Much of what we do in life is guided by our habits. In some ways this is a little sad, but in other ways it can be a big opportunity. If there’s something we want to change about our lives, we just need to focus on replacing the habit we don’t like, with a new healthier habit.
5 tips for developing your healthy lunch habit
1. invest in some decent containers
Just because it’s lunch doesn’t need you have to slum it in the food appearance (and appeal) department. Since I invested in a heap of glass pyrex containers with blue lids, I’ve been much more excited about my lunch packing and eating experience. We’ll cover more on this in our discussion on lunch equipment.
2. make some effort
If you just slop some random leftovers in a container, like I have done on occasion, there’s no way you’re going to enjoy your lunch nor are you likely to be keen to cultivate your healthy lunch habit. A little bit of effort can make all the difference to your enjoyment the next day.
3. make extra at dinner
When you’re cooking dinner, it doesn’t take much extra effort or planning to double your meal. Just make sure you then serve up into your lunch containers when you serve your dinner so you’re not tempted to eat more than your normal portion. Too easy.
4. plan in the evenings
If you’re anything like me, there is never any time in the mornings to do something crazy like make your lunch. If it is going to happen, it has to be the night before. Get in the habit of thinking about your lunch while you’re planning your dinner and it will soon be part of your routine.
5. calculate the potential savings
Depending on your situation. Buying lunch every day can have a big impact on your finances. Have a think about your usual daily spend and then calculate this as an annual figure. The results might be just the motivation you need to start cultivating your lunch healthy habit.
Setting yourself up for success
1. Make a commitment to start
One of the first steps to developing a new habit is to promise to yourself that you’re going to develop a new habit. While committing to yourself is all well and good, actually making a public commitment, or at least telling one other person can make all the difference to successfully adopting your new habit. So take action now! Tell someone about your new habit and ask them to keep you accountable.
2. Start small – make it as EASY as possible
Let’s face it. Forming or changing habits is HARD WORK in the beginning. So the best way to set yourself up for success is to make it as small, manageable and easy as possible. I think of it as the first major step is just forming the new habit. Focus on this first.
Don’t expect to miraculously start bringing lunch 5 days a week. Just commit to a few days or even one day a week at first and ease yourself into it.
Then once you feel confident you’ve ‘adopted’ your new healthy lunch habit, it’s time to start getting better bringing your lunch and expanding to 3 or more days a week. No rush though.
3. Develop a ‘backup’ plan
Have a think about your current lunch situation. Identify the biggest challenge to you having a healthy home made (or office made) lunch. Then formulate a plan to overcome this challenge next time it arises.
Erratic schedules and lack of time are probably the most common factors, so one solution might be stocking your desk with a can of chickpeas and a jar of tomato pasta sauce so you’ll always have a tomato & chickpea soup at your fingertips. Or maybe you’d like to keep a bag of frozen peas in the freezer to be able to whip up some hot minted peas. Or maybe keeping some eggs in the fridge for a last minute ‘bachelorette eggs’. You get the idea.
4. Don’t expect to be ‘perfect’ from the first week
Perfection can be scary. And the thing is we don’t need to have a ‘perfect’ healthy home made lunch every day. I prefer to aim for ‘mostly’ to keep it realistic AND make it much more likely that I’ll keep going, rather than giving up because it’s ‘all too hard’.
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