I have a round trip commute of at least two hours to get to my job, and if traffic is bad, it can be much longer. Before I focused on losing weight, and maintaining that loss, I used to eat in my car both going and coming back from work. What I have learned over the years is that commuting long distances raises issues about burnout, unhappiness, and weight gain, which need to addressed.

One of the first articles that brought this to my attention was in the AAA’s Car & Travel Magazine, March 2011, entitled “Angst, Lethargy, Unhappiness/All in a Day’s Commute, by Tom Vanderbilt.  In that article, it pointed out that many surveys show that people with longer commutes are less happy, and suggests that ones that have a shorter commute tend to happier, and that it helps not to pay so much attention to how long the commute is taking. In that article, they suggest listening to a book, or music on the radio, and not focusing on the traffic reports broadcast over the radio, were good practices to lessen the negative effects of commuting. Although listening to traffic reports was discouraged, watching the traffic information on your car’s navigation system was deemed to be OK, since it gave you alternate routes, real-time traffic, and provided you with an accurate ETA.

I can also tell you, from personal experience, that eating in a car is not good, and it tends to involve fattening items (sandwiches, candy bars, chips, etc.), which tend to be those items that can be eaten with one hand as you drive. In addition, you tend to overeat, since you tend to eat throughout the trip, rather than at one discrete time — another practice that encourages overeating. Also, if you drink soda, they have a lot of calories, and even if it is sugar-free and reduced calorie soda, studies have shown how these items promote further eating.

So what I do is wait to eat breakfast once I arrive at my office (breakfast is a must have meal since it sets the tone for the whole day), and on my return trip, I will eat something before I leave the office. The reason for not eating breakfast at home is that after a long car journey, I tend to get hungry, and I want to limit myself to just one meal, rather than a continuation of smaller meals. On the way home, a good choice before my trip is something with protein like nuts or peanut butter. As for beverages, I do not drink coffee, so I have either unsweetened ice tea, or water. I also keep breath spray in my car, so if my mouth is feeling dry with a bad taste, and I use the breath spray.

Another article on commuting comes from Université de Montréal, entitled, “You’re driving yourself to burnout, literally.” 26 May 2015. In that article, based upon research at the University of Montreal’s School of Industrial Relations, it discusses how commuting length, distance, and means are stress factors, and that a correlation exists between commuting stress factors and the likelihood of suffering from burnout. The research shows that the risk of burnout increases significantly when a commute lasts more than 20 minutes. One way to address this issue, besides moving closer to work, it more telecommuting. Fortunately, my present employer does allow some telecommuting, and that has helped me to address some of the complications from commuting.