Healthy Lunchbox Preparation Ideas

If you are a fast foods lunch junkie you will need to take some baby steps to packing your own lunch. The ONLY skill you need is organizational. This is the order in which you need your organizational skills:

1. Utensils

Healthy lunchbox preparation ideas begin with great tools that you most likely have in your cupboard. Think bowls, nice lunchboxes and cups with lids. If you don’t have these, its time you start investing in lunch containers. I promise you, a week of burger king lunch servings will cover just about everything you need.

Learn to pack every food type separately. Never pack your breads with juicy vegetables as it gets soaked in them and looks inedible four hours later. Rather have separate smaller containers to pack all foods separately. A sandwich bag for bread, a container for cooked vegetables, one for raw vegetables, one for protein like cheese and cold meats, leak proof cups with yoghurt and milk, etc. I have a small cooler bag which serves as a bag to carry my small containers of lunch. It is a small trouble considering its benefits.

2. Planning

Your lunch should be well planned around your favourite foods. Have a planned lunch menu plan idea chart placed where you can easily access it like in the cupboard or fridge door. Each meal should contain mainly foods that fall in the low glycemic index group. They must be planned around healthy carbohydrates with fruit and vegetables that amount to at least five in a day. Please watch your food portions for your fruit intake because of its sugar content.

Most people like packing breads and sandwiches for lunch but there is certainly nothing stopping you from enjoying a curry at work especially when you have a microwave to re heat when necessary. Planning is key when it comes to healthy lunchbox preparation.

3. Time Management

Time management is another useful skill in healthy lunchbox preparation ideas. It does take a bit of time to pack your own healthy lunchbox. This is fortunately the time we can and should make. The wisest thing we can do is pack our lunchboxes an evening before. You may also prepare twice the dinner size, in order to pack our lunch from your dinner meal.

4. Lunchbox Groceries

Having all the ingredients you need helps a lot in food preparations. We already have a number of grocery lists including the most useful low GI food list at healthfun-ps.com. However for quick reference and your convenience we provide you with the healthy lunchbox preparation grocery list (Please click to open).

I recommend doing fresh food groceries weekly or more frequently to avoid food going off. Your food should be colourful and well presented to stimulate your appetite. Having different colour foods like the greens, yellow, browns, etc ensures variety in the nutrients.

5. Enjoying Lunch

There is a tendency to eat lunch whilst working on one’s desk. We should treat all our meals with respect and enjoy it in a place meant just for that. I treat my dinner with all respect and enjoy it on my dinner table with my entire family. This is the treatment I should give to my lunch too, even though I may be having it alone, with a friend or colleagues. Give your meal times some time and focus in order to be aware of your intake.

This should sum up your healthy lunchbox preparation ideas. More healthy lunchbox preparation ideas

Lunchbox ideas for children

Healthy eating basics

Low GI is everything