Joy dot: dinner at an Indian restaurant with a friend

Sharon, although I don't generally work extra hours, I often have things to do after work that mean dinner will be late. What I do is to bring a dinner to work with me. For instance, last week I was checking hawk and owl nests after work, so I brought brown rice, a chicken burger with cheese and some frozen vegetables. I ate it before leaving work. Then when we got home and my husband cooked, I ate a small meal. We bought the chicken burgers at Costco, and they are program friendly. They are pre cooked and just need to be heated up. I cook brown rice in big batches (and if you get a rice cooker, it takes even less effort because you don't have to worry about overcooking it). And we buy big bags of frozen vegetables at Costco. So it takes very little time and effort to pack a dinner.

I also pack my lunch every day, so if I should have to work through lunch, I have food I can eat at my desk. Or I can eat at my desk and then use my lunch break to go for a walk.

So with very little effort, it is possible to eat all your meals even if you working extra hours. And you will probably do your work more efficiently with food in your body. I know I don't work so well when I am crashing.
Allison

: I just posted on the Step 1 list
: about having a few months
: "off program" due to my
: need to put work first over my
: food and Kathleen suggested I post
: something here on the main forum.
: So in an effort to follow
: suggestions here I am.

: Going off program for me is not so
: much about what I eat, it's more
: about timings and connections.
: First the evening meal starts to
: slip because I work late and I'm
: too tired to food shop and prepare
: my next days meal. Then I might
: start delaying lunch, then finally
: breakfast starts to slip until
: eventually I am not eating for a
: couple of hours after I've woken
: and finally I start to skip bf and
: then lunch and before I know it my
: body feels like its been in a
: train wreck. After all that I
: start to withdraw from social
: contact. It's a slippery slope to
: feeling miserable

: I'm realising that keeping connection
: to the community and reaching out
: - even if you don't feel like it -
: is so very important to building
: the foundations of a strong
: recovery. I know that I have been
: using work as an excuse not to
: "do the food" or keep
: active on the lists and that when
: I do both, I feel so much better.

: Right now I'm trying to just focus on
: bf and trust that the anxiety
: I feel about work will pass as the
: food gets better.

: Thanks everyone