Making lunch quick and easy!

Maybe you pick up a sandwich on the way into the office, maybe you eat in the company cafeteria, or perhaps you just skip lunch altogether. Well whatever your lunch plans are, you might be missing out on the perfect opportunity to acquire the nutrients that are of paramount importance to your success. 

But the complications are obvious. Let’s look at the examples I gave to start off with.

1. Buying lunch on the way in – Well, if nothing else, this is probably the most expensive way to eat during the week. And my guess is that when you quickly grab something to eat off the shelf in your local shop you probably haven’t done a wide range of prior research. The chances are you have just opted for whatever tickled your fancy that morning. We know that it’s bad enough to eat the stuff that we should steer clear of but it is probably even worse to eat something if you don’t know exactly what goes into it.
2. Eating in the cafeteria – Firstly, this works on the assumption that your place of work has a cafeteria. If it doesn’t then this option isn’t even available to you. Then we have the financial aspect again, as well as not knowing exactly what we are putting into our bodies. And let’s face it, a lot of cafeterias don’t have the best reputation for serving the healthiest food.
3. Skipping lunch entirely – I get asked quite a lot whether it is worse to eat a bad meal or skip it completely. Obviously the answer to that depends on the circumstances but I don’t see why it has to be a choice between the two. Couldn’t a third option be to not skip lunch and make sure that it is nutritious as well?

So that leaves us with taking your own lunch in. Without even thinking about nutrition yet, I can guarantee that this will save you money in the long-run. You can buy the things you like cheaply from the supermarket in bulk and then have all the ingredients to sustain you for weeks!

But preparing your own food provides its own problems too. For one you have to make sure that you have the time to do it. Now I admit that might sound a little silly but a lot of people simply don’t make their own lunches because they feel it takes up too much of their time. The solution to that is making sure that you opt for things that are easy to make and don’t take too long.

So what sorts of things should you be preparing for your lunch at work? Obviously the answer to that question is a never-ending list of possibilities. Hopefully you know which nutrients you want to be hitting with your daily meals and that is the best place to start with planning what to make. Then you have to think about the practicality of your decision. Remember you are probably going to be eating this in the office so it needs to be something that doesn’t require a full song and a dance! Not to mention it might be best to avoid anything that can kick up a smell, your colleagues won’t thank you if it does.

I mean, if I was suggesting specific ideas then there are so many good ones to choose from. Soup can be a good idea – it’s easy to make in bulk, easy to carry if you have a flask and it shouldn’t take you long to get down because you can have it as a drink while you work if you want. Salads are easy to prepare too and if you get creative they can provide a whole range of nutritional benefits to you.

This is all about being inventive. So try and find some good recipes and if you see a colleague eating something that looks both healthy and delicious, try and pick their brain for some good ideas. A busy work life is not an adequate excuse for abandoning healthy eating.