One of our members has asked for ideas for what to take to work for lunch without having to cook - just supermarket stuff. Here are some of my favs:
Slices of pre-cooked chicken (the chicken lasts for many meals) with Wasa light crackers or LC tortilla with a little mayo or hummus and some greens
Chicken salad
In a pinch, lunch meat (yeah, I know!) rolled up with sliced cheese and some good mustard, maybe a small bag of pork rinks and a small apple if I need more
Wasa crackers with peanut butter
Lettuce roll-ups - almost any meat/cheese rolled up in butter lettuce or romaine, maybe a few almonds
I like the choc/hazelnut Atkins bars
A few hardboiled eggs if you can cook them
I could go on.....
I like all of your choices. I also bring those instant brown rice containers that heat in the microwave. I bring Greek yogurt and digestive cookies. Bell peppers and broccoli (sometimes dipped in ranch dressing) make good snacks as well.
jrtpup, I noticed you have chicken salad on your list. Do you make your own chicken salad or is it from the deli? I love the chicken salad from the deli at our local grocery store, but I've been having trouble getting the carb count right on it. What carb count do you use for your chicken salad? Thanks in advance :)
Now other lunch items that I bring to work: Nuts Protein bar (I get one that has 9 net grams of carb) Pre-made small salads from Wal-mart Healthy choice frozen dinners - fast, easy, and carb count is no brainer Sugar-free jello cups Individually wrapped string cheese single serving frozen veggies
I make my own. I love to make a roast chicken, it gives so many meals. I use 1/2 mayo/1/2 greek yogurt, celery, a small amount of finely chopped onion, and sometimes some chopped walnuts.
Yep, I pretty much always bring my lunch. I do eat out with colleagues on special occasions but try to keep those to a minimum. I bring hard boiled eggs, crackers, tomatoes, avacado, salad stuff, frozen meals, and a bunch of other low-carb (or carb-content-known) items. I went through a bad spell about 2 years ago where I was eating out lunch a lot. It was expensive and NOT good on the BGs.
When I was still working, I always took my lunch to work.
A plastic container with salad I made myself, lettuce, cold green veggies leftovers from dinner, tomato, carrot or anything in season. Oil, wine vinegar, mustard lemon juice dressing again home made.
Slice of gluten free bread with cold meat, either left over from a joint or cold cuts or tinned tuna .
A piece of fruit, apple or orange, or maybe strawberries or raspberries.
We've got a fridge at work and since the office is pretty small, I'm going to start doing something I used to do that's similar to FHS's reply: leave a bag in the fridge at work with a loaf of wheat bread, mixed greens, healthy cold cut meat, some cold cut cheese and any condiments I like - I usually keep some baby carrots and/or tomatoes in there to add to the sandwiches.
If you have the luxury to do this, I find it makes my life much easier since I don't have to pack a lunch the night before or that morning. I also leave almonds or walnuts in my office if I need a quick bite - that's been working well for me when I've gotten hungry or just felt like I needed something to munch on the last few days.
I tried eating at a local Japanese chain that lists a lot of nutritional info two days ago and I bolused for what their info suggested which ended up being far too little insulin for the meal and I ended up with a pretty major short-term spike. My BG corrected pretty well over the next few hours, but the short-term effect was a pretty big swing and not one that I'm eager to repeat.
If you had rice, I'm not surprised. Most Asian foods seem to burn real fast and spike for me no matter what I do so I avoid them for now at least. I think it would be awesome if all of us can take the ideas that are on here and use them to motivate us to get back to good habits or start them if we haven't. This is a great place to gain knowledge, compassion and motivation. Back to the food; I think making food at work or the night before probably boils down to personal preference, I don't think I would be as likely to have the time to make a good lunch during the day as I would be to just grab the food there and keep going instead of heading out to eat. My bigger problem and I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts about this, is that I'm on a medication that really DESTROYS any appetite at all. I don't want to eat after breakfast until about 7pm. Sometimes I have to force myself to eat a snack because I just know I'm feeling crappy from the lack of food even though I don't want to eat. YAY, more challenges. :)
Before I retired, I mostly took my lunch to work. I ate a whole package of baby spinach, with a little feta and some chopped olives and a little dressing. I hardly ever eat that now that I'm home. I don't really like it. But at work I had no choice so I ate really well. I'd also hard cook a dozen eggs a week and keep them in the fridge at work. Everyone else ate them, too.
Absolutely agree re: Asian food - I ordered a brown rice option (been eating a lot of brown rice successfully since my dx)so I thought I was pretty safe, but I guess the sauce was more sugary than advertised or they gave me some extra rice - lesson learned!
Sorry to hear about the medication - I've been having to learn to eat breakfast which I've really never done on any regular basis so, to a lesser degree, I know it takes effort to get yourself to eat when you just don't want to.
I hope you find some good options for lunch - I like the idea of some of the microwaveable meals and might try those as well - Kashi does some pretty healthy options with whole grains.
The jelly is made sugar free and really doesn't have many carbs considering the small amount I use. The bread is about 30g for 2 slices but the whole wheat combined peanut butter really slows the absorption. Extend my bolus and it's a pretty safe lunch, which is why I stick to it.
