5 healthy and satisfying lunches you can take to work

What can you prepare and take with you to work? We'll tell you together with a nutritionist.

The New Year holidays have come to an end, workdays begin, and many are faced with a problem that, at first glance, is almost impossible to solve. It seems like you want to eat healthy even at work, but you don’t have enough time for it: the lunch break is short, and there is only fast food nearby.

Elena Doronkina

nutrition specialist, founder of the healthy nutrition delivery service GetVegetable

For those who watch their weight and lead a healthy lifestyle, it is no secret that one of the main meals is lunch. We have prepared five healthy lunch ideas that are easy to prepare and can always be taken with you.

Scrambled eggs with fresh salad

You will need:

eggs – 2 pcs.;
fresh vegetables and herbs - 150 g;
olive oil - 1 tbsp. l.;
salt, pepper to taste.

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Add the eggs to the olive oil in the pan, beating them until smooth. Immediately after start mixing them with a spatula. When the scrambled eggs are ready, add salt and pepper to the dish. Lunch should be served on a plate along with fresh vegetables and herbs.

Tender scrambled eggs will be an excellent alternative to a regular omelet for all lovers of proper nutrition. This version of the PP recipe contains a minimum amount of calories, while saturating the body with valuable protein and vitamins.

Elena:

Combined with scrambled eggs, your lunch will be rich in microelements, protein and vitamins. It will lower blood pressure, strengthen blood vessels and slow down the aging of the body.

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Pumpkin cream soup

Tender vegetable soup is a storehouse of vitamins. Pumpkin contains many amino acids, minerals, pectin and fiber, which is why nutritionists recommend eating this vegetable. The soup it makes is light and very tasty!

Required:

pumpkin - 0.7 kg;
carrots - 0.1 kg;
cream 10% - 100 ml;
greens - a small bunch;
salt pepper.

How to cook:

Wash the pumpkin, remove skin and seeds, cut into large cubes.
Peel the carrots and cut into cubes.
Place the vegetables in a saucepan, cover completely with water and cook for 20 minutes after boiling.
After the time has passed, drain the liquid. Puree the vegetables with an immersion blender. Pour in the cream and beat again. The consistency should be light and airy.
Place vegetables on low heat. When the mixture boils, remove the pan from the stove.
Add salt, pepper, chopped herbs and let it brew under the lid for about 15 minutes.

Cod fillet in batter

You will need:

cod fillet - 500 g;
eggs - 3 pcs.;
bran - 3 tbsp. l.;
salt, pepper to taste.

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Divide the fish fillet into three parts. Beat the egg until the white and yolk are mixed. Salt and pepper the fish and dip in the egg on both sides. Then the cod must be rolled in bran and placed on a baking sheet pre-lined with foil. Bake until done for about 20-25 minutes in an oven preheated to 220 degrees.

Cod in batter can be prepared without adding vegetable oil, which will help reduce the overall calorie content of lunch. This dish contains only 119 kcal per 100 g, so it will be an ideal PP lunch option for those losing weight.

Elena:

Cod contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, as well as other beneficial substances and trace elements. They improve brain and heart function and strengthen bones.

Recommendations

The main mistakes most people make during lunch are talking with colleagues and rushing. The result is that food is not chewed, it is swallowed hastily, in large pieces that are difficult to digest. Need I say that in the end you will have to pay with heartburn and heaviness in the stomach, which will negatively affect the process of losing weight? So, if you want to have a healthy lunch, you need to not talk to anyone and take your time, and also follow a number of other tips from nutritionists.

The soup is best eaten warm, but not hot.
All sweets are strictly prohibited - they will be used to store fat, awaken hunger ahead of time and reduce performance.
Lunch breaks have to be taken in the middle of working hours. If a nearby cafe or government canteen cannot offer you complete dietary meals, you will have to bring them with you in containers from home.
You need to get up from the table slightly hungry, so make sure that the portions are small and the calorie content is low.
Drinks can be drunk only half an hour after eating.
You need to rest for about 20 minutes after lunch: just sit or take a walk.

A nice bonus for anyone losing weight: if you can’t imagine life without sweets, half an hour after lunch you can eat a slice of dark chocolate or 1 tsp. honey, but no more. This will improve your mood and increase your performance.

Wow! One of the most famous French kings, Louis XIV (nicknamed the Sun) ate all his lunch dishes exclusively with his hands. You will be surprised, but he was so successful in this that he did not spill a drop of soup.

Tuna steak with fresh vegetable salad

You will need:

tuna steak - 1 pc.;
olive oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
thyme - 1 sprig;
garlic clove - 2 pcs.;
salt, pepper to taste;
cherry tomatoes - 4 pcs.;
avocado to taste.

