My husband is constantly suffering from hunger "pains" when he comes home from work. I try to give him a good lunch that sticks to the Introduction phase of Atkins. His work does not take "official" lunch breaks (sometimes the military can be so frustrating :x ), so he has to snack here and there, and sometimes he can't even eat the main part of the lunch I made for him.

Before Atkins, I'd just give him a couple'a cold slices of pizza, some sweet BBQ chicken [from Wal-mart], cookies/candies, and a bottle of water. Pretty much everything he can eat in 5 minutes or less. No microwave required.

But on Atkins, because he does NOT like cold-cut meats, everything I can think of to make him has to be reheated. Which means he needs a microwave. And he can't always get to one (especially when he's stuck doing "escort duty", aka, sitting in a truck all day watching people).

He also hates most green veggies. And even when he will eat them (like when I make him a salad he can tolerate) he still comes home starving. Greens are not enough to sustain this man!

Help.. anyone.. what can I make my husband that will fill him up and won't take a microwave or 10 minutes to eat?

Hey Draw2much,
There are some pretty decent foods you can get that are easy to eat. You can probably even find most of them at the commensary(sp?)
Try pepperoni slices and cheese cubes, Atkins shakes, celery with cream cheese, beef jerky, unbreaded chicken strips, deviled eggs( i actually dont know how long these can go without refridgeration- try it out and see- if he gets food poisoning its a no-go. Hope this helps!

I already give him a strawberry Atkin's shakes (I personally love those.. I'd drink them all day if I didn't know better :P), and he seems to drink it.

I was under the impression though, that you need to stay away from "nitrates". Almost every type of meat that's along the lines of pepperoni has sodium nitrate (I think that's what it called). Bacon has that too. Which is why I don't each much--if any--of it. (Which is a bummer, because I do love bacon...)

Part of the problem is my husband is a big baby when it comes to food. He so insanely picky. If I give him something he only "kinda" likes, then he'll pick at it and end up ignoring it. (Then he's hungry again after an hour...) Now I know how his Mom felt. :P

I'll try the celery thing... I dunno if he'll go for it. He won't touch jerky (hates the stuff), and he doesn't really like devilled eggs (I do though, yum yum!). He will definately go for the chicken though.

The nitrates is a personal choice around getting too many of them and possible links to cancer. They do not effect the diet. For me I don't worry about it as I eat a few slices every few days. It's up to you what you want to do with them.

The celery and cream cheese is good for Induction. After those first two weeks celery and the low carb peanut butter is good too and may be something he likes. I pack the little individual servings of cheese. Those are good. What about chicken or tuna salad with some celery for crispiness or pork rinds to dip in. These are good. To keep him from getting so hungry the higher fat snacks will help until he can get home for dinner.

what does your husband suggest? It seems like he has demands, but no solutions. Either he is on this plan, or he's not. I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but you so clearly care about him and are trying to make this as easy as possible for him -- it just can't ALL be up to you.

Maryanne offered some great ideas. Blueskyes makes a great point about the fats -- he obviously needs more so he stays sated until dinner time.

I agree with Blueskyes- the nitrates are a personal choice -- I went through bags of pepperoni slices -- at 3 pm, when everyone in my office was heading for the soda/snack machines - I pulled out pepperoni sticks, cheese cubes and celery -- kept me happy!

Another thing to consider is to get him to the next step of induction -- if he's been through the first two weeks, then graduate to other foods to help stave off the hungries --- nuts, peanut butter, strawberries all come to mind as great snacks.

If you husband is very active - he might actually need more than you do in terms of food and food choices.

Good luck!

He doesn't like cold cuts... Does that mean He don't like any meat cold? What about cooking extra meat the night before whether it be chicken sausages or steak or anything really. I like the Tuna or Salmon Salad Idea as well. If a man is hungry, he will eat meat cold if not nearly rotten . how serious is he about making this work? Does he have a thermos, you could make a really meaty soup in a simple beef broth. That's sure to stay warm. Have you considered salmon patties?

Hope it works out for you.

Thanks, and it's not too harsh. He's always been a picky eater, and he's not use to forcing himself to actually eat good things [for him] that he doesn't like. I think with more time I'll be able to figure out what he likes, and so will he (when you've been picky all of your life, you don't really know what's out there).

I am absolutely sure that part of his problem is he isn't eating enough heavy foods (with fat as mentioned). I'm going to make some real effort in the next few days to find "heavy" foods for him. If I have to, I'll just keep dragging him back to the grocery story until he gives up and just eats whatever I give him... LOL

I'm glad to know about nitrates. I guess if I lived in a big city that had all sorts of specialty stores it wouldn't be so bad. I'm glad I can eat bacon again..!

Jonathan, it's cold-cut meats, sandwich meat. I don't understand why he doesn't like it, he just doesn't. But he will eat heated food that's been refrigerated.

Thanks for all the helpful comments and suggestions!

A couple of ideas - cheese, chicken (baked), hard boiled eggs, tuna, chicken salad, roast beef (you can pick it up in the deli). Will he eat raw vegies - like broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber? They could take the place of the salad he won't eat.