LUNCHTIME!

The best way to ensure that you are eating a healthy, low-calorie lunch is to make it yourself. Here are some of the benefits of bringing your lunch to work:

FLEXIBILITY: If you're buried in work at your desk, you can eat right there and then take a walk afterward. Brown-bagging also allows you to run errands at lunch. You can eat your lunch at work and still have time to run an important errand in the middle of the day.

VARIETY: Breaking up your work week and taking your lunch even a few days a week will add variety to your days. And if you can work in even a 10-minute walk, you'll enjoy variety, burn a few extra calories, and possibly relieve some stress at the same time.

SAVING TIME: At first you may think, "I don't have time to pack a lunch." Just try it for a couple weeks and see how much time you save in the long run. If your lunch is packed and waiting for you when lunchtime rolls around, you don't have to take the time to decide where to eat, walk or drive to the restaurant, place your order, eat and get back to work.

SAVING MONEY: By packing a lunch each day, you probably save at least $4 per day, which is more than $1,000 a year!

SAVING CALORIES: No matter how careful you are about what you order at restaurants, you will almost always consume more calories when you eat out than you will with your own homemade food.

ITEMS YOU CAN INCLUDE IN A BROWN-BAG LUNCH:
*Left-overs from dinner the night before
*Sandwich (we like turkey on Ezekiel bread with lettuce, tomato & mustard)
*A piece of fruit
*A small bag of raw veggies with hummus or peanut butter
*Yogurt or cottage cheese with a few nuts

Now it's your turn. Let us know what you like to eat for lunch!