New Job Dilemma.....

[ohsotired]

This post might not belong in the 'coping' section, but I wasn't sure where else to put it.

(Apologies in advance for sounding whiny!)

I started a new job a few weeks ago, and this week was my first full time (37-ish hours) week. I'm absolutely exhausted.

I love the job and the environment, but I came home from work yesterday afternoon and slept for almost 16 hours. And I feel like I could sleep for 16 more. My body is sore, battered and bruised (mostly from my own clumsiness) - my hands are swollen and arthritic feeling, and I really wonder how long I can keep doing this before completely crashing.

I was just 'officially' dx'd last week, and I haven't had time to create meal plans, go food or supplement shopping or even do anything more than shower, work, sleep. I'm barely eating because I haven't had the time or energy to shop for safe foods and then cook/freeze meals.

So I'm living on protein bars & shakes (and I'm not 100% certain they are gluten-free) and a very bland, easy to cook meal in the evenings (usually chicken or fish and rice).

What's worse, there is no refrigerator in the break room at work. There is a microwave, but no fridge. So anything I do manage to make ahead of time will need to go into an insulated lunch box with a freezer pack, and be small enough to cram into my tiny locker at work.

My manager at work knows about my dx, and is pretty good about asking me "Have you eaten?" or "Did you get to eat?" (I have issues with my blood sugar plummeting if I go for too long without eating. I've never passed out from it, but have come dangerously close - not ever at work, but at home, or while out running errands. My manager is aware of this as well.)

So other than finding the time to sit down and create menu plans and doing my grocery shopping, my biggest dilemma is this: what can I take to work with me to eat that doesn't require a refrigerator? (Or should I ask for a refrigerator? I don't want to be any more of a PITA than I already am.)

I know I won't last much longer eating protein bars and drinking protein shakes (bought off the shelves at work). They do give me an energy boost to keep going, but I'm sure I'm not getting all the nutrients I need to get my health back.

I have seriously thought about requesting to be put on part time instead of full time, but my family could use the money (especially with my new dietary needs).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Or if you've gone through something similar, I'd love to hear about it.

[Mango04]

First, try to take the time to breathe and relax. It's a whole lot easier to live with celiac disease if you give yourself a little time each day to think about and prepare some food (it's actually a necessity, even if it seems like you don't have time for it).

I'm on the go all day so fridges and microwaves aren't options for me either. To make it easy at first, just get a little cooler pack and bring leftovers from dinner. You could also probably bring some frozen Amy's meals (they'll probably be fine out of the freezer for a few hours).

There's no reason why you should bring plenty of food with you to work. Bring simple things such as bananas, cashews (and other nuts), gluten-free crakers, hummus, veggie sticks, rice cakes, tuna, trail mix, gluten-free cookies etc. etc.

Do you happen to work near a health food store or a grocery store? When I lived in the US I would often leave the office during my lunch hour to go grab something from Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. It made things really easy.

[Jestgar]

Keep a bag of nuts at work.

Bring some cheese for the day (doesn't need to be refrigerated if eaten that day).

Get some frozen, pre-cooked chicken, shrimp, whatever you can find and bring some in the morning. It'll thaw by lunch.

Bring fruit/veggies to munch on.

[ShayFL]

You need a good lunch box that has thermal capacity and buy some of those reusable ice packs. Then you can take whatever you want. Or take a frozen gluten-free meal that will thaw and then you only need to microwave for 30 seconds or so.

[aikiducky]

Get a food thermos. Cook enough for two meals in the evening, eat one portion, heat up the second in the morning and take it in the thermos, it will still be warm for lunch.

A safe brand of tortilla chips, carrots, cucumber, apple, banana, nuts.

Sometimes I take a couple of jars of babyfood if I don't have time to prepare anything.

Good luck with the start of the diet!

Pauliina

[Mango04]

Sorry....my earlier post was meant to say: there's no reason why you shouldn't bring plenty of food with you.

[WW340]

Peanut butter is my friend. I keep it at work and home. I especially love the little snack size containers with the foil lids. I eat it on fruit, veggies, crackers or corn cakes.

Fruit, celery, carrots, gluten free crackers, tuna, dinty moore stew, progresso chicken corn chowder, hormel chili with beans, corn tortillas, apple sauce, fruit cups, pop corn. None of these are expensive either and many are shelf stable.

[CeliacMom2008]

Hard boiled eggs

Hormel (and other brands, but we love Hormel Deli Style) deli meats and cheese

Apples with peanut butter

Larabars

On the weekend make a couple pizzas (it takes me about 1 hour to make two pizzas, which includes bake time) - eat one, keep the other for leftovers (unlike our old gluten pizzas, I find our gluten-free recipe tastes just as good on day 2 or 3 as the first time around)

Dried fruit

Tacos - great as leftovers and easy to make

Give yourself a treat and spend 10 minutes planning the coming week's menu. It will be well worth it. And if you're worried about having the time - don't laugh - do it while you're on the toilet! What else do you have to do in there?!?!

