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Guest post by Madeline at Food, Fitness and Family
Life is crazy busy and eating healthy isn’t always as easy as it sounds. My husband recently decided that he really wanted to change his eating habits and incorporate more whole, clean foods into his diet. However, he was having a difficult time figuring out how to do so given his work schedule. He is in the Army and frequently has physical training before 6AM and doesn’t like to eat breakfast. On top of that, he tries to come home for lunch but often finds himself working through it instead. I know his situation isn’t unique and that many of us face similar circumstances when it comes to eating healthy during our workday.
Here are some ways to prep for a successful work week of healthy meals:
1. Plan ahead. Make your lunch the night before. If you wait until the morning I guarantee the snooze button will take priority over packing lunch many days. If you take the 10 minutes the night before you can sleep a couple extra moments in the morning knowing you have a nutritious lunch ready to grab and go!
2. Find cool food containers. We love the Martha Stewart food storage containers. Chris likes cereal for breakfast but couldn’t figure out how to do that since he doesn’t come home after physical training. Enter the “breakfast to go” container. One container…two sections. He can put milk in the bottom and his cereal pre-portioned on the top. All he has to do is mix when he’s ready to eat. This container is also great for granola and yogurt! There are other types of containers in this collection including one for salads and sandwiches.
3. Pack enough food. When I was working full time I realized I didn’t always pack enough food, which would lead to trips to the vending machine. Pack enough healthy snacks for the entire day plus an extra one. You never know when you are going to get stuck in traffic or have to work late. Having one extra snack could save you both money and calories.
4. Indulge occasionally. Don’t cut out eating out completely. Rather, limit it! Chris and I have a set “eating out” budget each of us adheres to every month. That way we can only eat out for lunch so often but we still get to enjoy it when we really want to and on special occasions.
I can say that by following these tips Chris has successfully adopted a healthier eating style while working. He eats breakfast every day now, spends less money eating out at lunch and generally has more energy because he has increased the quality of the foods he is eating.
Hopefully these tips can help you too! If you are a desk diner be sure to check out these tips to for desk sanitation, portion control with everyday desk objects and working lunch manner school.
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Share your tips to healthy eating at work. We can all use some insider tips!
I try to always pack my lunch the night before, and have things that I can either just refrigerate or microwave. My favorites are edamame, yogurt, or mixing rice and veggies.
Those are great snacks!
Great tips Madeline!
I have a bit of a different problem with eating at work; I tend to only have 5 minutes between personal training clients, so I have to be mindful of packing bite-size (ha, ha, Talia!) meals and snacks. And items that won’t leave me picking things out of my teeth or smelling offensive!
One of my favourites is pancakes. I make healthy, bite-size pancakes for my daughter’s breakfast (extra flax seed, quinoa flakes, wheat bran and germ, eggs and protein powder) and pack the extras for my work day snacks. Sometimes I’ll sandwich two together with nut butter in between.
Pre-cut veggies and chunks of cooked chicken work well too.
oooo bite size pancakes!! Yum 🙂
Great tips Madeline. I love carrots and hummus in my packed lunch. These are great tips for kids lunches too. My son likes his lunches in a bento box. He will eat healthy as long as he has something cool to eat out of!
I’ll have to remember that when Emmalyne gets bigger!
You’re right! A little planning ahead pays off. It can be easy to not eat or grab something quick and unhealthy, but just as easy to eat right with a tad of preparation. Thx for the tips – I LOVE the Martha Stewart containers!
They are seriously a life saver! I highly recommend getting them 🙂
Cute containers are a MUST! I always get compliments on my Happy Tiffin (metal lunchbox – so easy to clean) – it’s eco-dorable!
I’ll have to check that one out!
This tips are great, eating at work has always been problematic, the reason is that most people don’t know what kind of food choose, and these 4 ways to healthy lunch success are amazing, I really liked the second step, when you see something that looks delicious, there is a huge percent that it might be, not always, but enjoying something most of the time is related to how it looks.
Great topic.This tips are great, eating at work has always been problematic, the reason is that most people don’t know what kind of food choose, and these 4 ways to healthy lunch success are amazing, I really liked the second step, when you see something that looks delicious, there is a huge percent that it might be, not always, but enjoying something most of the time is related to how it looks.