Brown Bag It

Weekday lunches from home reached an all time high last year. Among consumers who report that they are brown bagging it more often, the primary reason is to save money (93%). The second reason makes me happy, to improve the nutritional quality of their meal (68%). One factoid from this research was that adult males carried brown bags more often than females, although the males bags were mostly prepared by the females in their life! Come on ladies, don't forget about taking care of yourself too, right?!

Take a guess:
The most popular food item in a brown bag lunch is what?
The most popular sandwich in a brown bag lunch is what?
You will have to come back tomorrow for those answers!

Anyways, two of the trends that I try to swear by are becoming more popular as well: nearly 1/2 of all brown bag lunches are prepared the night before and leftovers have been making there way into brown bags more frequently in the past few years.

Here are some tips to make brown bagging work for you:

• Pack the night before: I always encourage my clients to stay one meal ahead, like thinking about breakfast the night before. Now I even encourage them to do the same with lunch. If your morning is anything like mine, it is a race to the door to get on the road, with little time left over for meal preparation. Think about those mornings when you planned on getting your lunch together but found yourself running behind. Do you think it had an impact on your lunch choice that day? Most of the time it makes it harder for us to make healthy choices at that noon lunch hour when we haven't set up a plan in advance. So this week try to brown bag your lunch, even if you only do it 2 days this week, that is still a success! Work up to 5 days as you can.
• Make meal packs on Sunday: Sunday, yes, I know it is the day of rest, but it can also be the day you put forth a little effort up front to set yourself up for a successful week. If this is your normal grocery shopping day it makes it even easier. Before you even put the groceries away make 5 meal packs. For example, take the pint of blueberries and bag out 5 servings for the week. Take the bag of baby carrots and do the same. Try it with triscuits, nuts, dried fruit or even chocolate chips (everybody needs a little chocolate). This helps to cut your prep time down each night.
• Cook up some extras at dinner for leftovers: This has been working great this summer. Each time we grille we grille up a few extra chicken breasts to have on hand for the week.
• Make 1 weekly big bag trip: Take all of your meal packs that you made on Sunday and bring them to work in one big load on Monday morning. Then each night you may only have to think about making your sandwich or prepping your salad for the next day. This makes it so much easier!

A few favs:

• Creative tuna: Tuna can get a little boring after a while. We try to change it up a little bit by adding different spices. Try adding some different spices you have on hand. I also add a little Miracle Whip vs. mayo for a little extra zip, plus red pepper flakes, lemon juice and sometimes a few chopped up banana peppers.
• Rotisserie Chicken Salad: The leftover chicken from the grocery store rotisserie chicken you used on dinner the night before makes a delicious chicken salad sandwich. I add dried cranberries to mine for something different.
• Hard boiled eggs: I bring these from home to put on the salad greens at work.
• Fage Yogurt: My all time favorite yogurt! It is a Greek yogurt so it is thicker and it has 13 grams of protein, so it keeps you feeling full. I highly recommend it!
• Half your portions to get a 2-4-1: Just this week we went out for lunch at work. I got a nice wrap that was way to big to eat all at one sitting, so I bagged up the second half and saved it in the work fridge for the next day. If you aren't able to brown bag it, this tip works really well!

7-Day Goals: Do you have a lunch routine right now? If not, are there ways you can incorporate some of these brown bag techniques into your routine?

Good luck! Remember, eating healthy doesn't mean giving up the foods you love or eating "perfectly". It just means improving a few choices you make each day and adding creativity back into your meals. Each meal you eat try to think of like more of an experience vs. just a means of taking in food. Savor flavors, textures and simply enjoy!

~K