Diet Lunchboxes

Preparation is the key to successfully taking good lunches.
By having a nice lunch you'll eat the healthy food you want to and keep to your diet. Don't risk your diet every day - avoid temptation.

You'll need

• A range of lunchboxes - inclduing containers for yoghurt, fruit and salad.
• Ideas for great food to pack
• Remember to shop in advance and have food in - plan and prepare

Why?

By taking a good lunch you're less likely to snack, eat junk food or break your diet.

Eating your own food is safer for your diet.

Things you can have for lunch

1. Sandwiches are traditional lunchtime fayre.

   Sandwich = Bread, filling, spread Skip the spread -= you don't need marg or butter if you've got nice fresh tasty bread with a good amount of filling. Pick low fat meats, cut any extra fat off, watch the labels for salt too. Put plenty of salad on, slice tomatoes really thinly, layer salad leaves, thin cucumber. You can always add in extra salad in a small box with your lunch.

2. Soup.

   Hot, cold, homemade, canned

3. Salads
   Mix a huge salad, put dressing separate if need be, take a fork.
4. Rice, cous cous, bulgar wheat
   Make some great salads to eat cold, or microwave at work
5. Hot meals
   If you can microwave it, then you could cook extra portions of food and freeze them for taking to work. You can add in plenty of extra veggies too. Things with sauces can always have some extra veg blended into a sauce.
6. pasties and pies
   NO NO NO NO NO.
   Special treats only - hugely calorific and you shouldn't.
7. Puddings, fruit, yoghurts,
   Fruit. Canned, fresh
   Yoghurt with real fruit is good!
   Watch calories of yoghurt desserts
8. Drinks
   Water, or suagr free drinks.

Suggestions for yummy lunches

Kids healthy lunches

If you think you don't have time then try getting up a little earlier, or make your lunch teh night before. Keep it in the fridge and don't forget to take it!

Try healthier snacks - things you like but healthier versions like low fat crisps or mini snack size chocolate bars.

Don't be afraid to try new things. Dried apricots are lovely, dried figs nice, and dried dates are just adorable. Rice cakes are interesting and worth trying. Chopped veggies are quite nice. Low fat yoghurt is a nice lunchtime addition.

Individual portions are really nice for convenience but cost more. If you're on a budget then buy big packs and get tiny containers to portion things.

Finger food portions - things like chopped apple (add lemon juice to stop it browning) grapes, chopped strawberries, melon cubes, kiwi slices etc. Things which are ready to eat - this will encourage you to eat fruit! The same applies to vegetables.
You can buy ready prepared fresh fruit salad but this might cost more.

Drinks at lunchtime - cut out sugary drinks. Try fresh juice, water or even sugar free squashes.

The sandwich must be interesting. Put your favourites in sandwiches - copy ideas from the shop bought sandwiches you like but lower the calories. You don't need to butter bread if its fresh and you put salad or pickles on - put less mayonaise on than a shop sandwich and you have less calories.

Try different breads, pittas, bagels, rolls, wholemeal and wholegrain breads too. There are some lovely sunflower seed loaves out which are so delicious - you can even make your own bread.

Don't have cheese too often, try cottage cheese instead, add plenty of salad leaves, cucumber, tomatoes, even spring onions finely chopped will go nicely on a a sandwich

Lunchtime soup - you'll need a flash - and some soup. Heat the soup up at home, pour into the flask and it'll still be hot at lunchtime. If you have a kitchen at work you could always take a can of soup in to heat up there.
Take some bread to fill you up - no butter though, just good fresh bread.
Look at the calories on soup cans - and salt levels.

Use a different sandwich filling each day - preferably including a fruit or vegetable.
For example,

Chicken, lettuce and tomato - thin sliced chicken and plenty of salad.

Bacon lettuce and tomato - take ALL the fat off the bacon and grill it. Dab it on kitchen paper to remove any excess fat.

Grated cheese and carrot - finely grate

Tuna and sweetcorn - add a little mayonaise

Cheese and cucumber - you can grate cucumber to make it more interesting

Mashed banana

Peanut butter and banana - this is one of my favs but very filling so you only need one slice of bread - leave the banana whole until you're ready to have your sandwich.

Hummus - yummy - find a low fat version

Cottage cheese - add fruit to it, buy the lowest fat versions.
Add chopped veggies such as cucumber, avocado, tomato, sweetcorn,

cottage cheese and grated carrot

Sweet snack lunchbox - because we have a sweet tooth

Try fruit - always have a piece of fruit in your lunch box - or two one for elevenses and one for lunch. If you often snack in the afternoon add another. This would fill 3/5 of your daily fruit and veg requirements.
Vary the fruit.
Try grapes, different citrus fruits - so many types of oranges; melon sliced,

Compare calories of scones, malt loaf, flapjacks, healthy bars, biscuit bars, yoghurts, snack crips type things like rice cakes, snackajacks.
If you try to compare how much of each you could have for 150 calories you'll start to see that some foods will be much more filling.

Savoury Snack Lunchbox
Breadsticks, boiled eggs, crackers, nuts, veggies and hummus dip

Safe sandwiches

Keep your lunch as cold as you can - if you make sandwiches the night before kjeep them inthe fridge until you leave for work.

Use an insulated food bag. Use a mini ice pack (Or bottle of water from the freezer) to keep food cold.

Don't leave your lunch in the warm at work. Put it somewhere cool, preferably the fridge if you've not got cool packs.

For kids make sure they have plenty of healthy things to eat.