Well, it’s back-to-school already!! If you have kidlets, I’m sure you’ve gone shopping for rulers, pens, notebooks, fancy calculator, kleenex (do they still make kids bring a box of kleenex!? hah), and probably plenty of new duds. So, Roger Roger, you’ve got the supplies part covered. Now, how much thought have you put into their daily lunches? Much emphasis is put on supplies and clothes to prepare them for a great school year, but how about focusing on what goes in their bellies and minds!?
If lunches (for yourself or kids) aren’t something you’ve put much thought into yet, you might want to. Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day because our digestive power is strongest at that time. Same for kids! They need nourishment for their wee brains and bods and most of all, they deserve to TRUST that what’s being put in front of them is good for them. Did anyone watch Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution earlier this year? LOVED it. It won an Emmy! I digress…
Okay now. What about YOU!? What do you have for lunch? Just like school supplies coming first and lunches second, often our lunches come in last place on our list of priorities too. Show of hands, who gets in a mad scramble at lunch time to grab something to scarf down before their next meeting? 1, 2, 3, 4…wow, LOTS of you! ;) Who is so rushed in the morning that they don’t have time to pack a good lunch? Who has empty cupboards and complains that there is “nothing in the house?” Who’s sick of spending…$7-$10 per day on lunch that is not as healthy as you would like OR is not as tasty as something you could have made yourself?
Ah! This is where it gets fun. Friends!! You have FULL control over what you eat for lunch!! Yes you do! It just takes a little planning. By bringing lunch, you would have more time to eat (because you’re not running around trying to find food), you would feel good about eating healthier and saving money, AND you will have time to enjoy relaxing before you jet to your next meeting. You can pack your lunch at night so that you just have to grab it. Really! It’s not that hard, you just have to put your mind to it!!
This lunch thang is a big challenge for almost all of my clients. It’s very hard for responsible, smart, hard-working people to make lunch a priority, but you work hard and DESERVE a break and a lunch! It will ease stress, enhance your efficiency, settle your mind, help with weight loss and save you dough. Plus, you will be eating fresher foods that have not been processed which will do wonders for the body-mind. We always see ads for products to make you “skinnier, prettier, healthier, and richer…” Well bits and pieces of that come with bringing your lunch. Try it for a week, my guess is that you’ll feel SO GOOD that you made the decision to pack something healthy for yourself that you will want to make that decision over and over. It will be one of the most healthy things you can do for yourself, I promise.
Some ideas for you:
- Leave a small bag of food in your fridge at work (depending on your work place and your fridge…). I used to take ingredients for wraps (tortillas, cheese, lettuce, mustard, turkey) and make them for lunch all week. You can do English muffin pizzas (muffins, sauce, cheese, peppers, mushrooms, olives) if you have a toaster oven!
- Make a large batch of soup or cooked veggies that you can have with a bread roll or serve over rice. Put in individual containers in your fridge so you can grab them
- Bring leftovers from the awesome homemade dinner you made the night before! Make sure to pack it in your tupperware at night so you can just grab and go
- What ideas do you have??? Please share because myself and the readers want to know what’s in your head! :D