Torture

[cjsmith]

Yesterday's free lunch: pasta in assorted sauces, with bread and butter.
Today: someone brought in Krispy Kremes and left them by the microwave.

I don't for one minute think other people should have to change what they're doing for my comfort, but my God, I never knew how AWFUL this sort of thing could be. I am getting a major education here.

edit: AND there's an Enforced Fun at the office tomorrow! Guess what we're having! Pizza and ice cream! I think I feel an attack of bubonic plague coming on. *eyeroll*

Comments

Re: it sucks, it really sucks

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

maybe you could start a couple of new threads with some questions. I'm not sure which angles you could use help with (if any), but I'm positive your LJ brain will offer what it can.

I'm trying to narrow down the variables -- so far I have something like this :
--list of allowed foods (add as many as possible -- it is still a very long list even with the restrictions)

important variables:
--considered edible or yummy by you?
--preparation required? (little, lots, none, etc)
--easy to store/carry (that is, it would be great if there are a few foods that you can easily carry in your car/purse/desk and eat happily whenever, and keep around in quantity without fuss. I use canned corn, for example, which I think you can't eat at all. Stores for ages...)
--caloric density -- I know you didn't bring this up, but I think of it right away.... Clearly you can get full eating steak and eggs, but it is VERY hard to get full eating low-starch veggies and no sugar. Thus, frozen spinach is great (in terms of easy and yummy) but won't be likely to get you full (which may make a pizza being consumed by others more painful than it might be, for example). Spinach with chopped peanuts is closer to filling. Or spinach and steak.

A couple other thoughts:
--the resturaunt research, which you have brought up as an area to explore. (And you don't need more than a few items to buy at a couple of places. Eating at the same places can be easy and convenient.) Lots of places have their menus online of course. And some places are more used to being asked about ingredients. (Hobbees leaps to mind.) Places like Taco Bell have the ingredients in food available (online or in books). (Taco Bell is very used to requests for "modified versions" of things, BTW.)
--it occurs to me now that there is a sub-genre of resturaunts that prepare food while asking you about whether to include each ingredient. Burrito Real (I think @ Rengstorff and Middlefield?) is a great example -- Fresh Choice is similar (although you make the salad instead of them, similar level of control). There is another "fresh mex" place by 101 @ rengstorff that also does this (sorry not thinking of name).
--there MIGHT be some similar project about the forms and storage of food.. but this may or may not be helpful, depending on how much of your "yummy" list is/isn't easy to store and carry around.....e.g. if steak is one of the few filling and desirable foods, you may want to work out how to cook/store steak in quantity, how to keep it frozen at work in convenient portions, what condiments to have on hand to eat it with, etc. Whereas if you are allowed to eat canned garbanzo beans and you love them, this is already easy to store....)
--also POSSIBLY there may (or may not) be similar projects about finding a brand or type of something to buy. E.g. I think salsa is "close" to allowable, but much of it is made with sugar (I think?) Anyway, if that's true, then finding a single kind to buy could be helpful. Same thing, clearly, for pizza. Finding ONE pizza place with no-sugar-sauce might be helpful (although I'm not clear you can eat the dough, actually). For prepared foods the non-sugar and non-grain would be very limiting, thus if you can find JUST A FEW prepared foods that are okay, it may help. (The packaged Indian foods at TJ's seem worth checking?) Your comment about sauces is certainly a case in point..... finding just a FEW that you like and can easily buy would be good, yes?

It occurs to me that it might be as useful to research a specific store -- e.g. Whole Foods or TJs -- read lots of labels for a few hours, and hopefully emerge with a list of a FEW prepared foods and dressings you can eat and buy over and over. (TJ's tends to stop carrying things for reasons I don't know.)

Finally, if you have a bit of spare time to research, there must be yahoo groups (or other kinds) about the diet you are eating (although I'll bet there is LOTS of disagreement on what is allowed?)