This blog something is about a process with brings me a lot of joy: eating. Join me in my search for a healthy eating plan (which will kill will fast-food habits; Ok, you got, you do have to accept it before anything).

What’s in the message?
Short intro
A. What’s the magic 8-elements list I’ve made?
B. Pre-cooked food - how to get it?
C. Nuts & seeds - why this is top food and why it doesn’t take much time to eat?
Conclusions

Short intro
First let’s define the terms: fast means buying fast, carrying them easily, storing easily (at most in the fridge), no cooking, no warming the food, easy to get in the table (almost no cleaning or washing) and most of all, eating it fast. So, we exclude foods like local berries (you buy them slowly, you have to wash them carefully), anything that has to be warmed first or stored in the freezer. We also exclude foods like a lot of fresh vegetables (how can you carry them fresh? and making a salad is a time-wasting solution).

Oh, and a warning: I’ve got no medical training whatsoever. My suggested list of foods is not scientific, nor very precise. But it’s the best I can do, and you should check with your doctor if the things that I eat are good for you. You should probably check the things you currently eat if you’re there, but that’s a different point.

Why am I doing this list? Because most of the times when you think there is absolutely no solution for eating fast (and bad) from a fast-food, you ignore other solutions that are also low-consumers of time (but in the same time healthy). And I’m here to crush the way you try to fool yourself.

A. What’s the magic 8-elements list I’ve made?
1. Meat: Oceanic fish in olive oil; that’s right, I’m talking about eating food in cans; Ok, this is probably not the best option you’ve got for eating fish - boiled fish is best, fried is better; but fish in a can is actually a not-that-bad solution; due to a thing called “smell”, fish is hard to prepare; it’s thus a good option to get it in a can rather than no fish at all;
2. Milk: Low-fat milk (in Romania we have this mostly in plastic bags; it’s easier to carry in the card packaging; and it’s easier to drink - directly from it) - it doesn’t need going into refrigerator; buy it, drink it; have it on your desk, drink out of it a few times a day;
3. Milk: Low-fat yoghurt - in spite of its name, this generally has a higher amount of fat; but considering the fast-food alternatives I’ve given, this is a not-so-bad food;
4. Fruit & Vegetables: Pickles (cute cumber, fibster, red beet, the list can continue) preserved in jars; this is not so pleasant to eat, but if you manage to do this, you’re fine; they also have quite an amount of salt in them;
5. Fruit & Vegetables: A lot of fruits that can be eaten fast - bananas; peaches, apricots, apples, pears, plums; that’s about all I eat fast; others take more time to peel (try a coconut), to eat (melons) or to wash (berries);
6. Fruit & Vegetables: Some vegetables that can be eaten fast - cute cumbers, tomatoes, pimentos; That’s about all I know in Romania;
7. Various: Pre-cooked food (I’ll have a special chapter to this);
8. Nuts & seeds: Slow-eating food (but it’s the kind of food you can eat and do a different task in the same time; so you can do multitasking; special chapter for this one too);

There you go. I’ve just gave you more than 8 different solutions (besides 2 and 3, there is more than one solution listed). Now for the special chapters.

B. Pre-cooked food - how to get it?
The bad thing about this pre-cooked food? You either have to warm it right before eating (and this takes time), or eat it out of the fridge (”No fridge” you suggest? Bacteria will fill your food in no time). In either solution given by me, the food doesn’t taste that good. But it’s healthier, or so I think.

1. Buy: You can buy much healthier food from a supermarket or restaurant-to-go on your way to work; This solution, although not cheap, is better than going to the nearest fast food; sure, it’s great to have your food warm, just made for you; but you can buy food from the supermarket, keep it at work in the fridge, and eat it cold at lunch; it’s not an optimal solution, but it’s the solution with the smallest damage to your health;
2. Save: Let’s say you go out in one evening, and for some reason you don’t eat everything, or you have to go fast, no time to eat; have your dinner packed and eat it the next day;
3. Cook it yourself: this would extend the 1-8 list above a lot; There are some very simple solutions like boiling some eggs, going to not-that-complicated solutions like making food from boiling freeze vegetables;
4. Have someone cook it for you: this is actually both much cheaper than buying it from supermarket and it’s also healthier; you have total control on what gets inside; maximum health.

C. Nuts & seeds - why this is top food and why it doesn’t take much time to eat?
There are various seeds - from sunflower and pumpkin seeds (no hull), to nuts and almonds. They are generally not cheap at all, but neither is fast-food. Their biggest problem? It takes a lot of time to eat them. I mean you can go nuts eating those … almonds. But you can put them in a small can, do your computer or paper work, and eat it from that can. You can use a teaspoon for avoiding germs from and to keyboard. Basically, all the time you consume is the time to put the seeds in the can and the time to put that in your mouth. While eating them (the slowest process) you can do a different task. I know, this is not the best thing to do in a perfect world. In a perfect world, you’d eat them in the morning (so they have time to be digested - nuts and seeds are hard to digest, you should note), you’d chew your food slowly, you’d eat in a different place than the desk you work at, you wouldn’t do multitasking while eating etc. These are all god advice, but if you can’t cut on time, I think my solution (eating seeds and nuts in front of the PC or paperwork) is not that bad.

Oh, and carrots can be eaten just like seeds - you can do a different thing while eating them. They are so hard to chew.

Conclusions
To summarize my message to the world: there are a few good alternatives to fast-food. If you can accept warming food before eating it or eating cold food from the fridge, the list becomes larger. If you can also eat seeds and nuts while working (your work is at a desk, for example) the list can be even larger. But in the end, all I gave you are paths to take. I’m not the one who decides to walk on them or not. And no one’s going to be there for you, eating nuts and seeds at work, while fast-food is everywhere. You’re all alone.

PS: If it makes you feel any better, I do most of the things above all the time. Not doing it would mean a reason to quit jobs.