Good luck! You're going to be so happy when you feel better. You'll have lots of energy and be amazed at how great your life is...but...you've GOT to eat right to get there!

[Juliebove]

I send in 2 slice packs of Ener-G bread for my daughter along with single serve packs of almond butter and jam/jelly. They can be kept at room temp.

As for the blood sugar issues... Can you keep a small amount of food with you? I used to bring a piece of a Slim Fast bar (probably not gluten free) and break of small pieces to eat. These days if I was having problems (luckily not), I would bring a few fruit snacks. The kind meant for kids. You can put them in a plastic snack bag and keep them in your pocket.

[ohsotired]

Thanks for all your replies, everyone! I'm slow getting back to this - it's been a rough few days. I only had one day off last week, and I'm soooo tired. I'm more battered and bruised than when I wrote the initial post, and I have cuts, burns and blisters in odd places.

To shed a little more light on the situation, I'm working in a coffee shop inside a grocery store (not SBUX, but similar). So there are aisles and aisles of food at my disposal. Problem is, I don't really want to spend money there every day, nor do I want to spend my breaks reading labels. LOL (I haven't felt like really doing any grocery shopping after my shift, so the fridge and pantry at home are a little bare at the moment!)

Some of the suggestions I've gotten are great! I do have to be really careful about eating just fruit (have to really balance it with something else) because of the sugar content. I've eaten an apple on an empty stomach before and gotten that sugar high/crash really quickly afterwards.

Bananas and peanut butter (typically) cause tummy aches, although now that there's no gluten going in with it, maybe I should give those another try (over the weekend, won't chance it whilst I'm at work!). Hard boiled eggs tend to do the same thing.

I still haven't gotten too far with my meal planning - there just aren't enough hours in the day to come up with something interesting for dinner 5-7 nights a week. I know it sounds like a big whiny excuse, but it's the truth. By the time I get home from work, feed the pets, help with homework and do laundry so I have clothes for work the next day (that part is getting REALLY old really fast), I barely have time to throw something edible together, shower and go to bed. *sigh* I'll get there though. I just need to figure out how to manage that time better and still get a decent amount of sleep! LOL

Thanks everyone!

[gfp]

As Mango said right at the beginning.

STOP

STEP BACK

RELAX

Its not an issue of what you can eat but what you can prepare.. because there are literally thousands of choices.

You need to take some time to stock up on essentials. If you don't have the time you need to MAKE IT. If you don't you will trap yourself in the exhausting catch-22.

Buy a slow cooker (stockpot) and make double or treble portions and then freeze half. Use the little bags and you can then just pull one out and take it into work, take your own bowl and spoon or you can buy those microwave-safe freezer bowls.

I find microwave-work-existance is easier when you can make an all-in-one meal like a stew since rice never seems to microwave well.

[Mango04]

(I haven't felt like really doing any grocery shopping after my shift, so the fridge and pantry at home are a little bare at the moment!)

That's your problem right there. Ya have to grocery shop. Just walk over to the meat section after work and buy some meat. Then walk over to the produce section and buy lots of vegetables. No label reading required. Cook it up when you get home and bring some for lunch the next day (just stick it in the fridge when you get there and eat it cold for lunch). Easy!

[Jestgar]

I leave my house at 6:30 in the morning and hopefully am home at 7 that evening.

I buy gluten-free bars and stuff on the internet. I come home and tadah! I have food.

Weekend mornings I go to the grocery store, buy a pile of marked-down meat, a pile of frozen veggies, and fresh stuff for a few days.

I make crockpot meals a couple times a week using frozen meat and veggies. Put everything in the pot in the morning, turn on low, come home in the evening and it's ready. Put some in the frig for the next day or two and freeze the rest.

boxed/canned broths last for weeks in the cupboard. As do canned soups.

Sunday evening I make crockpot quiches with a dozen eggs, some sausage or bacon (whatever was on sale) frozen veggies, and some spices. If you aren't going to eat it with one hand while waiting for the bus you could do a layer of frozen hash browns. Or wrap it in a tortilla. I don't freeze it, but you could. Some friends do a similar thing but bake it in muffin wrappers so they can eat it while waiting for the bus.

On very energetic weekends I make brazillian cheese rolls and freeze them unbaked (freeze arrayed out on a baking sheet, then transfer to plastic bags.

Dunno how small your homework do-ers are, but you could have rice roll ups some evenings. Have them wash some cilantro, lettuce, other non-sloppy veggies cut into thin strips. Cut some (precooked, thawed in the frig) chicken into strips. Get some rice papers and heat some water. Pour the water into wide bowls and put plates of the veggies and chicken out. You dip your rice wrap in the water to soften it, put it on your plate, fill it with whatever you want, roll it up and eat. You could even have some sauces to dip it in if you have them around. Clean up is - dump everything in a plastic bag and put it in the crockpot next time you make something. Only the chicken plate has grease, everything else rinses clean.

[Live2BWell]

LoL ~ I just sent you an email about this very same thing. Yup, I very much empathize, and I am enjoying being your second set of eyes on this post

[sickchick]

Hang in there Toots!

