Difficult work conditions

[CathyGo]

I'm a fare inspector on the Phoenix light rail. This means that for my entire 11 hour shift I'm on the move except for 1 or 2 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. I have no place to store a cooler and can only bring what fits in 1 1/2 BDU pant cargo pockets. 1/2 of a pocket is reserved for my water bottle. Thursday and Sunday we typically eat lunch at Jack in the Box or Subway. Fridays and Saturdays it's normally a gourmet hot dog place or Jimmy Johns. My first break is generally within 4 hours of starting shift so I guess I could bring some stuff that needs to be kept cool for a snack but I REALLY can't afford to get food poisoning and I need a decent sized meal later.

What whole 30 compliant foods could I bring given that it's over 100 degrees out? I've seen some small tins of chicken that would work but that would get pretty boring pretty quickly. Some of you guys are pretty creative so I hope you can give me some good suggestions of things to take with me or purchase at fast food places.

[decker_bear]

I've been keeping an eye on this because I wanted to see others' suggestions - I'm amazed there have been zero replies! 

So the barriers seem to be space and temperature, yes? 

Would your colleagues be open to trying other places for lunch? It's only 30 days. Perhaps you could research menus of places nearby and find somewhere that would satisfy your colleagues but also give you compliant options? I found this article that might help? http://www.lifehealthhq.com/whole30-restaraunts/ Of course beware of those that say "omit protein" as you obviously need that as part of the template! This is a decent article, too, though I don't recognize most of the restaurants listed. http://www.mypaleos.com/paleo-fast-food-options-in-a-pinch/

I am prepared for the backlash from this suggestion, but since no one else is offering ANYTHING, this would be my two cents: 

If I'm reading this right, you work 4 days and have 3 off. So 3 days of the week no issues - you can cook and eat fully compliant meals at home. Your shift is 11 hours, so feasibly you could eat a meal before and after your shift, and conceivably convince your peeps to eat somewhere for lunch that you can have something compliant (which essentially would take some research on your part but is doable based on what I was reading in that article above). So the remaining issue is the amount of time between meals and needing a snack since it's such a long day. Am I on target? Given that your choices seem to be reduced to "emergency food" or "no food/non-compliant food," as long as you are getting healthful stuff at all other times, would it really be so horrible to have some Epic Bars, RxBars, Chomps etc for when you're really hungry during those long days between meals? They're portable, non-perishable and should fit in your cargo pockets. I know it's not the ideal scenario, but you have definitely proposed a barrier that no one seems to have an answer for! 

Also, is wearing a small backpack out of the question? Working in fare enforcement I imagine it's a pretty strict dress code, just wondering if that was at all possible, as that could potentially open some other options for you. 

[Karen_Suep]

See if you can convince co workers to go to a burger place. I know it's really easy to eat compliantly at red robin (lettuce wrap and steame broccoli, add avocado and ask for no seasoning on the party) and five guys (essentially the same thing, although five guys won't offer as much fat or broccoli...) and I'm sure other burger places would work well to (just call ahead on a day and time you know the place isn't busy)

as far as the rest of days go, I got nothin  

[decker_bear]

6 minutes ago, Karen_Suep said:

See if you can convince co workers to go to a burger place. I know it's really easy to eat compliantly at red robin (lettuce wrap and steame broccoli, add avocado and ask for no seasoning on the party) and five guys (essentially the same thing, although five guys won't offer as much fat or broccoli...) and I'm sure other burger places would work well to (just call ahead on a day and time you know the place isn't busy)

as far as the rest of days go, I got nothin  

Good call. One of those articles I quoted also suggested Carl's Junior - and they now offer a grass-fed burger, which could easily be done on lettuce, and they have avocado. In n Out was another suggestion (but obviously missing the healthy fat there since it's a bare bones menu). The 30 minute lunch piece is especially tricky! 

[Sarasaurus]

You could get tins or pouches of tuna or salmon, in addition to chicken. I've also gotten compliant grass-fed beef sticks (like Slim Jims, but not gross), although I can't say for sure that those are more acceptable than something like an Epic bar, since I haven't really seen them discussed on here. A baggie of carrot sticks/celery sticks/other raw veggies would probably last at least until your first break. I know there are single serving containers of olives available now too. Depending on what's nearby and how flexible your co-workers are, lots of convenience stores now have packs of 2 hard boiled eggs in the refrigerated/deli case that you could grab quickly on lunch break. You could occasionally do an apple and single-serving almond butter packet or handful of nuts. Also check the ingredients of the hot dogs at the gourmet hot dog place, I've found a couple compliant brands!