Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

[cubanb]

Hey everyone,
I once was on atkins , but I was able to make it stick. Now I have balooned up to an all time high and would like to get back on the program. Over the last few weeks I have tried unsuccessfully to start induction. The problem has come at work.

Basically, I started a new job, a new career in public accounting, auditing to be specific. Right now I am working 8am-8pm and over the next couple months I will be working even more. Because of the hours, we eat most of our meals at work and have a very irregular eating schedule except for lunch. Eating that around 12pm, snacking throughout the day and then I grab dinner on the way home around 8pm, which is probably too late.

In order to make this WOE work, I need to come in prepared and this my friends is where you come in. I will need your help to succeed here. If I don't plan how I will execute this WOE at work, I will easily fall back into my old habits.

For lunch at work, we eat out all the time, either going out to mexican (atkins nightmare) or red robin and mimi's cafe. As the workload increases we will start ordering take out instead. I have noticed that at the restaurants, the salads all have some form of sugar or carb that I can't have on atkins. Also, I am a little confused on all the different dressings (creamy blueranch?).

If you have read through all that, thanks, here is where I need your help.

For breakfast: I do not have much time in the morning considering my commute. I have considered getting the low carb bowl from the carls jr down the street on most days. It seems a little big so I have thought about eating 1/2-3/4s of it for breakfast and saving the rest for a snack later on.

For snack: We do have a fridge, but it is quite crowded, so I cannot take everything and the kitchen sink. I have thought about buying a small soft cooler and storing snacks such as string cheese, hard boiled eggs and pepperoni in there, bacon? any other suggestions? I need some veggies or somethign I think.

For Lunch: there are times when I will have to eat out, so I have thought about trying to find a salad with chicken whereever we go and make it as carb friendly as possible. Then there are days when we will get takeout, if I know these days ahead of time,I have thought about bringing my own salad from home and eating that instead. Or leftovers if I ever have the time to make dinner. any suggestions here would be appreciated.

Snacks: I will trying to make it so I don't have too long of gaps in between some sort of food.

Dinner: this is the tricky part. I know I probably shouldn't eat so close to bed, but it is going to be hard to do it any other way. I won't have time to make dinner often, so I have thought about picking up in and out and getting a burger in a wrap. Maybe chicken or ground beef and a cup of green beans or broccoli? Some other quick dinner meals suggestions, fast food or otherwise would be appreciated.

Exercise will have to be as much as I can get it in during the week. Possibly after dinner (9ish) on weeknights and each day on the weekends.

I will drink as much water as I can.


Well, there is my plan, I needed to get it on paper, but I feel I could use as many suggestions as all of you are willing to provide. I'm hoping some people out there have experience long work hours on atkins like I will and can offer some guidance. General work experiences will help too. I really want this to work out without work getting in the way.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Momtofour]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

I am just giving you a quick reply because I have to get going soon. First of all never feel bad about ordering your food the way you want it at restaraunts. If they won't do it your way, don't give them your business. You could easily call ahead for an omlette and pick it up on your way to work. The cooler and snack ideas you have are great. Stick some celery, cucumber, ranch dressing etc. in there too. Once you are well into ketosis, you probably will be able to just snack all evening and not need a real "dinner". If you eat a protein or veggie every 1-2 hours throught the evening you will probably be able to get that dinner in without even noticing. That way your evening won't involve cooking after you are so tired. I would use Sunday evening to prepare all your veggies and some meals for the week. Boil lots of eggs to eat plain, make egg salad, put on a salad, or anything else you can think of. Also take a case of bottled water to work. I hope this helps. Good luck!

[AllieCat0817]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

I eat ALL of my meals at work. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It does require advance thought and preparation, but it is worth it. I pre-cook my meals on the weekends. I make sure I have both a meat and veggie casserole and a meat and veggie soup in my fridge at all times. The night before the next work day I pack a grocery bag w/ breakfast lunch and dinner and a snack. Glad/Ziplock plastic containers are my life. Alot of times I don't feel like doing it, but who cares- I do it anyway cause if I didn't then I'd have to 'wing it' with my food, and that's not an option.

I work full time and have a husband and 5 yr old son.

