The best foods to eat at the office
Posted by kathryn in Uncategorized
Today I’m very pleased to be doing something new. New for Limes & Lycopene anyway. We have a guest blogger, Ali from The Office Diet. If you read my Quicklinks posts you’ll know I’ve recently become a fan of this site and it’s commonsense approach to eating well at work. Over to Ali . . .
If you work in a desk-based job, sometimes making it to five pm at all can be a challenge, let alone getting there with your diet intact. The day can be full of bad food decisions. It starts with that croissant grabbed on the way to work, continues with a too-tempting-to-refuse doughnut mid-morning and carries on into lunch with colleagues at that new café . . .
Of course, you don’t have the time and equipment to whip up healthy meals while you’re at work. But there are some great foods that will make life easier for you, and will dramatically increase your chances of reaching the end of the day with a healthy glow rather than in a surge of blood-sugar spikes and slumps.
Breakfast cereals
Humble cereal is one key food in your office dieting arsenal. If you don’t have time for breakfast at home (or if you can’t face eating that early in the day), keep a box of cereal and a litre of milk at work. Remember a bowl and spoon too, if your workplace kitchen isn’t stocked with crockery and cutlery – you don’t want to end up eating dry cereal straight from the packet.
The best cereals have words like “wholegrain”, “bran” and “fruit” in their names. Anything involving “chocolate” is, sadly, not likely to be a healthy option.
Easy-to-eat fruits
One of the best snacks to have on hand in the office is fruit. Go for apples, bananas, satsumas, plums – anything which can either be rinsed and eaten straight away, or which only needs your hands to peel it.
Very ripe, juicy fruits tend not to mix well with your keyboard, and strawberries and cherries are best avoided unless you want a dramatic red dribble oozing down your chin . . .
Snack-sized bags of popcorn
Sometimes you just have to have something sweet, salty or crunchy. Popcorn hits the spot, with fewer calories and more fullness-factor than potato chips or chocolate. It gets a bad reputation due to the colossal portion sizes sold in movie theatres . . . popcorn is actually relatively healthy.
If you’re making your own, invest in a popcorn maker and make your own air-popped corn, rather than using the microwaveable sort (which contains oil and thus more fat). Alternatively, buy a few mini bags of ready-popped corn and stash them in your desk drawer for when you’re sorely tempted by that stack of cookies in the office break room.
Sandwiches
No, sandwiches don’t have to be boring. Of course you’ll get fed up if you pack yourself a ham-and-cream-cheese sandwich every day of the week, but try mixing things up a bit and you can enjoy healthy, easy, cheap and tasty lunches. Go with different types of bread (granary, wholegrain or seeded loaf, wholemeal sub, bagel, pita) as well as different fillings (heavy on salad and lean protein, light on mayo or butter works well).
Still need ideas? Check out The Office Diet, a blog full of healthy living tips for busy people who need their diet to fit round their life.
10 July, 2008
Comments
Thanks for the great post Ali. Keeping a stockpile of easy to access and healthier foods is often a topic I discuss with clients. With their “homework” being to make a shopping list and get all that stuff to their office! I’ve included some of my ideas in this post: one busy person’s shopping list.
Has anyone found any other foods really useful to have at the office?
I discovered the convenience of making cous-cous at work. All you need is hot water and away you go. Although pretty bland on its own! I make a batch of vegie stew or ratatouille for microwaving and then prepare the cous-cous at work.
We are celebrating reaching the end of the alphabet – and the publication of the Great Big Veg Challenge book. Freddie and Alex wanted to have another attempt at a worldwide vegetable face project.
It would be lovely if you would enter from Australia – and if you know anyone else who might find it fun! (There is a prize for children and for adult who makes the best face!!)
Would you let people know?
Thank you Charlotte
Great Big Veg Challenge blog
For the first time, i have to disagree with a lot of this…
cereals can be dangerously high in calories when not measured out – fiber one – lots of fiber but a serving is 1/2 a cup – i know a lot of people who eat very large bowls of this stuff!
what about raw veggies – high in nutrients and low in calories – are much better than pop corn.
nuts – in small servings too also pack a good nutrient punch.
I depend on Lock-n-Lock containers for bringing anything and everything to work with me in my bag, even soup! I don’t know if they sell it in Australia but an airtight container is key or else you end up with disasters in transit!
Dried fruit is another office must have. I try to find the kind that has no added sugar or sulfates. Fresh fruit I find goes bad when I forget about it in the common fridge! I’d rather keep my snacks at my desk.
Breakfast – I keep a half a loaf of bread, cheese, vegemite at work. Bringing in treaties like avocado, mushrooms, tomato, sardines! to have with. Helps having a sandwich press at work.
Lunch – Lock & Lock rock as does a microwave at work. Whilst cooking dinner, make up the lunches.
Snacks – vitaweets, fruit, yoghurt. I find though if I have too many snacking options in my drawer, I am always reaching for it so I have to portion control it by bringing it in from home on an as needs basis.
What great suggestions, all! Thanks for adding them :-)
@Madeline Cous-Cous is a great idea … why have I never thought of that?
@Shorty I’m very partial to raw carrot sticks myself, but recognise they’re not everyone’s idea of a tasty office snack… And yes, weighing (or at least having a very good “by eye” idea of the weight of things you commonly eat) is wise!
@Michelle We have similar containers here in the UK, and I use them a lot.
@Sue I know what you mean about snacks. I find that having fairly “boring” ones can help reduce the temptation to constantly pick at them.
I split my working life between home and clinic. Home is easy, but my clinic days tend to be long and I like to eat smaller amounts of food more regularly to keep my energy even-keeled. The bits I do to organise myself are:
I always have breakfast at home, but I usually recommend clients measure their cereal out. Use a small glass, or a certain marking on their bowl – to stop the over-pouring.
For some people carrot sticks, nuts, etc just don’t crack it. They’ll eat the vegetables and then still go looking for sweet, salty or savoury flavours. Popcorn may not be the best possible choice, but it’s better than a packet of chips, a chocolate bar, or a can of coke. And sometimes people just need a better choice.
Shorty, with you on your comments: "what about raw veggies – high in nutrients and low in calories – are much better than pop corn.
nuts – in small servings too also pack a good nutrient punch."
I love my almonds! Raw or roasted, they’re just so yum! A handful of almonds, an apple or half-handful of dried apricots and a couple of sesame seed Vita Wheats with low-fat cottage cheese. I’m done!
But, in saying this. I am also impartial to some air-popped popcorn (low sodium).
Although people might not have the time (and admittedly a lot of the time I don’t), my most common would be some carrot sticks and three slices of wholegrain toast with Vegemite on the bottom and low-fat cottage cheese on top!
Oh, and I LOVE my green tea – so I usually have a cup of this to wash it all down!
Paul – another cottage cheese and vegemite reader. A couple of other readers commented about this combination, so I gave it a go. But it’s not for me. My preference is for cottage cheese and a scraping of mustard.
Ha, ha, ha. I don’t know what it is about the combination, Kathryn.
I love it especially with a fresh sourdough loaf. Yum! Cottage cheese and scraping of mustard I will have to try!
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