Quick healthy lunch suggestions
reborn2
Posts: 42
I'm planning on loosing 1 stone or thereabouts by next February as a goal before a training camp in Majorca with club and friends. I personally find setting goals helps me stick to the plan. At the moment I'm about 13.4 and 6 foot tall, 43 years old.
I've always eaten healthy breakfasts and usually healthy evening meals (although I suspect the portion sizes may need reducing a little). The main area I feel I can improve my diet is lunch. The canteen at work serves chips with everything and generally there are very few healthy options.
My plan is packed lunches. I have access to a microwave but that's it. Besides a cereal bar and some fruit, I'd be really grateful for suggestions of easy to prepare lunches I can take to work with me (my cooking isn't the best!)
They need to be able to sustain me for the 50 mile round trip commute I'll be doing most days.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I've always eaten healthy breakfasts and usually healthy evening meals (although I suspect the portion sizes may need reducing a little). The main area I feel I can improve my diet is lunch. The canteen at work serves chips with everything and generally there are very few healthy options.
My plan is packed lunches. I have access to a microwave but that's it. Besides a cereal bar and some fruit, I'd be really grateful for suggestions of easy to prepare lunches I can take to work with me (my cooking isn't the best!)
They need to be able to sustain me for the 50 mile round trip commute I'll be doing most days.
Thanks in advance for any help.
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Comments
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Soup.
When I lost a couple of stones at the start of the year lunches were where I made the biggest inroads. Soup and a yoghurt got me through the day. Fewer calories than a shop bought sarnie for the whole meal. You'll probably need more for the 50 mile commune but that's what energy bars/drinks are for0 -
Sandwich?0
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microwave rice and tinned mackerel - lasts for ages in your drawer at work an no prep each morning0
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Jesus that sounds dull.
You can make a chicken salad last a few days - roast a chicken, pull it apart with forks, to roughly 1-2inch pieces
throw in:
raw spinach 9baby leaf is a bit easier)
cherry tomatoes
avocado
lettuce leaves
cucumber
celery
spring onion
croutons if you want
mozzarella/parmesan
Mix it up in a huge bowl and leave in the fridge. Leave the avocado stone is as well as it apparently stops the avocado going brown. Decant your portion for the day into a tupperware and bring to work.
Buy a salad dressing (or make one with olive oil and balsamic) and put it in the Tupperware or on a plate.
Grilled chicken (and fish!) is very good for you anyway, so you can have that with some veg if you fancy - all of which can be cooked beforehand and microwaved to heat up. Obviously you don't want to cut out carbs too much if you are cycling a long way but that's important to watch/reduce.0 -
Jesus that sounds dull.
You can make a chicken salad last a few days - roast a chicken, pull it apart with forks, to roughly 1-2inch pieces
throw in:
raw spinach 9baby leaf is a bit easier)
cherry tomatoes
avocado
lettuce leaves
cucumber
celery
spring onion
croutons if you want
mozzarella/parmesan
Mix it up in a huge bowl and leave in the fridge. Leave the avocado stone is as well as it apparently stops the avocado going brown. Decant your portion for the day into a tupperware and bring to work.
Buy a salad dressing (or make one with olive oil and balsamic) and put it in the Tupperware or on a plate.
Grilled chicken (and fish!) is very good for you anyway, so you can have that with some veg if you fancy - all of which can be cooked beforehand and microwaved to heat up. Obviously you don't want to cut out carbs too much if you are cycling a long way but that's important to watch/reduce.
Sounds nice, but it would be mush after a day.0 -
I make it every now and then and it does last a few days if you don't put dressing on it. Maybe keep the mozzarella separate as well0
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cous cous, make a load at start of week mixed with roasted mixed veg etc. like someone else said can have some mackerel with it. follow up with a yogurt and an apple.enigma esprit
cannondale caad8 tiagra 20120 -
oh and yes soup too, make at start of week. something minestroneish would be good, 2 tins chopped toms, onion, celery, cabbage, carrots. plus break some spaghetti in and a tin of butter beans etc and you won't go far wrong.enigma esprit
cannondale caad8 tiagra 20120 -
skip lunch. if you've got weight to drop. but if you must feed. soup or salad.0
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Cottage cheese sandwich, either with marmite or ground black pepper. The sandwich of champions, lowish fat, highish protein. A raw carrot and an apple to follow, for some vitamin things, and lunch is sorted.0
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Porridge.