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Pour oil into a heated frying pan, add finely chopped garlic and a sprig of thyme. Add pre-salted and peppered tuna steak to them. The fish should be fried on both sides until cooked and placed on a plate. While the tuna is cooking, you need to chop the vegetables, add olive oil and spices to them. Serve the steak with salad; you can make a sauce from avocado pulp.

This PP lunch will become a favorite dish for many connoisseurs of proper nutrition who prefer not only healthy, but also tasty food. Tuna steak will help diversify the diet of people on a diet, relieve hunger and saturate the body with valuable vitamins and microelements.

Elena:

It is believed that tuna has a positive effect on the human nervous system, has an antioxidant effect on the body, improves immunity and helps strengthen bones. Useful Omega-3 and Omega-6 acids reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

Top best lunch dishes

Salads

Brush (13 recipes).
Vitamin.
From avocado.
From celery.
From seaweed.
Beetroot.
With Chiken.
Carrot.
Greek classic.
Green.

First

An ideal lunch for weight loss must include a light and at the same time nutritious soup. It improves digestion, saturates quickly and for a long time. The most famous of them:

Bonn.
Cabbage.
Tomato.
Onion.
Mushroom.
Vegetable.
Celery.
Mayo.
Chicken.
Kefir.

Second courses

Boiled chicken breast (turkey, beef, veal).
Low-fat steamed fish.
Cutlets, meatballs from the listed varieties of meat and fish.
Stuffed cabbage rolls, zrazy, goulash - from lean meat.
Stewed or baked vegetables.
Garnish: pasta, buckwheat, brown rice.
Ratatouille.
Vegetable kebabs.
Risotto.
Lasagna.

Marvelous! Do you know whose lunch is the highest in calories? A sumo wrestler who doesn’t need to lose weight, but gain weight. It usually lasts 2 hours and is washed down with liters of beer.

Pasta with salmon and spinach

You will need:

pasta - 125 g;
salmon - 150 g;
spinach - 50 g;
olive oil - 2 tbsp. l.;
tomatoes - 3 pcs.;
salt, pepper to taste.

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You need to boil the pasta in a saucepan. The salmon must be cut into large cubes and fried with olive oil in a frying pan. Wash the tomatoes and spinach and then cut into slices. Add tomatoes to the almost finished fish in the pan, and then pasta with spinach. Mix all this and fry together for no more than three minutes.

This lunch is a source of useful vitamins and biologically active substances. Many people believe that pasta in any form should not be consumed on a diet. But this is a misconception. Pasta made from durum wheat contains slow carbohydrates, which actively saturate the body with energy and do not harm the figure.

Elena:

The benefits of salmon include a large amount of fatty acids and vitamins, including Omega-3 acids, which slow down the aging process. In combination with spinach, lunch will be doubly useful; you will receive a set of vitamins, as well as zinc, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium and other useful macroelements.

Is lunch necessary when losing weight?

Proper nutrition in the middle of the day helps the body produce the necessary enzymes for processing food, replenishes energy and nutritional components.
Having selected the optimal menu for a diet lunch, you will not feel hungry until the evening. This diet helps you lose weight and get a beautiful figure. Skipping lunch or making it very meager on a diet is not recommended.

As a rule, this is fraught with evening overeating. With this approach, weight will not decrease, but may increase. The lunch menu is made up of nutritious dishes, the breakfast and dinner menu is made up of lighter foods that do not provide full energy.

Stuffed peppers with chicken and vegetables

You will need:

sweet pepper - 1 pc.;
chicken fillet - 150 g;
tomatoes - 2 pcs.;
carrots - 1 pc.;
garlic clove - 1 pc.;
salt, pepper to taste.

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You need to remove all excess from the chicken fillet and cut it into small cubes. Vegetables need to be peeled and then finely chopped. Cut the pepper into two halves and remove the core. Place the chicken and vegetable filling into the peeled halves, add salt and pepper. The dish should be baked in the oven at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. This lunch contains only 54 kcal per 100 g.

Elena:

Chicken fillet contains protein necessary for the body to build cells. It is also useful for maintaining hemoglobin in the blood, reducing bad cholesterol and increasing iron. 100 g of chicken fillet contains about 120% of the daily requirement of phosphorus. Pair with peppers and vegetables for a lunch packed with vitamins and macronutrients.

How should you eat to lose weight?

To “start” the process of losing weight, you should limit yourself to high-calorie recipes and devote your time to proper nutrition. But you shouldn’t get carried away with this, since refusing large amounts of food is no different from regular fasting. And frequent hunger strikes not only relieve a person of excess weight, but also significantly deplete the body.

