{"id":6684,"date":"2012-02-09T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-02-09T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=6684"},"modified":"2012-02-01T10:54:50","modified_gmt":"2012-02-01T18:54:50","slug":"reinvent-your-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/?p=6684","title":{"rendered":"Reinvent Your Lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lunchtime doesn’t have to be boring or fattening. And it doesn’t have to be hard, either. It’s easy to make lunch a small meal, hoping to save some calories, but if you’re like me you’ll crash by 4 pm and start grazing. For me, the challenge is resisting the candy in the office when I’ve hit that afternoon slump. I’ve found that eating a decent lunch helps stave off that munching.<\/p>\n

I used to eat Lean Cuisines for lunch because they were easy and low in calories. Now I am more apt to bring leftovers<\/a> for lunch or soup and salads. I recently brought a couscous and chicken salad for lunch that I made with leftovers.<\/p>\n

I like to pack things for lunch that are “bite sized,” meaning it takes awhile to eat the stuff. A few examples: sliced apples, sliced peppers and carrots, pistachios in the shell. Stuff that takes a long time to eat slows me down. Which I need. \ud83d\ude42 (Check out this website<\/a> that lists out some sample menus if you are just getting started trying to lose weight. There are some great suggestions.)<\/p>\n

Here are some suggestions that I’ve found work well for my lunches:<\/p>\n

1. Eat fish.<\/strong> Salmon is great hot or cold. I often use leftover blackened salmon<\/a> cold on my salads.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

2. Make a big salad<\/a>.<\/strong> Top it with a rinsed can of chickpeas, some diced ham and lots of veggies. It’s surprisingly filling. Fruit is also excellent on salads–sliced strawberries, cranberries, mandarin oranges…all good. When I was doing the Slow Carb Diet I ate a lot of big salads for lunch. I added leftover salmon or chicken with beans and veggies and was stuffed.<\/p>\n

3. Switch from mayo to mustard<\/strong> to spice it up and save the calories.<\/p>\n

4. Instead of mayo on sandwiches, use hummus.<\/strong> Try a hummus and cucumber sandwich for something more exotic.<\/p>\n

5. Make a lettuce wrap instead of using bread products.<\/strong> You can use deli meat with cream cheese or curried cooked chicken with chopped apples and green onions. Tuna<\/a> fish works. You can get super creative with lettuce wraps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

(recipe)<\/p><\/div>\n

6. Switch to soups<\/a>.<\/strong> This works so great for me! Especially if the soup has beans. Lentil soup<\/a>, or veggie and bean soup fills me up for hours.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7. Egg sandwiches are good and filling because of the protein<\/strong>. I used to make an “Egg McMuffin” for breakfast at home with an english muffin, a single slice of cheese and scrambled eggs. It was really tasty and would work well for lunch too.<\/p>\n

8. Bean burgers or Boca Burgers without the bun.<\/strong> I’ve done this in a pinch when I didn’t have anything else. I just cooked the Boca burger in the microwave with a single slice of cheese and ate some veggies with Ranch dressing on the side.<\/p>\n

9. Chili<\/a>!<\/strong> It’s packed full of protein and will sit in your belly for awhile, especially if there are beans in the chili. If you’re a vegetarian<\/a>, you can still make a delicious chili and get your protein in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Meal planning<\/a> is a big part of this. It takes just a little bit of effort and planning but having a plan will prevent the temptation<\/em>\u00a0for pizza or burgers for lunch.<\/p>\n

Ever since I switched my lunches to something other than frozen meals, I have felt a million times better and more satisfied. I feel good about myself when I eat food that fills me up and doesn’t make me go off the charts with my calories. Counting calories will always be a part of my life and my daily duties, and I need food that is worth the calories<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS: What’s your typical lunch?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lunchtime doesn’t have to be boring or fattening. And it doesn’t have to be hard, either. It’s easy to make lunch a small meal, hoping to save some calories, but if you’re like me you’ll crash by 4 pm and start grazing. For me, the challenge is resisting the candy in the office when I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[55,1621,2124,84,2372,104,106,107,125,1864,133,134,2945,1452,1785,3792,152,154,155,160,159,194,201,230,231,3248,247,251,279,288,298],"tags":[8626,5370,8647,742,743,8662,8667,5371,3717,2444,8694,5369,8710,5372,8714,8749],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/soup.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6684"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28384,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6684\/revisions\/28384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}