Easy Take to Work Healthy Lunches: Part 1

It's hard to eat well when you're working full time. Most people go out to lunch, spending too much money and consuming too many calories and processed foods.You can easily buy food in advance, make your lunches at home, save money and feel better about yourself. Here's one of my regular lunches:

• Organic Applegate Herb Roasted Turkey Breast (or any of the other flavors they have).
• Trader Joe's Multi-grain sandwich round thins.
• Roasted Garlic Hummus (or any flavor you like).
• Raw Baby Spinach.
• French Green Lentils - pre-cooked from Trader Joe's.

Make two sandwiches with the hummus as a spread. Use one slice of turkey per sandwich and place some spinach on top to finish the sandwiches. Get a small tupperware and put about 3/4 cup of lentils in it.

A nice nutritious lunch for one! All of these items have a very good price at Trader Joe's - you'll find other chain stores will double the price of the Organic Turkey Breast.

For the rest of the day I'll take two other snacks, one mid morning and one mid afternoon. This usually consists of a raw almond and raw walnut mixture, around 3/4 cup, and a greek yogurt like Fage Total Greek Yogurt 2% or 0%.

Why proper nutrition and sleep are so important!

I haven't treated myself very well in the past. I'm one of those people who loves to work and I put in 110% effort. I'm also my own worst critic and sometimes a little bit too much of a perfectionist! Ultimately this results in letting yourself go when you're constantly thinking of others and their overall perception of you.

How can this be appetizing now?

I'm glad I took a step back a couple of years ago and realized what I had done to myself. A former track star in my teens up to college, what had I done to my fitness levels? Why was I always so tired? As soon as we started our daily walks around Mount Trashmore I instantly began to feel better. We began implementing healthier foods into our diets slowly but surely, it was actually a great experience because we're definitely both foodies!

Those steps were fantastic and had great results, but they just weren't quite enough for me. There were other areas that I could work on to boost my energy levels. In addition to improving my diet I also started taking a great multi-vitamin daily. I realized I wasn't eating enough fish, because I hate it, so... MUCH, as a result I started taking fish oil. Then there's the fact that I'm stuck inside ALL DAY and don't get to see much daylight due to work, solution? Vitamin D with Calcium to help absorb it.

Then there was there sleep issue. I was going to sleep around midnight and sometimes getting up at 6am. During the weekends I slept even less, I decided it was time to take action and although I am making progress in this department I still believe I have a long way to go here.

All of these have really helped me get back to my old self and I've also started to walk about 3 miles at lunch time. We're still working out on a regular basis and recently I've started to do a lot more weights which I really think has helped boost some of my recent weightloss.

It's certainly a journey of discovering yourself and the needs that your body has to find what the right solution is for you. It's time consuming but I know in the end it will all be worth it. I already see and feel the results!