Try the 5:2 approach. If portion size is a problem its a lot easier to be really strict two days a week than feel dissatisfied with every meal.
Worked for me, I lost 25kg doing it.0 -
Filled tortilla wraps. Get the day's contents sliced/grated beforehand. The 'flavour' ingredient would be something like houmous, tuna, smoked mackerel, hard boiled egg, brie, grated cheese, goat's cheese. Mix with e.g. cucumber, washed spinach or babyleaf salad, sweet peppers, cooked beetroot.
Leftover quiche from the night before is a favourite. Absolutely must be homemade, not the bland rubbish from a shop.
+1 for cous cous or rice. Add feta cheese, sultanas, chopped celery or whatever takes your fancy.
To finish - banana or apple (or both), perhaps with natural yogurt.
Mixed nuts and dried apricots for snacking.
Try to avoid pastry, processed meats and energy-dense sweet treats. No carbonated drinks or anything with too much sugar or sweetener.
Allow yourself a 'day off' each week, have a cooked lunch for a change. But be consistent, don't go to extremes. Skipping lunch may not be a great idea if you're riding 50 miles a day in winter, I'd be more inclined to recommend riding to work empty and eating on arrival (it's what I do but my commute is shorter than yours).Aspire not to have more, but to be more.0 -
Pasta? Make it the night before work, throw in some meats, vary up the sauces and whack it in the micro at work. Filling and if you choose the right meats and sauce you'll have no problem. Those chips sound good though!Trainer Road Blog: https://hitthesweetspot.home.blog/
Cycling blog: https://harderfasterlonger.wordpress.com/
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TCTP: https://supermurph.wordpress.com/0 -
microwave rice and tinned mackerel - lasts for ages in your drawer at work an no prep each morning
Someone at work microwaves mackerel and sometimes even kippers. It stinks the kitchen out and makes the microwave smell like Newlyn at low tide for hours afterwards.0 -
microwave rice and tinned mackerel - lasts for ages in your drawer at work an no prep each morning
Someone at work microwaves mackerel and sometimes even kippers. It stinks the kitchen out and makes the microwave smell like Newlyn at low tide for hours afterwards.
I have this sometimes but use wholemeal rice and a tin of tuna. Stir the tuna through the hot rice and drixxle a bit of sweet chillie sauce on it.
By not microwaving the fish you should offend anyone.Advocate of disc brakes.0 -
I do soup and usually a handful of nuts.
Soup is awesome, tasty, and really fills you up, and there is masses of variety.Insert bike here:0 -
Veggie chilli:
2 cans kidney beans in chilli sauce
2 cans chopped tomatoes
4-6 green finger chillies
1 large onion
4 garlic cloves
1 sq. dark chocolate
500g of assorted veggies
Bunch of coriander
I freeze into portions and take one out the night before. I also do this with soup. Something warm and a toasted pitta makes a great lunch.0 -
Or you can fast 2 days a week and then you can have a foot long Italian BMT on herb and cheese which is what I just ate, after completing Monday on 250kcal.
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As awesome as that sounds, you sir, are a ****!
edit:- I added more stars because some children might read this section and think roadies are nasty people who use nasty words. At least this way they can add thier own nasty words to describe Mr/Ms DIYAdvocate of disc brakes.0 -
Or you can fast 2 days a week and then you can have a foot long Italian BMT on herb and cheese which is what I just ate, after completing Monday on 250kcal.
The 5:2 diet has a lot of advocates, but it's comments like this (and I don't mean to pick on you diy, because I see the same thing everywhere) that still makes me highly skeptical of it.
Fasting for two days and then gorging yourself for the other 5 isn't exactly a healthy or sustainable lifestyle change. It's not addressing the core issue (i.e. people being habituated to shoveling inordinate quantities of rubbish food down their faces), it's just addressing the symptoms (i.e. being overweight).
It's yo-yo dieting, just in a structured fashion.0
