This is a quote from one of your posts on another thread:

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Years later and I still take food with me. If I'm out for the day, than I take a days worth. There is no way in H-E double hockey sticks that I can rely on winging it. No, no, no. Sets me up for making poor choices.
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May I ask what kind of food you take with you if you were going to be out for the whole day?

This is one area where I don't plan as well as I should. To me bringing food for the whole day would require a small cooler to keep things cold. Right now If I'm going to be out all day I may pick up a Subway sandwich, or Chick-Fil-A grilled chicken sandwich. I still stick within my calorie range, but for me I think/know I lose weight more consistently when I cook and eat my own food at home because I know what is in the food I prepare. And I would love, if you don't mind, some ideas on what types of food you take with you.

I'm not Robin, but some of the foods I take with me as snacks: pre-portioned serving of nuts, an apple or a banana (or other fruit), cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, or a granola bar. If I have my insulated lunch bag the options grow: yogurt, a piece of cheese...

Thank you Heather. Those sound like good, healthy choices.

If I'm out all day - I DO take an insulated cooler bag with me. I've got them in all different sizes. And of course it depends on where I'm going.

I take fat free yogurt with me, which I left in the freezer from the night before. I'll take several if need be. I will also take a baggie of Fiber One cereal, which I mix into the yogurt (which I let partially defrost).

Like Heather, I take baby carrots, apples. Then there's a box of grape tomatoes, a bag full of string beans.

If I'm not as much on the run and I have a chance to sit down - I'll take salad with me.

I've also been known to take turkey breast in a wrap with mustard, lettuce, onions.

Again, it depends where I'm going and where I'll be able to sit (or not) and eat.

There really is LOTS of good, wholesome,healthy and yes - portable food out there. Eventually, you become accustomed to eating/packing/doing it this way. It'll be natural and automatic and to NOT do it, well, that's not really an option.

This journey is a huge time of growth and discovery. An unbelievable learning experience. Absolutely thrilling and so very exciting.

When I was taking an all day training class, I took roasted green beans with me as a snack. The British guy next to me might've thought I was a little crazy but hey it is what I wanted to snack on

Sometimes I'll take bars with me too such as Luna bars but nuts are a pretty frequent snack I take or sometimes I'll make an almond butter sandwich to take.

I went to the Newport Jazz Festival last month and packed two days' worth of healthy food in my cooler so that I would not be tempted by the Ben & Jerry's stands, the pizza stand, and the other appealing treats that line up around the festival area.

For my main meals out there I packed a chopped salad that included tons of wheat berries and feta cheese for protein. If you have never tried wheat berries I recommend them - they have a wonderful toothsomeness and are really good for you. They are basically whole, uncracked, unprocessed wheat kernels. Boil them for about 60 minutes and they are just very tasty and satisfying. I let them cool and then mix in some chopped cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, celery, any crunchy vegetable you like, a little red wine vinegar (or lemon juice), some salt and pepper, chopped parsley, and some feta cheese. I make this salad by the bucketful all summer long, it's wonderful.

I also packed a big bucket of fruit salad that I could dip into any time I wanted a snack.

Finally, I packed my favorite standby snack - Nabulsi cheese, which is a tasty Middle-eastern brined cheese that weighs in at just 80 calories an ounce. Pre-cut, pre-measured servings in baggies. ETA: I mean that I cut my own servings before I pack them. It comes in a big brick.

And LOTS of water.

If I'm going to be gone all day, I take a cooler bag with a frozen ice pack in it.

Possibilities which are easy to take and eat:

hard-boiled eggs
lettuce leaves
nuts

Small pop-top can of green beans
Small pop-top can of chicken, tuna, salmon, sardines, herring
or home-packed corned beef, burger, etc.

At least one gallon of water, usually two, just in case.

Paper towels, plastic tumbler, flatware, supplements, dental floss, bag for trash.

I like to always keep a protein bar in my purse as a "just in case" meal replacement if I get stuck somewhere. I also like those 100 cal packs of almonds or walnuts.

Thank you Robin for answering my post. You've given me some good ideas. I hadn't thought about freezing the yogurt the night before. That is a good example of your planning ahead you talk about.

Silverlife I like the idea of the pop top cans and hard boiled eggs. I hadn't thought of those before.

Carter - your wheatberries idea sounds good. I'll have to give it a try and look for the Nabulsi cheese as well.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'm going to print out your ideas and save them for the next day I'm going to be out of the house.

