I’m on a fairly strict low-fat low-carb high-protein diet, combined with cardio workouts and resistance training. As a gamer, I pretty frequently go to conventions and the like over weekends, where the only available food is junk and while there I have neither the time nor the opportunity to make food for myself. So what I need is something I can bring with me, keep at room temperature for up to three days, simply take out of my bag and eat when the opportunity arises, that is still high in protein and low in fat and carbs. Simply speaking, I don’t want to “pig out” just because I happen to be at a convention, I want to maintain my diet.
Hard boiled eggs last a day or two without refridgeration, as will cheese and the aforementioned beef jerky. Most veggies will go for a few days, especially if they’re not cut.
If you could expand your requirements to a small ice chest, then you’d have a lot more options.
Beef jerky is kind of dried meat, right? How do I make it, and what kind of protein/fat content can I expect in relation to the contents of the original ingredients?
A jar of peanut butter and some celery and carrot sticks, or an apple. Bring a jackknife so you can slice the apple into wedges and dip it into the peanut butter. Yogurt can stand to be at room temperature for quite a while, as can a wholegrain, bean, and vegetable salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar.
Whenever we go to a con, if the hotel room doesn’t have a refrigerator, we bring a cooler. Every night, drain the melted ice into the bathtub and replesh the cooler with ice from the hotel ice machine. We fill the cooler with lunchmeat, presliced cheese, squeeze bottles of mustard and mayonaisse, fruit, baby carrots, yogurt, V-8 and other assorted beverages, and we also bring a loaf of whole wheat bread, pretzels, granola bars, trail mix, and a box of ziplock sandwich bags. So while everybody else is waiting in the ridiculous lines to pay through the nose for crappy fast food, we just find some comfy, relatively quiet spot and haul out our picnic lunch / dinner / midnight snack.
Whenever I go to a con… I sleep on the floor, not in a hotel room. So no access to refrigerators, ice machines (not that I think I’ve ever encountered an ice machine in a hotel room) or anything of the sort.
Don’t use ice. That’s archaic. Go buy a couple of those gel-packs and a small cooler. They’ll keep the thing cold for several days if you don’t open and close the cooler too often.
Um . . . just so you know . . . in case you ever stay in a hotel . . . the ice machines are usually in the hall.
. . .
Now, in the hotel room, that’s where you’re gong to find the shower. I hope that you have access to some sort of means of bathing over those three days, yes? And you bring some clean clothes? Please say yes? Otherwise, I regret having given any advice that facilitates yet another greasy-haired, smelly, Sunday-afternoon-slot horror for innocent con-goers.
You can also buy beef jerky. Target usually has the best prices. Check the carbs, some are cured with sugar. Jerky is roughly 99% protein, you can’t jerky-ize fat so its generally trimmed extremely lean.
Almonds and macadamia nuts are good low-carb nut choices, if you are there with your LC plan. Very high in nutrition – be careful on serving size though as they are extemely high in calories. Cheese does not require refrideration for the short term (1 week or less?) Buying cheese sticks holds down the mess. You can get part-skim mozzarella sticks that aren’t too high in fat. Do you eat broccoli or cauliflower or celery? High fiber veggies that can be eaten raw – raw veggies should last a couple days at least. Sometimes I marinate cauliflower in vinegar and italian spices with just a touch of olive oil.
Basically you got: cheese sticks, jerky, nutsm & raw veggies plus hardboiled eggs for the first day or two.
Although I don’t generally think they’re a good idea you might bring some low-carb nutrition bars along, if the alternative is eating crap or not eating at all. Genisoy Lowcarb Crunch are the best if you ask me.
Really? Today, I saw jerky for the first time (I’m in Sweden), and according to the package it was something like 35 grams of protein, 25 grams of carbs and 35 grams of fat per 100 grams.
I don’t know what to say to that, other than I can’t imagine how they dare attach the name “jerky” to that product. It sounds like Spam made from beef (ew!).
Beef jerky is lean beef sliced in strips then salted and dried/smoked.
You can omit the brown sugar. Anytime you have beef+dehydration, you have Jerky. The rest is just for flavor. There’s lots of salt in the soy sauce, which helps with preservation, and the low moisture content does the rest.