Open Thread: What's in your refrigerator?
Its been three months since I have started to work from home, and it has been surprisingly productive. However, the downside is that I am eating a lot more on a daily basis. Looking for something to nosh on – chips, almonds, something …. just to feed the beast so to speak. A lot of this stuff is not healthy and, can be a bit of a problem down the line.
So while visiting a neighborhood Safeway, I decided to pick up lots of greens – celery, carrots, radishes and what not. I make a huge salad every two days, but its getting boring. What are your tips for eating healthy when working from home, and what are the best ways to avoid the junk food trap?
I am just curious to know…. I wonder why no one talks about this in context of us web workers?
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Definitely an issue I’ve been thinking about. Lately I’ve fallen into the same trap, except with Mountain Dew. Greens are definitely a great start, but they are by no means the only healthy food. Carrots are awesome to snack on, especially the baby carrots. I also enjoy a wide range of fruit. It satisfies the need for something sweet, yet doesnt load you down at all. My favorites are plums, peaches, grapes (great, easy snack), oranges, bananas, apples, etc. They even all come in their own portable, biodegradable wrappers. Perfect for the web developer on the go.
I don’t work from home anymore, so it’s not as big of an issue for me lately. However, I always enjoy snacking on the following types of things:
-trailmix type stuff (Good ‘Ol Raisins & Peanuts)
-nuts (almonds == lower in fat and pretty nutritious)
-dried fruit
-regular fruit (especially bananas for me)
-”natural” granola/cereal/etc bars
-yogurt
-fresh veggies: carrots, bell pepper, celery, etc
-pretzels.. I just can’t help myself. :)
Don’t think of snacking as bad though! It’s a good thing, assuming that you’re eating a balanced variety of things.
We belong to a CSA (community supported agriculture) so we have lots of organic veggies for about half the year. I usually make big dinners of healthy stuff and eat the leftovers. Healthy veggie lasagne, veggie enchiladas, etc.
I usually don’t snack a lot, but sometimes I make popcorn (no unhealthy stuff on it), rice cakes with natural peanut butter, organic cereals with organic milk, kefir or yogurt, smoothies and fresh fruit. I find that if the fruit is ready to go, I’m much more likely to snack on it.
I NEVER have sodas and rarely have things like chips. If I have fresh salsa though, I tend to eat the whole thing!
So, if I’m in the mood for crunchy – apples, carrots, rice cakes. Salty: popcorn. Sweet – Yogurt or fresh fruit.
Also, if you drink a lot of water – a glass an hour or so – this tends to fight the hunger pains pretty well.
And I drink about a pot of coffee a day, although I doubt that is healthy. ;-)
I’ve been working from home for 7 years now. I think it really goes the other way. I think the food thing is one of the the best parts about working in your house. You make your own lunch in your own kitchen instead of not having time in the morning and just eating some fast food, or whatever the cafeteria has today.
If you’ve got snacking issue then you need to look at what your problems are and solve them in a way that makes sense. Personally, I fall victim to the “can’t eat just one” syndrome on chips. I’ll eat half a bag of chips before I realize, then another third feeling guilty about it. The solution is portion control. I buy the single-serving snacks. When I’m done with the bag there’s no more to eat so I can stop.
Second, out of sight, out of mind: I have converted one of our bedrooms to my home office. It’s a two story house and all the “bedrooms” are on the 2nd floor. The kitchen is on the first. In order to get a snack I need to trudge down and up a flight of stairs. For some reason this works for snacks but not drinks for me. I don’t drink much that has calories though. The only thing that stays upstairs with me is the thermal coffee carafe. Since I drink it black, there’s no calorie problem. Incidentally, if you don’t have a home office, make one. Make it yours.
Don’t eat lunch where you work. You don’t want to associate the place you work with eating.
If you try to cut out all the snacking, you’ll just make yourself miserable.
Can’t say it’s an issue for me. I’m usually so busy I don’t even notice time passing and before I know it it’s 5pm and I haven’t even had lunch!
I have a kegerator within 8 feet of my desk. The kegerator is the the worst best idea ever. I’m not too good with the discipline, so coffee shops are a must for me.
I find that dried fruit (mango is my favourite) is great for snacking. On the drink side of things I stick to green tea and I’m now getting into smoothies. I balked at them before because of price (around €5 per litre) but I got over that by telling myself it’s only the same price as a pint of beer.
For a chocolate hit I buy organic high cocoa chocolate. I find I eat less of this than cheaper milk chocolate and for the taste alone it’s worth it.
I spend half of my time in Seattle and half in a rented apartment in Santa Monica at my day job/consulting gig. The Santa Monica fridge has absolutely nothing in it. I’ve found that it’s just cheaper to eat out and escape the food throwaway situation. Plus, there’s nothing like a socal burrito!
But, in Seattle, I’ve found leftovers to be my main staple. I get through the morning with bulk purchases of powerbars from Drugstore.com (from monthly purchases), and then leftover my way thru the day. Late afternoon usually require a banana or something to avoid eating a full bag of potata chips or something similar.
When traveling, I’ve discovered an easy way to avoid terrible foods and save money — my ‘alaska air $225 boardroom’ investment gets me free bagels and fruit plus free coffee, juice and beer (during those delays), and helps me avoid cinnabon and potato cheesy wedges :-)
love WWD, Om…
if you haven’t done a piece comparing mobile devices (MDA vs. Blackberry vs. ____) for non-huge-tech users, i’d love to see it…
I had hopes that the basic premise of this site would provide a lot of great content on working from home, the coffee shop, or wherever. However, I’m only seeing a post or so a day, and these types of postings really aren’t the quality of content I was thinking this site would generate.
=(
I just had my last day of my regular job, and on monday my own consulting company will open for business. I will be working from home at first, and I am a bit afraid that I will fall into the unhealthy snack pit.
I don’t like fruits and veggies that much, so my choices are a bit limited. I am a nut freak, but there is a lot of fat in them unfortunately.
I am not quite sure what I will do for lunch … but some kind of sandwitch soulds likely. Office workers here in Stockholm usually go out to lunch every day, to lunch restaurants, and that is a habit that will be hard to get rid of.
My drinking choices consist of free sparkling clean water from the tap and the never ending mountain of Pepsi Max in the fridge. So no calories there …
Looking forward to more time in my home office though :)