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What's for Lunch?

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Old 08-26-14, 10:36 AM
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Leftover pasta noodly thingy...

I do admit to half the time sticking my lunch in the fridge and going out with my coworkers.
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Old 08-26-14, 10:50 AM
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Most of my lunch comes from the deli at the farmer's market. They make various dishes from the same food they sell. My lunch consists of a few things I pack into a plastic container I take to work with me. Typical selections include tabbouleh, hummus, four-bean salad, curried chick pea, lintel salad, salsa, smoked salmon fillet. I also bring some fruit like a peach or some grapes.
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Old 08-26-14, 10:52 AM
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Originally Posted by RubeRad
Exactly, I am so all about keeping long-term costs down. Going out once in a while to celebrate somebody's retirement or new baby or something, OK, but 3-5 times/week?! That's just flushing money down the toilet. Although your homemade sandwich and fresh fruit is probably a lot healthier than my noodle soup full of salt and MSG...
For myself, I used to go out for lunch frequently because my coworkers did. It was a chance to get out of the office and socialize.

I don't go out nearly as frequently as I did, but still every once in awhile do for the social aspect. Plus, the Chinese food across the street is cheap and tasty
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Old 08-26-14, 11:16 AM
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Today is a lunch day.

I have a salad with some left over greek kebabs today. I tend towards huge salads for lunch; with lettuce, spinach, cucumber, carrots, beans, feta, olives and red peppers. I use my own homemade dressing from balsamic, olive oil, a bit of chili oil, roasted garlic, herbs d'Provence, mother in law's bee's honey, and spicy dijon mustard.

I also have fresh peaches and nectarines, I already at the plums.

It will be almost identical for Thursday.

I do alternate day fasting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. To stem the questions there is peer reviewed research documenting the physiological benefits. Mostly I do it for the physiological benefits, some for the weight maintenance benefits.
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Old 08-26-14, 11:26 AM
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Interesting. Is that all-day fasting, or just lunch?
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Old 08-26-14, 11:44 AM
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I have all week off and so I had two beers and nachos at my favorite bar
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Old 08-26-14, 11:49 AM
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Originally Posted by RubeRad
Interesting. Is that all-day fasting, or just lunch?
It is for about 20 hours. I usually eat dinner and skip breakfast and lunch. I will have a snack on the way home with my son, it is usually an apple and dried seeds and fruits. The research has shown up to about 300 calories provides the same benefit.

I also cannot fathom paying for lunch everyday, or coffee. I get lunch once a month from a cafe down the street and maybe every six weeks I will get a bagel egg-which for breakfast. I buy a coffee maybe once every two months. McDonalds has my favorite store chain coffee and they have stickers to get a free coffee (7 then a free medium). I just stop along my commute and collect stickers. I think I have three or four free coffee coupons in my wallet right now. I will stop to get the stickers but too lazy to stop and get the coffee.


I like all the savings since it makes it easy to justify the weekly growler fill and whenever I want something new for myself (read my bike)
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Old 08-26-14, 12:18 PM
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I have a Trader Joe's adjacent to my office. So most of the time I'll go down there on Monday and stock up on supplies for the week. I do the same with coffee. We have a local coffee joint (Collectivo if you're local to WI) and every two weeks I'll buy a pound and have it ground for my French Press and that's my morning coffee.

