What to eat after evening spin class

[equus123]

I have a long commute to and from work (like min of 2 1/2 hours driving per day). At the moment I'm going to the gym 2x week for upper body lifting and spinning on their bikes so I don't compromise my frame on the trainer. 1-2 other days a week I'm driving to a teammate's house to ride and/or our bike shop for a team spin class....another 35-40 min one way from home....or 2 hours drive straight from work.

All that being said, I basically live out of my car. Bike lives in the back seat as well as trainer in the trunk many days out of the week. The number one thing that enables me to do that is bars. I always keep 2 boxes of bars (cereal, nutrigrain, etc) in my car and usually a gel in my bag. This way on days that I'm going to the gym or riding somewhere other than my apartment, I have food with me at all times if I need to eat before, during, or after my workout. Most of the time I don't get home until 8:30pm at the earliest and eat dinner around 9. Since I'm eating dinner so late, I'll have a bar on the way to wherever and then eat another one on the way back. Each one has about 140 calories. If I'm working out somewhere other than home, I'll have 2 bottles with Cytomax (90 cal per bottle) or buy 2 bottles of gatorade.

My point is that consuming several smaller instances of calories and carbs (mainly) so when I do get home and get the chance to eat dinner - 1) I don't have to eat a ton of food to make up for the caloric deficit, 2) I have a small stomach so I don't have to physically eat a lot of food at that time, 3) I can still get to bed by 10:30pm with no problems feeling too full or uncomfortable.

I understand your situation is different but I wanted to offer my life as an example of a workaround from eating a big dinner right before working out or right before going to bed.