Nutrition help from those that pack a lunch haha!

[roadrunner1659]

Hello,

I start my tri training come this Sunday. On Thursday, my college starts back (i commute to college)...on Tuesday i have class at 8-9:15 am and 1:45-3:00 pm (i live an hr away and wont be driving home in between. On Thursday i have the same two classes and then a third class from 4:45-7:15 (yea i know that this schedule sucks haha)... Anyway, my training has swims on sun, tues, and thurs...i will also have runs on tues and thurs.

With this being said, i need to pack enough food to first get me through the day haha and second to refuel me after swimming and running.

I need help from those of you that pack your lunches. At the beginning of this year i choose to change my eating habits (basically i cut out soda, and the junk food - both candy and crappy food...and i added alot of water)...but i dont know what i can pack that is healthy, will stay fresh for a couple hrs, and isn't difficult to put together as i would think at most i will have access to a microwave...

Thanks!

[UmneyDurak]

Recipe 1. (can eat cold, but if you can warm it up in microwave it would be better)
Some Tomatoe Soup from trader Joe with spices like Cumin pepper, and Garam Masala powder mixed in.
Brown rice
Then either Kirkland canned roast beef, or Kirkland chicken sold in costco, or Lean beef franks (25 calories per frank).
One thing is you need to have a good container otherwise soup might leak out.

Recipe 2 (ultra simple, can eat cold)
Wrap some Kirkland roast beef, and some light sour cream, and salsa in Lavash. Can also brown rice.
Can carry it in a plastic container. What I usually do is put lavash at the bottom of the container, put stuff in it, then fold the sides.

Recipe 3 (better if you have access to microwave)
Brown Rice, and just cooked chicken breasts (99% fat free sold in Costco). Add some sour cream and Magi and it's a quick dinner or lunch.

For snacks. Apples are delicious. I also like broccoli. If you have access to hot water or microwave instant oatmeal is very nice also. Occasional onion bagel, doesn't hurt either. :D For recover drinks I like chocolate milk.

[Nickel]

I bring homemade energy bars, yogurt, fruit, cut up veggies and lately I've been going with a pita stuffed with tofu (or whatever protein), avocado, and 6 different veggies (a good sauce is tahini+yogurt+lemon juice). I'm also a fan of beans and rice.

[Garfield Cat]

UCLA has a tri club. Does your college? You might want to correspond with them directly online. One of their sponsors is Helen's Cycles in Westwood. Lots of experience there.

[supton]

I've been bagging my lunch for a while, and it stays reasonably cold 'till lunchtime, in its insulated lunch sack. Inside, in my office, that is--YMMV if your lunch stays outside.

I like PB&J, a banana and yougurt for lunch. I used to toss in an apple too, to munch on for the drive home; but lately I'll have a small baggie of baby carrots. I usually leave a Cliff bar in the bottom, so as to avoid trips to the vending machine. And I keep a bag of Craisins on the desk for snacking.

*Note: My PB&J is made with homemade whole wheat bread from a breadmaker, with Teddy's all natural PB, and Smuckers low suger jelly. Pretty good stuff. One of those is probably packing a good 500kcal.

[roadrunner1659]

no my college doesn't have a tri club...and thanks everyone for letting me know what you bring!

[Machka]

I'm at my University from 9 am to about 5 pm. I bring a couple granola bars and a banana.

When I start spinning classes and working out in the gym next week, I might have to toss in an extra granola bar or something.

[Zan]

I pack lunch for school everyday. I don't have access to a microwave, so everything is meant to keep in my locker for a few hours before I eat it. I don't store it in a fancy lunch bag - just a grocery bag.

This is what I pack (usually it's the same thing everyday):

A Liter of water, two liters in the summer
Bagel with Cream Cheese
Apple
Banana
Sandwich - usually a bun or rye, turkey, cheese, and other flavorings
Two yogurts (130g each)
A can (213g) of salmon with miracle whip (I like the flavor; you choose what you want to flavor it with). Note: this is prepared before I bring it to school.

During "the season," I'm on a diet where I consume between 4000 - 5000 kcal a day. Right now, though, since I'm not biking, it usually stays down around 4300 kcal a day. I threw in the salmon 'cause I needed a good source of protein. 213g can of pink contains a little over 40g of complete protein.

Usually I can't eat all of this at once. I space out the bagel and apple in between classes and save the sandwich, banana, yogurts and salmon for lunch.

Just what I bring.

[Biopsy]

rice and beans, apples, a banana or two, peanut butter sammich (with that banana! mmmm). pasta dishes, you can pretty much do anything you do now and just keep a few re-freezable blue ice packs in a lunch box.

[roadrunner1659]

ok so im already at work and will be here for another 11 hrs...so days like these are a perfect time to practice eating healthy, while packing for it.

this is what i packed and please let me know what you think (also i am not training today)...