I do, at times, bring leftovers, packed in a plastic bag to keep separate from my clothes.
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Old 08-26-14, 12:29 PM
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Originally Posted by joeyduck
It is for about 20 hours. I usually eat dinner and skip breakfast and lunch. I will have a snack on the way home with my son, it is usually an apple and dried seeds and fruits. The research has shown up to about 300 calories provides the same benefit.
Interesting. I was experimenting for a little bit with weekly fasting, skipping Sun bfast/dinner and Mon bfast/lunch (to make it non-intrusive to the family schedule). I knocked it off when I was training for a duathlon and started to feel a little weak, but now that's over, I should consider picking it up again.
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Old 08-26-14, 12:29 PM
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I like to keep weekday lunches light & quick, so I pack in a week's worth of home-made bean & cheese tacos, along with Pringles single-serving tubs and sugar-free dark chocolates every Monday.
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Old 08-26-14, 12:43 PM
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Originally Posted by RubeRad
Interesting. I was experimenting for a little bit with weekly fasting, skipping Sun bfast/dinner and Mon bfast/lunch (to make it non-intrusive to the family schedule). I knocked it off when I was training for a duathlon and started to feel a little weak, but now that's over, I should consider picking it up again.
I have done it on and off for about two years. You get accustomed to it after a few weeks. Your body adapts and the the glucose curves are nearly identical to normal patterns. Your body activates more fat burning to access reserves, so it helps to burn fat reserves for energy; fat reserves which otherwise are not accessed.

I have been doing three days a week since April and rarely face much fatigue, I commute between 23 km and 36 km each day. I only felt fatigued two weeks ago when I tacked on about another 25 km one evening after a week off. The nice thing is if you have a dinner or lunch to go to on a fast day, you just fast the next day. It is not schedule restricted. The best results have been shown when one skips lunch and dinner (breakfast to breakfast). But I found it more important to eat dinner with the family.

I fasted yesterday and I smashed my PR on a hill on the way home by about 15 seconds.
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Old 08-26-14, 01:08 PM
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Originally Posted by blart
I have all week off and so I had two beers and nachos at my favorite bar
You're confused, we're talking about lunch, not morning and afternoon work breaks.
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Old 08-26-14, 01:10 PM
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Originally Posted by joeyduck
To stem the questions there is peer reviewed research documenting the physiological benefits. Mostly I do it for the physiological benefits, some for the weight maintenance benefits.
What are the physiological benefits? (I'm not challenging, I'm asking)
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Old 08-26-14, 01:32 PM
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Originally Posted by jrickards
What are the physiological benefits? (I'm not challenging, I'm asking)

The benefits some research have shown include cardiovascular (HDL and LDL cholesterol levels), obesity related fat burning and accessing fat reserves not usually burned for energy, glucose-insulin (production, sensitivity and regulation) and other metabolites have been studied. There have been hints to increase in longevity in some samples of mice. The studies have also look at difference between ADF and caloric restriction

I may have forgotten some and I have not been keeping up to date with the literature in last half year or so.
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Old 08-26-14, 01:46 PM
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Lentils. I probably should just preemptively apologize to my coworkers now.
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Old 08-26-14, 01:55 PM
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Lunch today was a hummus wrap with sweet onion, romaine lettuce and cucumber on a whole wheat tortilla. Plus an apple.

Last edited by Carson Dyle; 08-26-14 at 02:08 PM.
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Old 08-26-14, 02:01 PM
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I've been packing my lunch for years as a way to help balance the budget at home.

I usually bring a sandwich, granola bar, apple and yogurt for lunch. Sometimes I pack a few cookies or pretzels, chips. If we have leftovers from dinner, sometimes I'll bring chili, spaghetti, red beans & rice or other food that's easy to carry in a container. I usually eat lunch out about once a week, somewhere inexpensive. There are a lot of nice restaurant options close to my office but I can't afford to eat out very often. Well, I could afford it but then I wouldn't have the money to spend on bike gear and trips.
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Old 08-26-14, 06:23 PM
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Originally Posted by RubeRad
Exactly, I am so all about keeping long-term costs down. Going out once in a while to celebrate somebody's retirement or new baby or something, OK, but 3-5 times/week?! That's just flushing money down the toilet. Although your homemade sandwich and fresh fruit is probably a lot healthier than my noodle soup full of salt and MSG...

I just got back from a business trip, the 3-meal per-diem was $71. There was a Trader Joes near my hotel, I spent less than $10 for breakfasts for the whole trip, cafeteria lunches under $10 each, probably netted a couple hundy out of the whole deal.

I think this kind of thriftiness is tied to the mentality of the bike commuter: why pay $5+ per day for somebody else to make me a lunch, when I can make it nearly for free myself? Why pay $X per day on gasoline to move a multi-ton vehicle and myself between home and work when I can, with my own power, move a 30-lb bike and myself between home and work for free?