While I am a big "packer"--I certainly pack my lunch every day and if I am going to be out for dinner, I generally just pack it twice--there is a big difference between "winging it" and "I will have time between the faculty meeting and parent teacher conferences to run to the McDonald's at Park and Elm and buy a plain chicken sandwich with mustard. If people invite me out to dinner, I'll tell them I have a lot of grading to catch up on." "Winging it" is just assuming you'll figure it out when you get there, and that is, absolutely, a path to disaster. Eating "out" can be a healthy plan when it is a careful plan.

I know a lot of people don't trust restaurant calorie counts, but I tend to feel that for very standardized stuff they are reasonably accurate. Even if they are off by 20% or so, as long as we are talking about something that happens once or twice a month, it really isn't going to affect my weight loss if a McD's plain grilled chicken sandwich has 70 more calories than I think it does. It's the things you eat every day that need to be exact, because small differences there could really add up.

That said, some calorie counts are going to be more accurate than others: I strictly avoid anything deep fried, sauced, or with dressing, because slight, undetectable variations there can double the calories in an item. But a grilled chicken breast isn't going to vary that much depending on who cooks it: soup (without toppings) almost certainly came out of a can or a bag in the back, so the calorie count is probably as accurate as anything you would read off a nutrition label yourself. A bowl of (unsweetened) fruit or a side of steamed-with-no-butter veggies is consistent.

I eat out all the time. In the beginning - not so much. I was too afraid that I would be tempted to order something waaay off plan. When I grasped that control, I did step foot into a restaurant. But the truth is, I feel I get lots more food (volume) for the same amount of calories or less when I make my own. Cheaper too!

I have found a number of nice restaurants that make awesome, gigantic salads that I really enjoy going to. Once in a while. The prices are better when I prepare them myself though.

But without a doubt it is very possible to eat out and stay within ones calorie allotment.

But the truth is, I feel I get lots more food (volume) for the same amount of calories or less when I make my own. Cheaper too!
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I feel like I can have sort of the same things as restaurants for less calories too. For example, for breakfast I can make a sandwich similar to a McDonald's Egg McMuffin using an Arnold Sandwich Round (100 cal.), 1/4 cup of egg beaters (35 cal.), slice of 2% American cheese (50 cal.), 6 slices of Oscar Meyer shaved ham (50 cal.), and 5 sprays of I can't believe it's not butter spray (5 cal. or so). The McDonald's sandwich is 300 calories, and my homemade version is 240. An english muffin would be even lower in calories, but I don't always have them around and I do have the sandwich rounds.

^^^ I totally agree. Most of the time, yes, I can totally make something healthier and larger for the same number of calories. But I also think it is important to have a back-up plan. I know healthy options at a handful of restaurants. They aren't always my favorite options and sure, sometimes, I can make better, bigger dinners at home for cheaper. But traffic happens, friends happen, life happens. I'd rather be prepared and *know* that I can order something at a restaurant than just "guess" at something healthy.

Also, there are restaurants, and there are restaurants.

I'm a city-dwelling foodie, and eating excellent, interesting food is one of my favorite leisure activities, in particular something my partner and I enjoy doing together. I am really hoping to find a way to lose weight without completely giving up this pleasure. (Now that I've lost 50 pounds, perhaps I can say I have found a way, but I'm going to reserve judgment on that for another year or two and see how far I really get.)

This means applying a few different choices than I would have made before. We still go to our favorite French-Cuban bistro very often - sometimes as often as once a month - but I don't ever order the steak frites any more, I order chicken or halibut or trout. I don't touch the bread, I only have one drink, and I don't look at the dessert menu to see if tres leches cake is on it today.

We still order from our favorite Thai take-out, but not once a week any more, a little less often than that. And instead of wolfing down a whole serving of some delicious noodle dish, I get a salad (dressing on the side) and chicken satay (peanut sauce on the side).

There is an Indian place we love, where the servings are so huge I dump half of it into a take-out container BEFORE I start eating. And so on.

And sometimes, every once in a while, I just eat a lot more, or a lot more richly, than I would eat on a normal day. Yes, I admit it - I do this. Perhaps it's one reason why my weight loss isn't as quick as some other people's (it's taken me a full year to lose 50 pounds) - but as long as the lifestyle is sustainable and enjoyable to me, I'm willing to accept a somewhat slower rate of return.