[kbtoyssni]

On very energetic weekends I make brazillian cheese rolls and freeze them unbaked (freeze arrayed out on a baking sheet, then transfer to plastic bags.

What are brazillian cheese rolls, and do you have a recipe?

[Jestgar]

Here's the basic recipe, I've also seen egg white brushed on top, might make them brown better.

I use just milk, walnut or some other tasty oil, and sometimes make them with jalepenos and sharp cheddar.

I don't bother with carefully rolled balls, just glop them on the baking sheet to freeze them.

I find that they are much less edible when a day old, so I only bake as many as I plan to eat for that meal. When you eat them warm, they are chewy in the middle.

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of oil

1 teaspoon of salt

1 pack of tapioca starch (450 g)

2 to 3 eggs

200 g of grated parmesan cheese

Preparation:

1. Bring to boil in a big pan the water, the milk, the oil and the salt.

2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the tapioca starch. Mix well with a wooden spoon and let it cool down.

3. Put the mixture in a bowl, add the eggs and knead well.

4. Add the grated cheese and keep kneading until the dough is smooth.

5. Roll 1 tablespoon of mixture into small balls. Tip: Grease your hands with oil before making the balls. Wash your hands once in a while if necessary.

6. Place the balls on a baking tray greased with oil or lined with baking paper.

7. Bake the cheese rolls in hot oven (350 degrees) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Put the cheese rolls in a basket and serve them warm.

[kbtoyssni]

Thanks Jestgar! They look yummy.

[babysteps]

So I'm living on protein bars & shakes (and I'm not 100% certain they are gluten-free) and a very bland, easy to cook meal in the evenings (usually chicken or fish and rice).

First, try to take the time to breathe and relax.

As Mango said right at the beginning.

STOP

STEP BACK

RELAX

Hope you are feeling better & less overwhelmed now!

I agree with most all the comments on this thread. One more bring-to-work idea - some foods, if you leave home with them frozen they're thawed enough to microwave quickly for lunch and you can avoid a separate freezer pack.

If you haven't already, please take the time to check your protein shakes & energy bars. I know I have reacted even to some that say "gluten-free" (especially the ones with some sort of wheatgrass or barley grass - theoretically gluten-free but not sure my system agrees). Do a search on this site, there are a few threads with many gluten-free brand choices. If there is gluten in your shakes & bars, it will be very tough to escape the exhaustion. But hopefully as you get more and more gluten-free, you will see some energy return!

[ohsotired]

Thanks so much for your suggestions, everyone!

I'm happy to report that I do feel like I've had a little bit more energy this week, though I am still pretty tired.

The meal/snack suggestions are awesome, and I'm off work for the next two days, so I'm going to sit down and plan out meals, go shopping and cook up a storm this weekend. (Need to go get more storage containers first!)

I'm 99.9% certain that my protein shakes are gluten free. I've read the ingredient lists over and over, and I'm pretty sure I'm safe. Guess it wouldn't hurt to email the companies that make them just to be 100% certain.

The bars, on the other hand.........not so sure. I did a little digging here and think I found my answer, though.

I've been eating the Nutz Over Chocolate Luna Bars by Clif. I emailed them, but I haven't received an email back yet.

Their labeling is confusing for this particular bar. It says 'organic toasted oats' and 'We source ingredients which are not made using wheat or dairy ....' but their FAQ states that their bars do contain gluten.

So I bet that's a big part of my problem with my gut still acting up. That, and maybe my ibuprofen.

Anyhow, thanks again everyone! Wish me luck this weekend with my cooking spree!

[MaryJones2]

I am fairly certain that none of the Luna Bars are gluten-free. It's a shame because they used to be my favorite!

Thanks so much for your suggestions, everyone!

I'm happy to report that I do feel like I've had a little bit more energy this week, though I am still pretty tired.

The meal/snack suggestions are awesome, and I'm off work for the next two days, so I'm going to sit down and plan out meals, go shopping and cook up a storm this weekend. (Need to go get more storage containers first!)

I'm 99.9% certain that my protein shakes are gluten free. I've read the ingredient lists over and over, and I'm pretty sure I'm safe. Guess it wouldn't hurt to email the companies that make them just to be 100% certain.

The bars, on the other hand.........not so sure. I did a little digging here and think I found my answer, though.

I've been eating the Nutz Over Chocolate Luna Bars by Clif. I emailed them, but I haven't received an email back yet.

Their labeling is confusing for this particular bar. It says 'organic toasted oats' and 'We source ingredients which are not made using wheat or dairy ....' but their FAQ states that their bars do contain gluten.

So I bet that's a big part of my problem with my gut still acting up. That, and maybe my ibuprofen.

Anyhow, thanks again everyone! Wish me luck this weekend with my cooking spree!

[ohsotired]

Yeah, that's kind of the conclusion I've come to as well.

Guess I need to find a way to make my own.

[Jestgar]

Wish me luck this weekend with my cooking spree!

Have fun! I always feel like I've accomplished something when I have a freezer full of food.

_{and a sink full of dishes}