Fit Fridays: What's in my Lunch Bag?

Recently I've made more of an effort to bring my lunch with me to work and uni. This was motivated at first when I realised just how much money I was spending on food...and that I could be spending that on fun things like clothes and make up instead. But I realised as well (which is a bit of a 'duh' moment) that by packing my lunch I'm a lot less likely to impulse eat, and thus pick better foods.

I try to mix it up to keep it interesting. This is just a snapshot of what I brought this week:

I pack my lunch in this cute lunch bag I bought from kikki.K. It's got insulated padding so it keeps everything cool, and it's little enough that it's not a burden to carry, but big enough to fit all my food in.

For my 'main' food item, I'll usually bring leftovers. We schedule in what we're eating for dinner each week, and we usually try to make more than two servings so I can bring leftovers.
Rather than buying packets of chips, we buy a couple of bags of popcorn and I pre-pop it. One bag of popcorn separates into about 4 lunch baggies. Each serving is more than enough to satisfy my salty cravings throughout the day. This works out to be cheaper, but I also think it's a healthier option. Popcorn is definitely not healthy (the triple butter explosion option is definitely not healthy) but it has less of the bad stuff than chips. It's the lesser of two evils, if you will.

I try to bring snacks that I can easily munch on in class without disturbing everyone. I love apples for my daily fruit (I kind of wish I could bring bananas but I hate them). Nuts are a fantastic option as well because they're full of fats, vitamins and minerals. We buy the Woolworths brand "Oven roasted mixed nuts", because I just love, love, love the mix it comes with. Cashews, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamias, and pistachios keep it interesting. I also always try to include some sort of cheese in my lunch, to try and get in some extra calcium. Bega stringers are awesome because they're pre-packaged which means I don't have to do any extra work in the morning; I literally just grab a strip and chuck it in my bag and I'm good to go. Also, who doesn't love mozzarella cheese?

For me, a big part of bringing my lunch is making sure it's easy enough to just throw in my lunch bag and go. This does mean I need to do a bit of prep at the beginning of the week, but with a little extra organising this is not really any extra effort.

Do you bring your lunch to work / school? What do you usually eat?




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