Why is it inevitable that you cannot pack enough food for 16 hours? Do you not have a bag of adequate size? Are you not calibrating effectively or willing to overshoot?
Partly. I could get around it more if I packed 2 or 3 servings of the same dish, since there are usually only 2 or 3 containers of gluten-free food in my parents’ fridge. (I could get around this by cooking more, which is another willpower-intensive activity.) I do overshoot sometimes and it pisses my mom off, especially if I end up having to throw food out because it had meat in it and I was in class all day and didn’t have access to a fridge. And for some reason, my actual food intake within those 16 hours varies from day to day. Some days I won’t be especially hungry until I get home at the end of the day, but some days I will sit in class absolutely starving, having eaten all my food within the morning.
Maybe you should overshoot with more things that won’t perish for lack of refrigeration—bring apples and bananas and oranges and avocados, bring rice bread or some other gluten-free baked goods, bring popcorn and chips and jerky, etc. Also bring your mom’s cooking to eat earlier in the day, but pack it with one of those freezeable cold things (they won’t last 16 hours, but they might last half that) - or freeze the servings of food themselves, and they may well take many hours to thaw depending on the weather, especially if there are several of them together in the bag. Bring sealed bottles of juice and tea. If you don’t consume these things, put the half-defrosted food in the fridge (refreezing is unwise, but you can let it thaw and someone can eat it at home) and leave the nonperishables in your bag for the next day.
Thanks! That sounds like a good suggestion. Fruit is my go-to now, but compared to wheat products it isn’t as calorie-dense, so to get the same amount of food value takes up a lot of space. In the past I’ve brought almonds and homemade gluten-free granola bars. I do bring a thermos of tea almost every day, but in general 1 thermos = 1 three-hour class. If I have 3 classes in a day, I will drink all of my tea during the first one. (Temporary solutions: many of the cafeteria ladies will let me use hot water for free if I bring my own teabag from home. I probably can’t sustain this if I never actually buy anything at the cafeteria, but if I restrain my purchases to gluten-free things like coffee or soup, I can stay on my diet and have unlimited hot water.)
Seems like wasting a bit of food (and your mom does not have to know that you have if she cannot be persuaded to not care) is a small price to pay for avoiding hunger spells. You can also use an emergency ration that does not spoil, such as canned food, for the days you do not have enough.
Certainly this seems like a much easier problem to solve than lack of sleep.
I’ve personally found that finding non-perishable foods helps me immensely here—I don’t know about gluten-free specifically, but cliff bars, trail mix, dried fruit, and nuts all work well for me. I like them because I can just toss them in to my bag and forget about them, or store them where I’ll be if I have a locker/desk. As long as I remember to grab more when I run low, it means I’m never out of food, and my days go much smoother.
Why is it inevitable that you cannot pack enough food for 16 hours? Do you not have a bag of adequate size? Are you not calibrating effectively or willing to overshoot?
Partly. I could get around it more if I packed 2 or 3 servings of the same dish, since there are usually only 2 or 3 containers of gluten-free food in my parents’ fridge. (I could get around this by cooking more, which is another willpower-intensive activity.) I do overshoot sometimes and it pisses my mom off, especially if I end up having to throw food out because it had meat in it and I was in class all day and didn’t have access to a fridge. And for some reason, my actual food intake within those 16 hours varies from day to day. Some days I won’t be especially hungry until I get home at the end of the day, but some days I will sit in class absolutely starving, having eaten all my food within the morning.
Maybe you should overshoot with more things that won’t perish for lack of refrigeration—bring apples and bananas and oranges and avocados, bring rice bread or some other gluten-free baked goods, bring popcorn and chips and jerky, etc. Also bring your mom’s cooking to eat earlier in the day, but pack it with one of those freezeable cold things (they won’t last 16 hours, but they might last half that) - or freeze the servings of food themselves, and they may well take many hours to thaw depending on the weather, especially if there are several of them together in the bag. Bring sealed bottles of juice and tea. If you don’t consume these things, put the half-defrosted food in the fridge (refreezing is unwise, but you can let it thaw and someone can eat it at home) and leave the nonperishables in your bag for the next day.
Thanks! That sounds like a good suggestion. Fruit is my go-to now, but compared to wheat products it isn’t as calorie-dense, so to get the same amount of food value takes up a lot of space. In the past I’ve brought almonds and homemade gluten-free granola bars. I do bring a thermos of tea almost every day, but in general 1 thermos = 1 three-hour class. If I have 3 classes in a day, I will drink all of my tea during the first one. (Temporary solutions: many of the cafeteria ladies will let me use hot water for free if I bring my own teabag from home. I probably can’t sustain this if I never actually buy anything at the cafeteria, but if I restrain my purchases to gluten-free things like coffee or soup, I can stay on my diet and have unlimited hot water.)
Seems like wasting a bit of food (and your mom does not have to know that you have if she cannot be persuaded to not care) is a small price to pay for avoiding hunger spells. You can also use an emergency ration that does not spoil, such as canned food, for the days you do not have enough.
Certainly this seems like a much easier problem to solve than lack of sleep.
I’ve personally found that finding non-perishable foods helps me immensely here—I don’t know about gluten-free specifically, but cliff bars, trail mix, dried fruit, and nuts all work well for me. I like them because I can just toss them in to my bag and forget about them, or store them where I’ll be if I have a locker/desk. As long as I remember to grab more when I run low, it means I’m never out of food, and my days go much smoother.