off hunger right before lunch or going home, so I don't walk in my house starving at the end of the day.

Like Jill said pre-prepared fruits/veggies so I can toss a handful in a ziploc on my way out the door.

Oatmeal/Granola bars/Breakfast bars
A micro popcorn- usually a full size pack b/c the smell brings people in!
Fruit cups- the kind that can be stored at room temp. Usually keep one in the fridge b/c I like to eat them cold.

LOL! Yes, I have been know to eat PB out of the jar with a spoon...

Being at work helps lower the temptation for that because I never know when someone will walk up! I keep the low fat version around and limit myself to one regular sized spoonful.

I don't have anything to add to what the other said, but this:
nearly made me spit my water out all over my comp

this may not help any of you, I am not sure how many if any of you are on Atkins...but if you are, I found this awesome breakfast/snack recipe...if you are low fat dieting or counting carbs I'd reccomend you not try it though (this is why I love atkins so much...eating stuff like this and shedding pounds!)
They kind of remind me of egg mcmuffins without the english muffin

Ingredients:
Sausage
Bacon
Egg

How to Prepare:

First you will need a muffin pan. Fry sausage and place crumbled pieces in bottom of muffin pan. Then wrap a piece of raw bacon(will cook when baked) around edge of each. Next crack an egg into each, and bake at 350 till egg looks almost cooked.

Top with cheese and cook till melted. Let them cool and pop out.

They keep great in the fridge nd warm up great. Easy to pop into a baggie for breakfast at work. I have thought of adding cream cheese to egg and mix up with a lil fax seed then pour that over.