Things You'll Need:
- Good lunch bag with sturdy sides.
- Small plastic containers.
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Step 1
Fast food is bad for your health, bad for your budget and bad for the environment. The first step is to convince yourself that you would be better off without fast food. Track your fast food eating habits for a week. Note when you eat fast food.
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Step 2
Create the plan. Decide which days you will, for sure, not eat at a fast food restaurant. Plan to pack a lunch. Nobody likes smooshed PB&J so be creative.
At the beginning of the week, when you are not starving, like maybe Sunday afternoon, decide what kind of sandwiches or salads you really like. Make a list of your favorites, don't skimp. Roast beef and Swiss cheese rolled in a tortilla with mayo and horseradish; ham and American cheese with mustard; fruit and yogurt topped with granola; macaroni and cheese and a fruit cup. The idea is to think of lunches that are enticing not boring. -
Step 3
Now determine which things are "packable" and figure out a work around for things that don't pack well. Condiments often make bread products mushy so buy a box of those little packets of condiments and add the condiments just before you eat. Little bags of chips and cookies can get crushing in a bag so get a lunch container with hard sides. Use plastic containers instead of baggies to preserve the food. Just throw them in the dishwasher with your evening dishes at the end of the day. (That's no harder than throwing away the bags and boxes from a fast food stop.)
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Step 4
Go to the grocery store and stock up. Get good bread and good deli meats and cheeses. Get puddings and cookies and chips and fruit cups and mini candy bars. Your mom isn't watching over your shoulder, so get what you like. Pick up some individual size drinks, cans of soda, or little cans or bottles of juice or water. Get individual packets of condiments.
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Step 5
Do not wait until you are hungry to make your lunch. Slap together the bread meat and cheese, put it in a sealable container with a packet of mayo or mustard. If you have enough containers, and you probably do if you have been saving those take out containers, put together three days worth of sandwiches each in a separate container. Stack them in your frig. Put your fruit cup or piece of fresh fruit or yogurt cup or whatever will be a side dish right next to the main course, put your chips or cookies, each in their own container, right next to the other things as well as your drink if you are taking one. Now there will be no hunting around for something to take for lunch, and no surprises that you don't have enough of something. Throw in a mini candy bar or two as a reward for packing your lunch!
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Step 6
Put day one's whole meal in your lunch container. Put it in the frig on the top shelf in the center.
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Step 7
Take a sticky note and write, "Get your Lunch!" and go stick it to the door you go out in the morning.
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Step 8
Decide where you will eat your lunch. Avoid your desk. Eat in a conference room at work, a park bench, just drive somewhere, park and listen to the radio while you eat in your car. Make sure you still get a break at lunch time. Eat and enjoy not sitting in the drive through or eating a heart attack in a bun. You're so smart; you packed a great lunch!
