Fell off for 8 weeks, back on track and eating canned tuna again

Man, the Monday pile is real. I’m in a 10-week plateau myself. The only thing keeping me from another fall-off is a “minimum day” rule: when overtime eats me alive, I don’t aim for perfect—just protein, a 10-minute walk, and track it.

Canned tuna over microwave rice with soy sauce and frozen edamame is my five-minute version. Are you eating yours cold from the can or doctoring it up? The mayo version tastes better, but I have to measure it or my plateau just laughs at me.

the “pile of Mondays” got me — that’s exactly how my last gap went. Canned tuna is a solid break-room move. I keep pouches in my desk and do tuna + a spoon of cottage cheese + hot sauce on cucumber slices, because plain tuna leaves me weirdly unsatisfied by 3pm.

I track hunger 1–10 before and after lunch, and that combo usually holds me

The canned tuna line got me—I lived on tuna, cottage cheese, and pickled jalapeños on Wasa crackers for a stretch. Sounds gross, tastes great, and it broke my vending machine autopilot.

Do you eat it at your desk or actually step away? I found eating before the 2 p.m.

slump was the difference between a planned snack and a candy bar.

Also, after a break, I stopped trying to “make up” missed weeks and just logged normally for 14 days. Two weeks back is the hard part; the rest is repetition.

Ha, the negotiable work pants are their own kind of scale. Our break room fridge is a Tetris game of yogurt tubs, so I started keeping a tuna pouch and a plastic fork in my glovebox—sounds sad, but it saved me when school pickup ran late.

I was at the pharmacy for a refill and the tech said half our town is restarting too, so you’re in good company. I also mark protein on a paper calendar with a dot; the chain of dots guilt-trips me better than any app.

Did you land on a specific tuna mix you actually look forward to, or just mayo and hope?

night shift here. After a gap, I don't rebuild the whole plan.

Two anchors: protein and a walk before work. Canned tuna with hot sauce and chopped pickles is my lazy one. Eat it cold, standing up. No fancy bowl.

That's what keeps week three from sliding into another long gap. You tracking yet, or just eyeballing? I can eyeball for a bit.

By week three I need numbers or I drift.

The only thing that survived my gap was a 2-minute Sunday prep: portion tuna into 4oz deli cups, fork taped on top, so at work it’s grab-and-log.

My tracking app has a saved meal called “break room default”—tuna, mustard, apple. One tap. When I fell off, I didn’t need motivation; I needed fewer decisions. What’s your one-tap default meal?

Welcome back — the boring reasons are often the hardest ones to plan around. One thing that helped me after a long gap was a small desk-drawer backup: roasted edamame packets, salmon pouches, and single-serve almond butter.

It is not glamorous, but it keeps me from waiting until I am ravenous and making a rushed choice. I also leaned on my weekly average instead of reacting to every daily number, which made the return feel less emotional.

What tends to be your danger zone now — right after overtime, or once you are finally home and the kitchen is open?

ngl the “pile of Mondays” is real. One dumb thing that helped me: I bought a 12-pack of shelf-stable salmon pouches and wrote the date on each with Sharpie. Eating one = crossing off a day. It’s not a wellness app, it’s a hostage calendar.

For dorm protein, my current cheap crime is a can of chickpeas, hot sauce, and whatever shredded cheese the dining hall forgot to lock up. Not glamorous, but it keeps me out of the vending machine. How are you handling break room fridge politics — do you label your yogurt or just accept it may become communal?

What helped me after a gap was picking one absurdly small anchor instead of rebuilding the whole routine. I keep a bag of frozen edamame in the work freezer and a plastic bowl in my locker; when overtime hits, I nuke a cup with chili crisp before clocking out. It’s not a meal plan, just a handrail.

I also switched from streak-counting to “days logged this month” so a missed day didn’t snowball. Two weeks back is

Two weeks back is the tricky part for me too. There was a thread here ages ago about the “restart tax”—the gap isn’t the issue, it’s trying to come back at 100 mph.

Last time I only tracked protein and water for two weeks, nothing else, and kept a desk drawer of tuna packets, microwave rice, and hot sauce. Sounds grim, but it removed the what-do-I-eat decision. Did you change anything about your restart this time, or just picked up the old routine?

The “negotiable” pants are the cleanest signal. I log waist at navel weekly plus a 7-day rolling weight; after a lapse the scale is mostly fluid for a bit, so the tape doesn’t lie.

Break-room fridge: I stopped treating it as storage. Small insulated lunch bag, two freezer packs, shelf-stable protein, disposable fork.

Turns lunch into a 30-second decision instead of fridge Tetris. No moralizing, just removing friction.

Man, the “pile of Mondays” gets me. One thing that helped my own plateau-rut: I stopped judging the scale daily and tracked a weekly average instead.

Same time every morning, then only compare Sunday to Sunday. Also built a work drawer with tuna pouches, Wasa crackers, and shelf-stable edamame packs so the break room fridge isn’t my only option.

Sharp question: when you got back, did you add any movement outside the food stuff, like a 10-minute walk after your shift? That’s the only lever that moved my number after a slump.

Man, the “pile of Mondays” is exactly what got me. When I came back after a similar gap, tuna was the only lunch I could face, but I had to rotate flavors or I’d rather skip eating.

Current three: tuna + giardiniera, tuna + yellow mustard + everything bagel seasoning, tuna + salsa + a spoon of cottage cheese. No cooking, all from the break room fridge.

What mix-in are you on right now? I need a fourth before I burn out again.

the “negotiable” pants line got me. I’m three weeks back after a five-month slide, and the only thing working is making lunch a non-decision: pre-cooked chicken, microwave rice cups, jarred salsa, and frozen edamame I nuke at work.

I stack it in the work fridge on Monday so I don’t even see the vending machine as an option. Tracking-wise I’m only logging whether I packed lunch and roughly how much protein I got—full calorie counting felt like too much re-entry pressure.

Do you keep a backup stash at work, or does having food there make it easier to graze? That’s the part I’m still figuring out.

I feel the “negotiable pants.” With two kids, my fix was a literal snack-drawer audit: top shelf is grab-and-go protein (tuna pouches, turkey sticks, string cheese), bottom shelf is the kids’ fruit snacks so I stop pretending they’re mine. The tuna thing is smart because it doesn’t need the break-room fridge.

I also do a “two-anchor” rule: one solid protein before 10 a.m., one before the after-school chaos. Tracking that instead of every bite kept me from quitting when dinner turned into quesadilla scraps.

Do you eat the tuna straight from the pouch, or mix it with whatever’s in the fridge? I’m looking for a break-room version that doesn’t smell up the whole office.

New here and only on week one, so I’m taking notes. Sorry if this is a silly question — do you eat the canned tuna at work or save it for home?

I bought pouches because I’m weirdly nervous about being the fish-smell person in the break room, but they’re pricier. Curious how you make it feel like an actual meal and not sad desk tuna.