[AllieCat0817]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

Oh, regarding dinner and timing of eating..
Breakfast is 8:15
Lunch is 12
Dinner is 4
Snack at 6:15-630
Bed is 10-11

plus around 84-96oz of water

[ladyinred]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

Same as Alliecat, I spend a couple of hours on Sunday getting my stuff ready. It seems like a lot of work but it's so worth it. I cut up celery, radishes and peppers (these work for me but you can pick your fav veggies) and put them in individual baggies. That way I just grab one each day for my lunch and it's ready to go. I boil up a bunch of eggs and devil some of them. I also wash my salad veggies so they are ready to go at the last minute and also cook up a bunch of food. Make casseroles or cook up some chicken or homemade burgers. Then freeze the meat in individual servings. Grab a frozen chicken breast, your bag of veggies, some string cheese, a couple of eggs, some olives (pre-portion those out too). You can also make a big crustless quiche and put that in individual portions and grab one for breakfast. A small cooler would be great and if all your stuff starts out frozen or pretty cold (throw in a couple of partially frozen water bottles too) then by mealtime it will be thawed out but still edible. Did you go to the recipe forum? There are lots of make-ahead ideas there too. Good luck. I know you'll be successful with a little planning.

[Sarah1341]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

I think you already had lots of great ideas, plus received great advice in response.

When eating out, at the mexican restaurant have chicken or steak fajitas w/out the fajita. Red Robin, burger without the bun, side salad. For breakfast, you could make breakfast muffins (I use eggs, sausage and cheese). Basically, you buy the sausage and brown like hamburger. Grease muffin tins, add sausage (about half the muffin cup), add your choice of cheese on top of the sausage, mix raw eggs, pour into muffin cups into filled. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. They turn out great. I am not the biggest fan of breakfast, but I love these. I eat two in the morning for breakfast. I premake them on Sunday and store in the fridge for grab and go.

Best of luck! It sounds like you are dedicated to making this work for you!!!

[not2late]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

Yes, preparing during the weekends for your week will make your life alot easier. For breakfast, think about making a quiche which can be stored in the refrigerator and you just slice off pieces in the mornings before leaving the house OR you preslice and pre-wrap the slices so you can easily grab it and go.

What I found to be really useful were the Atkins Revolution Rolls. The recipe is in the 14 Day Induction forum in a sticky thread called "Induction Recipe Basics". The Revolution Rolls make a good bread substitute. So you make a batch of those on the weekend and you have bread for lunch sandwiches or breakfast sandwiches.

For your work day meals, if your office doesn't have a kitchenette area with a refrigerator, then purchase a small cooler or one of those insulated lunch boxes. You can put your lunch, snacks and water in that. In fact, if you freeze a bottle of water, that will serve as the "ice" in that cooler or lunch box.

Salads are easy to make and easy to carry. Just buy the pre-washed bags of salad greens at the grocery store. Put a serving into a container along with a meat and/or cheese. For your dressings, you can bring a bottle of whatever dressing you like or you can make your own dressings.

Weekend food prep:

I use my George Foreman grill and grill about 6 or 7 chicken breasts. Cool them and put them in the refrigerator. During the week I use those chicken breasts minced for chicken salad, minced and mixed with an egg and fried for a chicken burger patty, sliced and used in salad, sliced and used as a fajita stuffing, cubed and used in soup, cubed and used in quiche, thinly sliced and used in stir fry.

Occasionally, I sautee a pound or so of ground beef and season it with alittle garlic, onion, salt and pepper. I cool it and put it in the refrigerator too. During the week, I use that add whatever spices to it and use it in omelletes, as the meat layer in a zucchini lasagne, mixed with mushrooms and cheese for a skillet dinner, as a topping for a low carb pizza, etc.

You can do the same thing with sausage, pork, turkey, etc.

[k5commando]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

I've found a lot of new recepies to make eating at work easier. It's a little harder on induction but just requires a little creativity. First of all the eating out thing is much harder on induction, I'd suggest making your lunches the night before. Usually I start by making much more dinner than I need and have leftovers. One of my favorite things is to make ground beef and do a taco salad with fresh lettuce, black olives, sour cream, grated cheese, jalapenos,onions, and a little salsa. Stir fry is another excellent food for leftovers.

