The Lunch dilemma

Lunch is often a meal that my clients skip completely or snack through. But we need it!

With the confusion about eating like the “hunter-gatherer”, snacking has become the substitute for a proper lunch. The problem is that most snack on unhealthy choices, at best it is nuts and fruit. Even if that worked for our ancestors, it is not very sustainable in the stress of our modern life where our focus is not only on finding food to survive, but rather on surviving the next dead-line. We need real food to get through the day. The famine (picking what you find) and then feast (a kill) of the hunter-gatherer does not really work in the office environments of today. The picking becomes candy and junk food and the feast becomes overeating of comfort foods, because we are so exhausted from the day’s stress.

Your meals are a nice retreat.

Think of a meal-time and a time-out. It is a moment in the day where you can disconnect from your work-schedule, the to-do list, and just nourish you. You need it! You can compare it to a driver that does not get a break from behind the wheel. It is not safe because alertness and attention will fade! What it means to you at the office is similar. Missing the overview, making mistakes, making judgment calls instead of reflecting because you are tired and foggy, -hunger and imbalanced blood-sugar does that to you.

Taking a break

If you tell yourself you cannot get a meal break then you will indeed have a hard time getting one. If you tell yourself you need to eat to function there is a much better chance you will figure out how to take the time. Planning a time is crucial. That way it is on your schedule and you will steer the rest of the schedule around it, just like any other important meeting that you have. It is just like vacation, unless you plan it you will not get one. And if you think feeding you is not as important as any other meeting, think again.

What is for lunch?

To make it easy, bring your left-overs. Cook extra and put it aside before you sit down for dinner. Order extra if you are getting delivery. Cook extra over the weekend and have it ready in the fridge to pick from for the week.

The pitfall is that you overeat for dinner, but if you know you need to keep some food for tomorrow’s lunch there is a much bigger chance that you actually will. We often overeat because of mindless eating at night when we are exhausted so get it out of sight!

So bring your lunch. It is far more eco-sustainable (get a good box to carry it in) and it good for your health (you know what you are eating) and it is healthy for your economy too.

You will learn more about how to practice self-care and cook meals that nourish in the online program. Consider signing up!