The best of a bad situation

There are sometimes occasions where your options for food can be limited like if you're not the one driving the car and can not strangle the driver into driving you somewhere sensible or walk to a better place, or for social reasons would like to occasionally accompany your friends and hide your neurosis or have to make due with 7-11 or fast food because of poor meal planning or lack of snack packing. In those cases what are the least damaging ways to make the best of a bad situation? Obviously it won't be optimal but sometimes optimal isn't practical all the time.

Some things I've done at 7-11's in a pinch... any suggestions?

-Canned tuna or sardines, few have peel tops and most have added soy protein though

-chicharones/pork rhinds, if these don't have added salt and are fried in lard instead of soybean oil these really aren't the worst things you could eat

-protein shakes/bars, nearly all of them that would be sold there have some form of HFCS or soy though

Thankfully I almost never have to deal with this situation but as far as fast food what I usually do is

-starve and call it intermittent fasting

-find something that is grilled or bbq and not breaded or deep fried, or get some form of seafood and lie to myself about its omega-3 ratio being not that terrible because it came out of the ocean

-grilled chicken salad without the dressing or similar

In Canada, we have places called Tim Hortons, and they are everywhere. Well everywhere in Montreal at least. It's are a mix between Dumkin Donuts and Starbucks. Now nothing they have is paleo but they are very cheap.

What I do is ask for the Chicken Salad Sandwich and then tell them without the sandwich. They usually get very confused and don't know what to do, but since they are a bunch of clients waiting behind me, they end up taking a soup cup and fill 3/4 of it with chicken salad. This usually ends up being much more than what would be in the salad and ends up costing me less than $4.

Hmm if it's really damn bad I try to go for one of the following:

canned tuna

milk

any fast food meat, without fries and without bread.

Lately I've changed my mind though, and I now believe fasting might be even better.

RandomHavoc said:

In Canada, we have places called Tim Hortons, and they are everywhere. Well everywhere in Montreal at least. It's are a mix between Dumkin Donuts and Starbucks. Now nothing they have is paleo but they are very cheap.

Yeah, they're everywhere. Heck, in Halifax I swear you can throw a timbit out of one and hit another one. Also, WAY better than Starbucks.

Depending on how often this happens, you could just say WHATEVER and eat something crazy. Of course if this is happening like twice a week you're best off either fasting or bringing protein powder and fruits or getting fresh breaded stuff. Honestly deep fried whatever isn't going to be all that bad on an occasional basis!

If this is happening like twice a month I would just eat whatever so long as it doesn't make you feel sick. It never hurts me much, I can say that.

I do like the fasting, my body is much better about nutrient partitioning. I almost never eat before noon or after 9 and I feel much better. For me, the challenge is eating enough. Hence my weighing in at just 210 now.

I have always found, like a few of you, that just not eating is often the best bet. I am trying to get more accustomed to being hungry, since I feel I may have had some odd fear of starvation before (something I would guess many people have). These situations provide the perfect time to pass on a meal and realize that even though I may be hungry, it is not a sign that I am going to die if I don't eat within the hour.

I frame it like this in my head; if I were a hungry animal I could try hunting/foraging for food, but I may not find it. This doesn't mean I could go, "Oh well, guess I'll have to settle for cookies!" No, it would mean I would continue to be hungry; which is something thousands of PEOPLE, not just animals, live with every day. Not to get philosophical or overly serious, but I try to in some small way use those situations to realize that I am lucky, and that exercising the ABILITY to turn down food makes me a stronger person. (I know that ended up being overly serious)

I think that's a great way to look at the situation! I like knowing from constant experience that I will be ok if food becomes scarce. I actually feel more comfortable and less stressed with the intermittent fasting.

Yeah once in a while I go with the 'what the heck' but it's usually a tradeoff with diarrhea. Like this last weekend when I visited my grandparents and my grandmom asks me if I want a piece of cake. I answer "no thanks, tea is fine" and then just to make sure I didn't offend her said "but it does look very nice". She took the last part of the sentence as me changing my mind and just started finding the cake for me..obviously I couldn't say no by then..Took 3 days to recover :shock:

3days!

Some 7-11's have hard boiled eggs. Or just hard boil 1/2 a dozen in the morning or night like I do.

Cheese or milk. Hell I love milk but yes it should be grassfed raw but oh well. Same with cheese.

can of chili. most cheap chili uses soy as TVG but Stagg's doesn't.

most 7-11s will have sandwiches, just throw out the bread and eat the meat, cheese, and lettuce.

Yeah, at least here in Denmark we don't have that big of a problem with food having to be grassfed because most is anyways. Boy would I not drink milk from cows that have had bovine growth hormone :S

Oh well, at least that let you guys to have big whole foods stores..wish we had something like that here.

One of my all time favorite ido quotes~ Every rejected poor food choice is a conscious decision to make yourself more of a badass. Reminding myself that gets me away from all kinds of crap.

A lot of gas stations usually have apples/bananas/oranges, beef jerkey, and some sort of nuts

oh yeah trail mix is another godsend!