As far as eating out, it's better to try and stay away from doing it too much, I know it's hard when everyone else is going and you kind of feel left out. At mexican resteraunts I usually do the fajitas without the tortilla, I like it better that way now! I also have no problem with ripping the tortilla off my burrito and making a slurry of green chili goodness. Places like Red Robbin are quite Atkins friendly, they'll make any burger without the bun and a side salad or veggies is available instead of fries.

Remember Atkins is a life change, the way you eat on induction is the basis for how you will need to eat the rest of your life. No matter how difficult it is to find time to build a healthy menu for the week it is extremely important to this way of life. I can say with complete confidence that if you can fight through and stick to the rules EXACTLY, no matter how much time it takes to organize your menu or how much willpower it takes to not eat out too often, you will change your perception of food and you will learn to eat right no matter what the situation. Good luck and hang in there.

[dreamof145]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

I agree with the others. I make most of my meals on Sunday nights. I cook up chicken, roast, pork, whatever and divide it into separate meals. I cut up my salad ingredients in individual containers - ready to make into a salad in a minute's notice. I have containers of veggies in the freezer ready to grab in a jiffy. Its time consuming on Sunday, but SOOO worth it the rest of the week.

As for eating out...It gets easier as you do it more often. I used to be frustrated when I'd go somewhere and worry about what to eat. I found myself only eating salads at first. Now, I ask a lot of questions, request a lot of changes in the menu and I've never had a problem with it. The waitresses have always been very willing to assist me with changes in the veggies or substitute the way things are cooked.

Every time we change something in our life, it takes a while before those changes become a habit. Hang in there, stick to your guns and soon Atkins won't be a new WOE, it will be the only way for you! BEST WISHES, you can do it. You are worth the effort. Don't let the friends and co-workers intimidate you. You eat for your health!!

[cubanb]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

thanks for the ideas everyone. IF anyone has any more, please contribute. Sounds like I will have to learn to not worry about what my coworkers think of it and order stuff the way I need it. Ill also have to get into a routine of getting things ready on sunday. I have never been a big cook, so ill slowly integrate some recipes

Thanks everyone. All your pictures are inspiring to me!

[lbrowne]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

Sounds like I will have to learn to not worry about what my coworkers think of it and order stuff the way I need it.

Exactly! You can do this. Be pushy if needed. No need to say "diet" as it's just your way of eating. Keep in mind that you are eating to keep your blood sugar levels under control. It's for your health, not your vanity. Stick to your guns.

~ Linda

[Effie]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

If you're eating out lunch & dinner, you should really try eating a homemade breakfast. As others have said, make something on the weekend that you can eat throughout the week. My favorite is the Crustless Quiche. The recipe can be found in DANDR, or you can do a search on here and find other variations of the recipe. I put mine in a 9x13 glass baking dish, which cuts up nicely into about 12 squares. You can nuke 1 or 2 squares in the morning. Total prep time is 1 minute, a lot faster than going through any drive thru, and it tastes better too!

I think it'll be easier to follow the plan for the rest of the day if you start off on a good foot. Personally, when I have to do fast food breakfast, I end up failing miserably for the rest of the day. Usually it's because the food is so processed that I'm probably eating carbs in the form of hidding sugars, and also because it's never satisfying, so then I spend the rest of the day saying, "What can I eat now?"

[not2late]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

Co-workers, schmo-workers.

Is it their fat on their bodies? No.
Is it their health at stake? No.
Is it their lifespan being cut short because of obesity? No.

It's your life, your health, your general well-being. So you shouldn't care what they think when you brown bag it to work.

Yesterday I had to go to a job-related conference. The luncheon was a piece of grilled chicken served on top of a mound of spaghetti dripping with tomato sauce and less than a 1/4 cup of steammed green beans on the side. I ate the chicken and ate the green beans. I left that mountain of starch on my plate because it's not good for my blood sugar and my body. It didn't make me less of a person because I chose not to eat a Mt. Everest sized portion of pasta. And no one whispered "Oh dear, what kind of person wouldn't eat enough spaghetti to feed a family of 5? How disgraceful! Tsk."

It's your health, your body, your life. Just remember that.

[AllieCat0817]

Re: Making atkins work at work? I need your help!

and I always just take ONE LOOK around at my peers, and one look at them is enough to deter me. Seriously. I'd rather look like starch-deprived me anyday.