So, you are back at work. You’ve been trying to keep healthy since the turn of the New Year, but your pit-fall is during work hours. Lunch outings with mates, the ‘charity chocolate box’, shared morning teas with cakes and biscuits, running out of time to pack something in the morning, endless ‘Caramel Lattes’, the temptation and ease of the Food Court…

Let me help you with my Top 5 solutions for keeping lean during your working week.

1 GO SHOPPING MONDAY MORNINGS
Step into the local supermarket at the start of your working week and buy foods that can be left in the work kitchen. Buy a loaf of wholegrain bread, some ready washed salad mix, a few tomatoes, some avocados and some lean ‘ready sliced’ meat. The time it takes you to make a healthy salad sandwich is less than a walk to the mall for a burger and is far healthier! Buy some seasonal fruit and yoghurt for healthy snacks.

2 FOODS TO KEEP IN THE DESK DRAW
Keep a small jar of nuts, some dried fruits, small tins of tuna/salmon, corn or mini baked beans in your draw for those days when you need some extra ‘top ups’. These goodies will save you from the vending machine or ‘charity chocolate box’.

3 STOP BUYING MEGA SIZED COFFEES WITH SYRUP, CHOCOLATE, SUGAR & FULL FAT MILK
Each time you are ordering a Grande Vanilla Latte you are ordering a cup of sugar, fat and excess calories. A simple swap to a small skinny latte will still give you a caffeine hit without the nasty extras… Even better, enjoy a range of herbal teas across the course of the day.

4) BEST OPTIONS OUT OF THE OFFICE
A Japanese sushi box plus a miso soup, a lean chicken salad, breakfast at lunch (poached eggs or an omelet with grilled mushies, tomato and spinach), a small Asian stir fry with chili and basil (limit to one scoop of rice), a café salad roll… and on cold days a bowl of soup with one slice of crusty sourdough bread.

5) MORNING TEAS
Bring along a platter of freshly sliced seasonal fruit, nuts, vegetable sticks and hummus/tzatziki/salsa, olives and multigrain crackers and limit your consumption of Tim Tams to just one.

When it comes to food, being at work doesn’t need to be your danger zone. Make it your control zone and follow my Top 5 solutions to stay on track.

Until next time… Eat well, be well.

Lisa Donaldson APD
www.FEEDinc.net
4 Kennedy St, Kingston