Bringing your lunch to work, school or wherever you spend your days is a healthier alternative to noshing at fast food joints and restaurants. But if knowing this is not incentive enough, consider this: Packing your own lunch can save you up to $2,000 a year. That's enough for a couple pairs of Manolos, a relaxing trip somewhere warm or a reliable older car.

Think about it: A sandwich, side salad and diet pop at a café or restaurant will probably total around $10-$12 (maybe more, depending on where you live). The cost to make that sandwich and side salad and buy the soda in bulk? This is just a rough guesstimate, but I'd say around $3.

The easiest way to make sure you have something nutritious and delicious in your lunch box the next day is by cooking a bit extra when you make dinner. Got other yummy lunch ideas? Please share.

Not keen on the brown bag? Try packing a lunch in something like this Lunch & Go Lunchbox.

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With more people vowing to get healthier everyday, it's no wonder that new diet trends are popping up every day. NineMSN recently came up with a list of the trendiest diet trends of 2008:

• The Bead Diet. Each bead in your bracelet represents 100 calories, and you wear beads depending on how many calories you want to consume in a day. When you eat a hundred calories, you move a bead. Delta Goodrem and Kate Beckinsale are fans of this approach.
  
• Bench Pressing. This classic exercise is an oldie but a goodie.
  
• Pomegranate. The superfood is so super, it continues to gain popularity.
  
• Skinny Water. This low-cal (?!) water supposedly contains nutrients that will help you burn fat. Jennifer Aniston is known for chugging it.
  
• Marathons. They've been around for a while, but expect everyone and their dog to sign up for one.
  
• The Lunch Box Diet. Armed with a big lunch box, dieters fill it with healthy goodies and much out of it all day.
  
• Workout Shoes. Shoes specially designed to tone your legs are hip this year, even if they look a bit funny
  

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Remember the good old days, when your mom would lovingly pack you a healthy lunch inside your Smurfs lunch box, complete with some warm soup inside your Care Bears thermos? Yeah, that was a long time ago, but maybe you should consider digging out your old lunch box (wait, scratch that. Buy a new, grown up one.)

What I'm getting at here is The Lunch Box Diet. Developed by a personal trainer in the UK, this diet is simple to follow: Pack your lunch box full of healthy stuff, then allow yourself to graze on it throughout the day. This way, you'll never be ravenous because you'll be filling up on healthy veggies and protein.

Your lunch box should be 60% veggies, 30% protein and 10% fats and dressings. Carbs, even whole grain ones, are only advisable if you have an active job, not if you're a desk-dweller. Sounds simple and effective, don't you think?

Want to know more? Download the eBook by visiting the website.

(via Diet Blog)

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