That's also why, even though I'm generally a techie, I have no interest in paying $30-50-??/mo (per person in my family) for smartphones, when I can buy a tracfone for $10 and spend $10-20 every few months to add minutes (which I never use). If I got a smartphone fully-paid as a work benefit, that would be a different matter, but to pay to be able to waste more time on mobile than I already waste on computers....it's just silly.
It is amazing how much can be saved by packing food versus buying out. I have been averaging eating at places like Jimmy Johns 4-5 x per month, but I want to start cutting back. It might cost 6 bucks for a sub, but my packed lunch would be perhaps 1/3 to 1/2 of that with more variety and higher quality.

Another semi-commuter related, money saving scheme I've employed off and on is to cut my own hair with a Wahl trimmer. Saves 15-30 bucks a month. Having a buzz cut also saves me time in the morning for commuting.
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Old 08-26-14, 06:33 PM
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Wow. You really gotta be hurtin' if you can't afford Jimmy John's four times a month.
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Old 08-26-14, 06:54 PM
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Haha. It is usually what I resort to when I haven't taken the time to pack. Doesn't break the bank by any stretch but it all adds up.
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Old 08-26-14, 08:01 PM
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I'm incredibly lucky to have a meal plan at the college refectory, 20 meals for $72 = $3.60 a meal. It's good, healthy food too. The vegetarian station is always excellent, there's a huge salad bar, and sometimes I just get the veggies from the old-fashioned meat-and-three station. On other days I bring leftovers from supper the night before. Probably once each week or ten days, I ride to a cafe or the Indian buffet off campus.
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Old 08-26-14, 08:15 PM
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5 dollar meal is a bargain around here. The food is usually on the gourmet/very high quality side as well. Now, expensive food that you can get cheaper, that makes no sense. I buy food really frugally (often a whole month's groceries in one trip), so lunch tends to be my "treat".

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Old 08-26-14, 08:55 PM
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Originally Posted by TransitBiker
I buy food really frugally (often a whole month's groceries in one trip)
Not sure how you manage that. Sure, it's easy to buy a month's worth of frozen, dried or canned foods, and you save a few dollars buying 25 lb bags of rice and beans. Yogurt, juice and even meats, if you freeze some, can be purchased monthly. But if you want fresh fruit, vegetables or bakery items in your diet, it's pretty difficult. I tend to go grocery shopping once or twice a week.
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Old 08-26-14, 09:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Carson Dyle
Not sure how you manage that. Sure, it's easy to buy a month's worth of frozen, dried or canned foods, and you save a few dollars buying 25 lb bags of rice and beans. Yogurt, juice and even meats, if you freeze some, can be purchased monthly. But if you want fresh fruit, vegetables or bakery items in your diet, it's pretty difficult. I tend to go grocery shopping once or twice a week.
My digestive system is a bit rogue, so i tend to buy the same stuff every month. I wish i coyld do the wole fresh fruits & veggies thing, but it can be a bit dodgy as to how the GI bits will behave.

One change i did make is after silk organic plain soymilk had its ingredients changed (it now tastes horrific & artificial), i switched to organic whole milk. Doing this seems to have drastically improved GI health and i get less heartburn too.

I eat about 3 lbs of meat a month if that, usually a cheese steak or 2, and the sushi i mentioned in the lunch thread. Sushi is where i normally get my vegetables.

In the next few months i'm expecting some changes in budget etc, so maybe i can get a separate area in the house for fresh fruits & veggies, especially from local farms, farmer market, etc.

- Andy
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Old 08-26-14, 10:26 PM
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Typical lunch for me is one package of ramen and two pieces of fruit. These I keep at my desk along with instant oatmeal and breakfast bars. I bring food and clothes to last the week to facilitate my bike commuting. My employer provides a nice catered lunch and breakfast at subsidized prices- which is perfect for a cyclist. I have stopped buying the lunch to save money.
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