To lose weight without harming your health, you need to properly distribute food throughout the day. The correct breakfast, lunch and dinner for weight loss depends on the correct ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates in food. Calculate the required number of calories per day based on the fact that you are aiming for the number on the scale. Moreover, there are different calculations for men and women:

For men: 66 + (13.7 x body weight*, kg) + (5 x height, cm) - (6.8 x age in years)

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For women : 655 + (9.6 x body weight*, kg) + (1.8 x height, cm) - (4.7 x age in years)

To correctly calculate your daily calorie needs, you must also take into account the rhythm of your life. To lose weight, you need to multiply the result by:

with a sedentary lifestyle - by 1.2;
with average activity (exercises up to 3 times a week) – by 1.375;
at high activity (up to 3-5 times) – by 1.55;
at high loads up to 7 times a week – by 1.725.

For the greatest weight loss effect, for breakfast, lunch and dinner it is necessary to gradually reduce the amount of calories consumed, from 15 to 25 percent.

After calculating the daily calorie needs, they must be properly distributed for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks:

Breakfast should be the most satisfying and high-calorie - 30% of the daily value;
Lunch helps maintain energy for the whole day, in the form of 40% of the daily calorie intake;
Dinner is the easiest, most quickly digestible meal of the day. Its calorie content should not exceed 10% of the daily value;
Snacks contain 20% of your daily calorie intake. Their quantity should be 3-5 times a day.

Proper breakfast

Proper nutrition for breakfast for weight loss is necessary to properly start metabolism and obtain energy for the whole day. Each breakfast should be observed between 7 and 9 am.

If you often skip breakfast, the human body will “break” into snacks, in the form of prohibited foods:

chocolate;
buns;
fatty sausage;
fresh bread made from premium flour;
fast food.

Let's look at what proper nutrition should be like for breakfast:

boiled eggs;
bran;
steamed omelette;
vegetables - cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, bell peppers;
fruits - citrus fruits, apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, strawberries;
dried fruits - raisins, figs, prunes and dried apricots;
porridge made from oatmeal, buckwheat and rice;
light soups from the above cereals;
low-fat cottage cheese.

Also, morning is the ideal time for sweets, since all the calories acquired at this time are wasted during the day. If you want to treat yourself to low-fat fruit yogurt, honey, sweet cottage cheese, marshmallows or marmalade for breakfast or lunch, do not deny yourself anything.

What's for lunch?

Proper nutrition for lunch for weight loss should contain exclusively proteins:

eggs;
milk;
cottage cheese;
chicken meat;
kefir;
beans;
mushrooms.

And carbohydrates:

porridge - pearl barley, barley, buckwheat;
pasta;
Rye bread;
bran;
broccoli, cauliflower and white cabbage;
fruits - apples, plums, pears, apricots, peaches;
vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, celery, radishes.

For proper nutrition, the following weight loss meal options :

low-fat soups made from chicken or turkey meat;
porridge cooked in water;
stewed zucchini, tomatoes, peppers;
bran.

With proper nutrition, carbonated sweet drinks and foods containing alcohol are strictly prohibited .

To lose weight, you should not completely limit yourself to fatty foods, as this causes a loss of strength, as a result of which the body is depleted, especially if you play sports.

Diet dinner

Now let's look at proper nutrition for dinner for weight loss:

low-fat cottage cheese, cheesecakes, cottage cheese casseroles;
milk jelly;
buckwheat and rice kashm;
yogurt with fruit and cinnamon;
baked apples.

A diet dinner for weight loss should be your last meal; no snacks after it are allowed. Food should be low-calorie and contain proteins - omelettes, milk, cottage cheese, kefir. Also, when losing weight, unsweetened fruits and berries are allowed in moderate quantities - apples, pears, raspberries, currants. Smoothies are a great alternative for a light dinner for weight loss.

Before eating, for weight loss it is recommended to drink a cup of tea. This drink helps saturate the body, as a result of which you will eat less at dinner and thus speed up the weight loss process.

For weight loss, you should exclude mushroom and meat dishes from your dinner diet, as they cause headaches. Replace the above with proper nutrition:

stewed zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, peppers;
kefir, milk, fermented baked milk;
trout, salmon and perch dishes.

The main principles of proper nutrition

Losing weight by following the rules of a balanced diet is easy. The main thing here is to take into account the calorie needs of the human body, as well as daily physical activity. Among the main principles of proper nutrition are the following:

High-calorie, fried and fatty foods should be replaced with healthy foods;
It is important to exclude snacks that were taken on the go;
The calorie content of food consumed must fully correspond to the body’s energy expenditure;
It is necessary to ensure that the chemical composition of products satisfies the basic needs of the body;
It is important to follow a diet. You need to eat food in small portions, at certain time intervals.

If you follow these recommendations, you will be able to lose weight by about 2 kg per month.