Breakfast - Two Packages of Oatmeal (ok its not the natural type...it has sugar and diced strawberrys already in it (i doubt its extremly healthy but has to be better than an egg mcmuffin haha). I also have brown sugar pop tart, but haven't eaten that yet.

Snacks - I packed a thing of cottage cheese (low fat) more or less about 2 servings of it, a serving of unsalted peanuts, and raw broccoli/baby carrots with ranch dressing.

Lunch - I didn't pack, but i plan to get a subway sandwich (worked for Jarred haha)...

So, how does this look? And i will be drinking plenty of water!

Thanks

[Nickel]

Throw it in fitday.com and see what you get.

[Zan]

There is a lot of sugar in that breakfast of yours.

I would starve on that lunch of yours, but it's good enough. Snacks are good too.

[jlnelson]

I dont pack often, but when I do this is what I come up with for lunch.

Pasta with grilled chicken, carrots and broccoli with ranch dressing, fat free yogurt, apple or orange, granola mix. For a snack I like celery with peanut butter and raisins.

[roadrunner1659]

ok so i put in everything as best i could in fitday.com and i came out with 45% of my diet today was carbs, 29% was fats, and 26% was protiens. (sat fats was 9 of the 29%)...total was 1444 (but im going out to dinner shortly.

i meet my daily needs of vitamins A, K, C, thiamin, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, niacin...as for minerals, i meet my daily needs of iron, selenium, and phosphorus.

now...im a auto detailer and on my feet cleaning cars and whatnot...today was a 12 hr day...which if i picked a close occupation, then i would have burned nearly 1500 calories today...which means that i could be short a few calories from the food eaten so far and the activity level of the day.

So, how does all of this look? Im not 100% sure how to understand the information, so if you could help me out, that would be great!

Thanks!

[Zan]

It means you're eating enough. I think you're a touch high on the fats, a touch low on the carbs.

[Zan]

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned

Go there.

This site is great. I use it all the time to find the best foods for my lifestyle (such as the salmon). This particular tool allows you to calculate accurately how many calories you need a day. When I'm "in season" (where I would go biking, do my weight lifting, and work) I need to consume about 5300 kcal a day. During the winter I need less due to reduced activity levels, around 3200 kcal a day.

[roadrunner1659]

Zan i went to that site and i did the best i could...i was wondering if you could help me though, as to make it more realistic or as realistic as possible...

I input my gender, age, and weight, then for lifestyle...i went off of my lifestyle outside of tri training...is this correct? or do i include this so should i select active or very active?

in the columns below for additional activity i put the average time a workout last which between the short and long days might be around an hour...

...does this sound about right?

Thanks!

[Zan]

This is how I look at it: if you don't exercise much inbetween your exercises, don't put down "a highly active lifestyle." So, if you're not training you're watching TV or being in class, I'd not consider this an active lifestyle. If, however, your job requires you to be on your feet, you go out shopping after work (groceries or whatnot), you walk the dog, you choose to do active things for fun vs. watching tv, I'd consider this an active lifestyle.

What you're doing sounds right.

[Lecterman]

A can (213g) of salmon with miracle whip (I like the flavor; you choose what you want to flavor it with).


Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait....I'm confused. If you're in Canada, shouldn't it be a "tin" of salmon?

;):p:D

(I'm just being silly)

[roadrunner1659]

hey zan i have a question for you...

today, i swam 500m then later in the day i ran for 24 minutes. I kept a close track of my food, also recording it on fitday.com and i consumed 2489 calories...i went to the nutrition data site and with the activity i performed today and a somewhat active lifestyle i was shown to need 3103 kcal. (i went this somewhat b/c i really didn't do anything else other then swim, run, drive my car, and relax haha)...

with this being said, i guess im short 500cals for the day? is it as simply as that or more in depth?

*on a side not, being that i didn't eat breakfast this morning could have easily made up the difference (i didn't skip on purpose, just anxious to get the day stated and by the time i ate it was almost lunch time...so for today that was my downfall) but in the future do i need to exceed my daily cal needs or simply meet them?

Thanks!

[Nickel]

I just wanted to say that fitday.com tends to inflate the Calories burned, but that's just my opinion.

[telebianchi]

I just wanted to say that fitday.com tends to inflate the Calories burned, but that's just my opinion.

That has been my experience as well. So I use a Polar HRM (which is likely inflating calories burned as well but not as much as FitDay). I then enter a time into fitday that gets the calories to be a little below what my HRM says I burned. That has worked for almost 7 months and 30 lbs lost.

I think its important to recognize that fitday and other similar sites or programs are using estimates for both calories in and calories out. You may need to play around with it for a couple of weeks to find how it matches up with your own body, metabolism, exercise and diet. As I am still trying to lose some fat, I tend to over-estimate calories eaten and under-estimate calories used. But in the end I think it's a great tool to help track and motivate. Over the course of weeks and months, it probably won't matter if you are a couple hundred calories off on any given day. Over time, those things will likely even out.