Training & Nutrition - All you need is A FEW tablespoons of oil (A RANT)

Sometimes, I hate my cafeteria.

I am very fortunate to have a cafeteria where I work, but a lot of the food they serve is pretty ridiculous. They sell LOTS of flavor-loaded, heavy lunches, which naturally come at the expense of one's health. So, being that I'm trying to stabilize my diet, I have resorted to the three-piece lunch:


One small portion of greens and vegetables
One small portion of grains (pasta or rice)
One small portion of meat or fish, with dressing and a bit of American cheese


Here's the problem:


They NEVER cook with whole-grains. EVER. Even worse,
They DUMP their stuff in oil!


I went to grab about 3/4 cup pasta, but it was seriously oil-laden. And it definitely wasn't olive oil; more than likely, it was VEGETABLE oil! Who cooks pasta with that?! They even do it with the rice.

Seriously, pasta and rice taste 100% better in olive oil (though I don't use oil at all in my pasta, only two tablespoons of butter). I don't expect them to make this change.

Oh well...

Reminds me of a Polish buffet I have been to a few times. They have two kinds of food - food that floats in butter and food that sinks in butter. - TF

for me, the only way i could control my diet was to start brown bagging it and eating at home more often. 2 years later i am still bringing my own lunch to work. later.

for me, the only way i could control my diet was to start brown bagging it and eating at home more often. 2 years later i am still bringing my own lunch to work. later.

Pretty much it. Even cafeterias that serve "healthy" stuff, are not all that healthy compared to what you can cook at home and bring with you.

You ought to try working in a high school. The food is awful. Bad for you and bad tasting. We serve that slop to our young people.

I've been brown bagging for the 10 years that I've been teaching.

Why not write to the management about it? Either that or start cooking extra large portions each night and take the excess in a tupperware box for lunch the next day. Either way, stop moaning!

I'm one of those that has started bringing my own food to work. I feel I control my eating so much better, can eat less at a time and spread it throughout the day. It's absolutely helped me with my weight loss/cleaning up my diet.

It's also fun when people are staring at my food and commenting on how tasty it looks. :D

Snack suggestion to keep at work: Fiber 1 cereal. Look at the list of ingredients in that (no sugar); it will put a smile on your face. Eat about 3/4 cup of that for afternoon snack. Bring fresh fruit (1 piece per day).

Look at your vending machines. I found tuna sandwiches there for $1.50. They taste GREAT. When you buy them in the cafeteria, same place the vending ones are made, they add on some kind of high cal. salad with vegetable oil (avoid that too -- full of omega 6 FA's) and charge $4.50.

Your point is well taken. Nutrition always seems to take second place to taste, and we're presented with foods that are wrong wrong wrong.

I'm going to try preparing half a box of whole grain pasta and bringing that to work. Food there is already pretty cheap, but that could save me about $2.00. If I make a week's worth of tuna, I could save an extra $0.85 a day. I'll try it starting tomorrow. Good suggestions!

I thought I haven't had the time to make my own lunch, but I've been beginning to realize that I have more time than I thought I did. Time management is a ***** sometimes!

Snack suggestion to keep at work: Fiber 1 cereal. Look at the list of ingredients in that (no sugar); it will put a smile on your face. Eat about 3/4 cup of that for afternoon snack. Bring fresh fruit (1 piece per day).

Actually, I discovered that my cafeteria sells Kashi GoLEAN cereal, which is chock full of fiber and protein (though it looks like I'm eating bits of trees. Tastes pretty good though).

On top of that, I've started buying Archer cereal from Target. Much healthier choice! I might start going to Whole Foods for my cereals (and joining the "green" crowd...God, I hate Manhattan :()

You ought to try working in a high school. The food is awful. Bad for you and bad tasting. We serve that slop to our young people.

I've been brown bagging for the 10 years that I've been teaching.
My school serves terrible food then requires a semester of health class and 5 semesters of PE for graduation. How's that for counteractive?

Bring lunch. It's the way to go with our current food choices available.

I'm one of those that has started bringing my own food to work. I feel I control my eating so much better, can eat less at a time and spread it throughout the day. It's absolutely helped me with my weight loss/cleaning up my diet.

It's also fun when people are staring at my food and commenting on how tasty it looks. :D

This is me in a nut shell. Especially the whole spreading it throughout the day thing. I find if I the food I pack at intervals throughout the day I rarely feel hungry. Plus, it's a great way to get some fuel for the ride home!

I'm going to try preparing half a box of whole grain pasta and bringing that to work. Food there is already pretty cheap, but that could save me about $2.00. If I make a week's worth of tuna, I could save an extra $0.85 a day. I'll try it starting tomorrow. Good suggestions!

I thought I haven't had the time to make my own lunch, but I've been beginning to realize that I have more time than I thought I did. Time management is a ***** sometimes!

It always seems like there isn't time for anything new. That is how I felt about getting to the gym and now about riding my bike but where there's a will, there's a way.

I have the benefit of having very flexible hours so I generally take a 15 minute lunch at my desk as often as i can to get the hell out of here faster. That buys me 45 minutes a day!

Making rice takes about 10 or 15 minutes, in which most of that time you can spend reading more BikeForums (or actually doing something productive).

Preparing salmon (from a can) takes about two minutes. Remove salmon, top with mayonnaise or dressing, add salt, mix and you're done.

Makes a VERY filling lunch or dinner, and it's quick. I highly recommend.

I tried bringing lunch, and it worked well! I brought two days worth of whole grain rice, and I would either prepare the salmon as described above here, or I would just buy it from the café since it's not very expensive. I also made whole grain pasta, and that also worked. Definitely made me spend less time going to the cafeteria.

Making rice takes about 10 or 15 minutes, in which most of that time you can spend reading more BikeForums (or actually doing something productive).

Preparing salmon (from a can) takes about two minutes. Remove salmon, top with mayonnaise or dressing, add salt, mix and you're done.

Makes a VERY filling lunch or dinner, and it's quick. I highly recommend.

+1 rice - Can't go wrong with rice.

+1 salmon sacks - Teriyaki!

-1 whole grain pasta - Ronzoni is the only brand that doesn't make me hurl. (Try it if you haven't.) Problem is I can't eat it without covering it with a sauce or dressing that will be counterproductive in weight loss so I avoid pasta at all costs. +100 to you if you can make it work!