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.

Healthy brown bag lunch ideas(click thumbnails to view gallery)

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

Lunch & Go Pieces and Parts(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Source

Source

Source

Bring your lunch to work is a great way to make sure you're avoiding the diet pitfalls of a food court or restaurant. But what if you reached into the fridge to grab your healthy, delicious lunch only to find that some office lothario has poached it? I've had this done to me, and let me tell you, it is annoying and frustrating, particularly when you've put together something particularly tasty.

Protect your goodies with the Anti-Theft lunch bag designed by New Yorker Sherwood Forlee. The bags come with moldy spots already on them, so whoever grabs your nosh will (hopefully!) be too grossed out by the 'mold' to eat it. Clever, huh?

(via Slashfood)

Source

• Try sprouted grain bread, like Food for Life's Ezekiel Bread. The live grains make it a better source of protein and more digestible than most breads.
• Choose your portions wisely. Your sandwich doesn't have to look like something Joey from Friends would eat; start by using 80% of the fillings you would normally use, and cut down from there depending on your hunger.
• Use whole foods inside your sandwich: fresh veggies, naturally raised meats without preservatives (try Applegate Farms) and condiments like guacamole, salsa, mustard, even plain yogurt, in lieu of the mayonnaise.

• Beef: Round steaks, roasts, top loin, top sirloin, chuck shoulder, arm roasts, ground round, and ground sirloin (at least 90% lean).
• Poultry. Chicken, turkey, and Cornish hen without skin.
• Pork. Tenderloin, center loin, pork loin, sausage with 1 gram of fat per ounce or less, and Canadian bacon.
• Lamb and Veal. Chop or roast.
• Sandwich meats. Lean turkey and lean ham.

Source

Source

Sounds impossible, doesn't it? Who in the world ever thought of going to Disney and eating healthy? Crazy talk, right? Wrong! Your loving online Fitzness Expert (me) who has extremely high standards on what I put in both my children's mouth and my own can spend a day at the Magic Kingdom or EPCOT and eat as well as I would in my own home. Disney has made grand efforts to improve the healthfulness of the foods they offer, and has even gone overboard with an abundance of fresh fruit stands located throughout each theme park.

I just spent a week at Walt Disney World in Florida and returned home half a pound less than I was the day before vacation. Want to eat right while enjoying the magic with Mickey Mouse? Read on.

• Mickey makes mealtime easy on the fitness fan. Every restaurant I ventured through offered several menu options based on lean grilled meat, veggies, and/or fruit. Even the children's meals come standard with side items like: grapes, carrot sticks, and unsweetened applesauce. They also come with bottled water or skim milk. Sweet! Parents would have to go out of their way to substitute french fries and soda for their children instead of the healthy stuff. Eww! You the fitness fan, certainly wouldn't do that!
• Sit down dining restaurants offer Egg Beaters cooked without oil in lieu of regular scrambled eggs. I enjoyed this perk while dining with Minnie and Goofy at Disney's Yacht Club Resort.
• Resort dining facilities offer endless refrigerators full of fresh fruit, veggies, yogurt, dried fruit, nutritious snack bars and more.
• Seek out healthier desserts. Anywhere they are served, Disney has made efforts to make reduced fat, low sugar or fresh fruit treats available.

Dining at Disney is a fitness family's dream!(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Source

I actually screamed out loud when I found this recipe in the Delicious Disney, The Disney Chefs with Pam Brandon book. My husband and I shared SEVERAL of these last time we were at EPCOT Center in the Walt Disney World Resort, and have lusted for it since. It was served at the Sunshine Seasons in The Land. This Roasted Vegetable Cuban Sandwich is perfect for both carnivores and vegetarians alike. It's fairly simple to make and will leave you with a little streak of drool on the side of your face until you have one again! I've posted the recipe in my online Recipe Book at Fitness.com, page 41, for permanent access. Enjoy!

Source

Source

Go, go, go!!! It seems like that should be our national anthem. Considering the amount of events, commitments, obligations, meetings, activities, work functions, and -- lest we forget -- driving to and from each of these time crunchers, it's amazing that we even have time to eat and sleep. It's no wonder, then, that a healthy meal or snack sometimes has to simply be the lesser offender. Between a Snickers, Twix, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and a Pay Day, we choose the Pay Day because it has less sugar and contains a healthy amount of peanuts. Does this make a Pay Day healthy? Not really, it just makes it the lesser offender of the bunch.

This same idea generally applies for many on-the-go type foods, requiring a health conscious person to make the healthiest choice possible given the circumstances and options. A perfect example of such a decision usually happens at around 3:45pm or so, when you're hungry again and you only have a few minutes to prepare something at work. The answer usually comes in the form of a frozen sandwich of some kind. But which are truly among the most healthy? Thanks to a recent article in Men's Health, we now know at least 5 that aren't half bad for you.

1. Healthy Choice Smoked Chicken Panini - 310 cal, 42g carb, 4.5g total fat, 25g protein

2. Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Southwest-Style Chicken Panini - 280 cal, 32g carb, 7g total fat, 20g protein

3. South Beach Diet Chicken Monterey Wraps - 220 cal, 26g carb, 7g total fat, 16g protein

4. Lean Pockets Chicken, Broccoli & Cheddar - 250 cal, 38g carb, 7g total fat, 10g protein

5. Stouffers Grilled Chicken Italian Panini - 350 cal, 31g carb, 17g fat, 20g protein

Source

Source

• Use only 100% whole grain bread. If you're cutting carbs, halve them by having an open-faced sandwich. And toasted is better.
  
• Cheese can be your friend if you don't use too much. Choose a flavourful variety like goat cheese
• Mustard is perhaps the perfect sandwich spread -- it's low-cal and low-fat. Avocado makes another good spread. Avoid the mayo.
• If tuna salad sandwiches are your thing, skip the mayo and instead mix your ingredients together with some olive oil and lemon juice, or a bit low-fat cream cheese. Yummy!
• Stay away from that high-fat bacon meatball sub--go for lean protein like turkey breast or, if you're treating yourself, smoked salmon.
  
• Load your sandwich with healthy veggies.
• If you're bringing your sandwich to work, bring the ingredients and put it all together there to avoid the soggy-sandwich situation.

Source