5 Tips for a Healthy and Filling Lunch

Americans have a complicated relationship with lunch. For some, it’s a social time to gather in the break room and debrief about your day with coworkers. For others, it’s a rush to smash food into your mouth before they move on to their next task. Others still use lunch as a venue to make high-dollar business deals and important decisions. Other countries, like France and Italy, savor lunch in the same way we may with dinner. Regardless of which approach you find yourself taking to lunch, it must be recognized that it’s an important meal that will replenish you for the rest of your work or school day. You need to think of it as fuel, but at the same time, you should be smart about what you feed yourself. Here are five concepts that, if properly employed, will help you get the most out of your midday meal!

Timing is Everything

Let’s start by looking at the clock. Whether you’re having a Caesar salad, a French dip sandwich, or sticking to a thrive experience plan, time plays a factor in how your body will digest and store the food you’re taking in. You may have heard of intermittent fasting. While it is a bit extreme for most people, it takes its basic premise from science about spacing out meals. It’s hard to put an exact number on it, but ideally your meals should be at least four to six hours apart. This allows your previous meal to be fully digested and gives you time to burn off any excess calories it provides and eliminate waste.

Balance is Best

You’ve been told since you were little that a balanced diet is important. While diet plans vary extensively (more on that shortly), you need to recognize that different foods serve different functions. Natural sugars and carbs give bursts of energy. Dairy boosts bone strength. Fibers and grains help with digestion. Proteins give muscles power and energy. Fruits, vegetables, and superfoods do almost all the above at once. An ideal lunch should strategically include most, if not all, of these types of food.

Choose a Diet That Will Stick

Let’s take a moment to talk about diets. It’s admirable to try to choose a food plan that will help you achieve your goal, whether that’s losing weight, boosting immunity, or bulking up. Of course, there are no shortage of trendy diets and tried-and-true systems that work for some people and are worthless for others. The fact of the matter is that there is no one-size-fits-all perfect diet. Many genetic factors play a role in how different foods help or harm you. While it is helpful to study nutrition science and be aware of what certain food plans may be able to do for you, at the end of the day, the best diet for you is the one that you can stick with. This may be an elimination diet, or one that is based on portion control or a points-system. Recognize that if you hate what you have to eat, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Don’t Lay Down After You Eat

This isn’t applicable to everyone every day, but it is an important concept to understand. Once you’ve fueled your body up with a filling lunch, it’s natural to feel a little sluggish. This is especially true on the weekends when you’re eating away from the office. You may be tempted to flop into bed right after you eat. Don’t. At best, you’ve had a healthy lunch and you’re missing an opportunity to put the nutrients you’ve ingested to work. At worst, you’ve gorged yourself on fatty fried food, and now it’s just sitting there and not getting burned off. Even if you are at work, try to stand at your desk or walk around to get over the afternoon sluggishness. Caffeine is problematic if over-used, but a cup of black coffee to counteract the sleepiness shouldn’t hurt.

Water is Your Friend

Finally, always, always, always drink plenty of water both with your lunch and throughout the day. Hydration is one of (if not the) most important and most often ignored keystones of a healthy diet. Try to get at least 64 ounces in each day and take a sip after every bite at mealtimes. It helps with digestion, mental clarity, organ function, skin health, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.

Whether you consider lunch an event or a chore, be smart about what you eat and when you eat it. These tips should help you make the most out of your midday!