Sometimes eating right during the day is harder than you’d think.
You start the day with the best intentions – you eat a delicious breakfast like our delicious breakfast cups, overnight oats, or waffles to kick your morning off. But once you’ve been going about your day and the handful of almonds you snacked on mid-morning are no longer making the cut, it’s hard to avoid the temptation to hit a drive-thru or your favorite greasy spoon during your lunch break. Picking a healthy lunch is not only a great way to energize yourself for the afternoon but can also be easy on your wallet without being a punishment for your taste buds.
Here are five helpful tips for making sure that lunch is a meal you look forward to every day:
Make enough dinner for leftovers
One of the easiest ways to make sure you have something delicious and nutritious in your lunch box is by utilizing your leftovers! When you make your favorite meal for dinner, try to make a bit extra and then portion it out right after you’re done eating so that you can bring some into the office the next day. We think that some of our favorite dishes taste just as great, if not even better, the next day.
Cook large batches of lunch on Sunday
If you’re free over the weekend preparing some quick easy lunches on Sunday is a great way to make sure you’re prepared for the week! This is a great time to try out new recipes that you’ve been meaning to use or large batches of your favorites that you can easily portion out and take with you in the morning.
Get Creative
Does the idea of cooking one large batch of food on the weekend bore you already? We understand that you might not want to eat the same thing every single day for a week. We like to pick a couple of ingredients to work with as staples and then make variations to the way we prepare them. For instance, we might take cauliflower rice and chicken and for one meal, we’ll toss it with some pesto sauce, for another we’ll make Spanish-style rice, and for another we’ll stir fry the chicken and cauliflower rice with some broccoli. Your options can be endless, and you can get as creative as you’d like.
Pair up with a co-worker or friend
Using the buddy system is a great way to stick to your healthy lunch plan. Agreeing to eat lunch with a friend or co-worker and encouraging one another to pack a well-balanced and tasty lunch is a great incentive to resist going out to grab that quarter pound burger from the fast-food restaurant around the corner.
Don’t force yourself to eat things you don’t like
One of the best ways to ensure that you eat the lunch you bring with you during the week is to make sure it’s something you like. Let’s be honest, if you pack yourself a lunch that you’re not crazy about the temptation to leave it sitting in that breakroom fridge and slip out to buy something tastier will be strong. Eating right shouldn’t be a chore – by creating yourself a lunch menu that you’re excited to eat, you’ll never want to skip lunch.
PipingRock Empowering Your Health Journey
