Ask HN: What do you eat/drink during the workday?
What sort of food/drink do you eat during the workday? I'm trying to find things that aren't very heavy - it's becoming too easy to run to grab fast food, so I'd like to find a better alternative (obviously bringing food).
Drinks - coffee/tea I suppose?
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 77.6 ms ] threadMid-morning I'll probably have another cup of coffee, and will start trying to remember to drink water. I have a big plastic cup on my desk.
Lunch totally depends. I try to bring lunch. Often that's a sandwich or wrap (with fruit and yogurt)--it so happens that's what I have today. Sometimes it's leftovers. Otherwise I'll grab something nearby. We often have food trucks in front of the building, or I'll get a sandwich from the cafteria in the building (OK) or one of the couple nearby places (Peruvian chicken: heavy).
Mid-afternoon, I'll drink water, tea, or--if I'm having a bad day--coke. If I'm hungry, I keep a pile of Clif Bars in my desk drawer.
I'm usually out by 6:30, so will go home and make dinner.
Lunch - Bowl of mashed sweet potatoes, avocado, apple, chicken or beef and all of it mixed with coconut oil, cinnamon and garlic. Takes less than 5 minutes to prep, most time spent after is just waiting to steam the potatoes and cooking the protein source. Can be made ahead of time and put in containers (I usually work from home so I make this during the day as a break). Not exactly a light meal but can be really filling.
Throughout the Day - Water most of the time, usually cut out caffeine past noon unless I’m at a coffee meeting.
I mix in other fruits and vegetables for flavoring and variety. Also, I eliminated salt and that relieved my stress in a significant, noticeable way.
I start my day at 4am, if I eat heavier, carb-based items, I notice a crash somewhere around 3 or 4 pm and the last few hours of my day are a struggle. If I stick to what I listed above, I power through the afternoon and feel more balanced when I end my day.
Based on the iodine content that naturally occurs in foods I don't think I am at risk of iodine deficiency. This is part of my strategy of diversity as well. For example, turkey and potatoes are both high in iodine. While I try to avoid carb-based meals I might include a half of a potato in a shredded cabbage salad that might be 80% cabbage. When you add up other items like tomatoes, eggs, some beans, etc. I don't think I'm missing anything.
Edit: Another benefit is that you don't get the after lunch crash.
It took about 3 weeks to get over the withdrawal effect of sugar and what you might call detox (I was the biggest sugar junkie in the world - and had an attention span of 15 minutes tops). That stuff was rough. When the cravings stopped it took about a month or two before the benefits really started to show. After six months / a year it was second nature. Been doing it for 6+ years now. The benefits are so great that I would never consider going back.
It's important to note that you'll have to eat a fat-focused diet (paleo / keto). No sugar, low on carbs. Otherwise you won't get the benefit of not thinking about food, which is essential. After a certain amount of carbs your body will drop out of ketosis and you will get cravings - and that requires will, which drains resources. If you're successful at that your body will after a while get really good at leveraging fat as its main fuel, resulting in even keel energy.
I do this for mental clarity, focus and other health benefits, so I have no experience with the weight loss part. I've been 75kg since I was 17 (30 now) and my weight has never fluctuated more than 1-2kg, regardless of how much I eat. People would say that I eat a lot though. I also rarely exercise (at least hard).
Edit: typo
lunch varies a lot and it's whatever... sandwich, leftovers, soup. Main thing is I cut out the processed pre-prepared foods, but I do go out to eat maybe once or twice a week. I enjoy a burger and beer if I want to.
For your needs the closest thing I found is a food delivery service for frozen home made meals. Some are.Veg only, but very tasty and filling.
Mid-morning: fruit
Lunch: Left overs from last night's dinner, or sandwich. I try to avoid lunches that are carb heavy or a on the greasy side. Today is salmon and beets with a bit of rice.
Mid-afternoon: fruit, nuts or a treat like cookies
Drinks: Just water
http://miceats.blogspot.com/
Lunch: salmon in theriyaki sauce with lots lots of salad.
Diner: usually leftovers from salad and toast with some cottage cheese on top.
Drinks: water or mint tea
That's pretty much how my typical day (but not every day) looks like.
It's rare that I eat snacks while I'm at work.
Meals usually consist of some combination of the following: meat, cheese, salad, veggies. I avoid fruit, grains, and sugar.
Drinks
- Loose leaf teas
- Kombucha - Water all day Snacks- Soylent
- Mixed nuts/trailmixI only eat one meal a day, at 7PM.
I'm looking forward to exclusively eat beef for a whole month.
Then a dinner consisting of meat and vegetable.
Lunch: Most often something from a restaurant in the park I'm based in. If time is no issue 1-2 hours shared with a former colleague to catch-up, thoroughly nice and heartwarming; if only 30-60 minutes, the same food and source but take-out and eaten at desk. As I'm in northern China this is predominantly rice or wheat-noodle based. I tend to go for soupy noodles. If traveling and find a place with good bread I pounce on it, but there aren't where I'm usually based.
Afternoon: Some fruit: whatever's looking good and in-season in the local shop in the park or from visiting trucks.
Dinner: Depends on time. Like to do a good cook on the weekend and use some of that for convenience; a lot of comfort food especially bean-inspired,. Just variety from taste to ingredients: mix in a lot of stuff which isn't in a common (northern) Chinese diet (beans, nuts, cheese). If time is easy I'll buy a fish and/or some seafood and steam, stew or fry.
Drink: Water. Have always disliked coffee and never much into tea of any kind. Gin+tonic is good at any time and any place though leads to reduced capacity after consumption.