What Is Skinny Fat? How to Fix It, Examples, & More
Learn what causes “skinny fatness” and how to fix it.
Read MoreEating a healthy lunch can be a challenge. We get so swamped at work that we grab some quick and unhealthy fast food or skip lunch altogether, sometimes without even realizing it.
I’ve forced myself to get in the habit of bringing my lunch to work with me. If I have lunch sitting in the office fridge, I’m less likely to overeat. And it’s a lot quicker to grab my pre-made lunch than figuring out where to order from. Plus, I seem to save more money when I bring my delicious leftovers from dinner.
All in all, it’s not hard to see why packing a healthy lunch is key to living a nutritious life.
The trick is getting in the habit of doing so, which takes a bit of recipe planning.
So in an attempt to garner more appeal for the most essential meal of the day (I think I’m sticking with this one), here are 7 healthy lunch ideas that will keep you powering through your day:
While researching ways to make healthier versions of foods I love, I came across these Clean Eating Power Meatballs over at He and She Eat Clean.
Instead of ground beef, this recipe calls for ground chicken or lean ground turkey. Choosing either of these options gives you lean protein to power through your day and keep you satisfied.
As Fit Day notes, both options will run you between 125-130 calories per 3 oz. serving, with turkey taking the edge for fewer calories. But both will net you 26 g of protein in that serving, which is a fantastic way to keep you going.
Plus, instead of using breadcrumbs, this recipe uses rolled oats. Since oats contain fiber to fill you up, you’ll be less hungry throughout the day.
And if you needed yet another reason to dig in, oats are also rich in folate, omega-3 fatty acids, and potassium.
This recipe makes 15 meatballs so you’ll have plenty for dinner and lunch the next day. Pair this with some tomato sauce and whole wheat pasta or even quinoa and you’re ready to go.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Here’s what you’ll do:
My love for eggs transcends just breakfast; I routinely make avocado egg salad on cloud bread for lunch and it’s an easy crowd pleaser for picnics.
I also like taking a page from the Italians who eat frittatas morning, afternoon, and night. This light and fluffy frittata marries perfectly with warm, hearty soup, or big cold salads.
I use Canadian bacon in this frittata.
Adding in the peas and broccoli for a little bit of protein and fiber rounds out this super healthful lunch option.
For the frittata you’ll need:
Instructions
It’s hard to resist ordering take out when you’re in the middle of a hectic work day, but I promise that you’ll be way more excited to look forward to this homemade noodle lunch instead.
Over at A House In The Hills, Sarah Yates Mora cooked up this soba bowl recipe that’s entirely vegan and gluten free.
A little known fact is that soba noodles are made of buckwheat, which is an essential grain. But they’re also naturally fat and cholesterol free. Just one cup of these noodles gives you 6 g of protein for only 113 calories.
This recipe makes about 2-3 servings, so you’ll have plenty to take to work for a few days. Trust me, you’ll need to keep yourself from devouring it all the first night you make it.
Not only is this noodle bowl good cold, but it also heats back up well in the microwave too.
Here’s what you need:
Here’s the directions:
These spinach quinoa patties combine two of my favorite healthy staples together. I like this recipe from Cassie at Back to Her Roots because it’s so versatile. You can make small patties and toss them in a salad for protein or snack on them during the day. You can also form them into larger patties and use them as vegetarian burgers.
Ingredients:
Directions:
Not only is this salad nutrient dense and healthy, but the colors in it are so beautiful you may be too busy Instagramming pictures of it to want to eat it. We can thank Megan at With Salt and Wit for this recipe.
Using superfood kale as a base provides us with essential vitamins, minerals, and even omega-3s. Kale is also packed with magnesium.
Your main source of protein in this salad comes from the chickpeas. One cup of chickpeas gives us 12 grams of protein.
Here are the ingredients for the salad:
Ingredients for the homemade Peanut Dijon Dressing:
Here’s how you make it:
These next two recipes feature avocado, a wonderfully healthy fruit I regularly praise.
This salad wins the award for delicious simplicity. In fact, you probably have all the ingredients for this one in your pantry right now.
Most vegetable salads rely on mayo as a binding ingredient, but not this one. By choosing to make your own vinaigrette, you’re adding healthy oil, lemon, and tangy Dijon mustard for flavor to the salad without adding a ton of calories.
Did you know that cucumbers fight off sugar cravings and even boost energy levels?
Both of those traits make me want to add cucumber to anything I eat in the afternoon, and they work perfectly in this salad.
The cannellini beans in this salad give you 14 g of protein per cup, plus their fiber will make this salad seem ultra filling. You can always add chicken if you’re trying to get more protein in your diet.
Here’s what you need for the salad:
And don’t forget about the dressing:
Here’s what you’ll do:
I love caprese salads; I can almost taste the juicy tomatoes, creamy mozzarella, and fresh basil right now. YUM.
But caprese salads are not exactly power lunch material…unless you’re using this recipe from Joyful Healthy Eats, which adds lean chicken for a major protein boost.
Bonus? It only takes 15 minutes to make two servings. Major score!
Ingredients:
Balsamic Vinaigrette:
Instructions:
All of these recipes have lean protein, healthy carbs, and tons of vegetables. By combining these ingredients, you’ll have perfectly healthy, power packed lunches to keep you going and satisfied until dinner.
"Dieting" doesn't have to suck. You CAN eat foods you like and have the body you want!
Click Here to Learn HowWhat if I told you that just about everything magazines and trainers “teach” you about dieting is wrong?
What if you could build muscle and lose fat eating “naughty” foods every week?
What if you didn’t have to suffer through low-carb dieting to get lean? In fact, what if you could eat all the carbs you wanted?
And what if you didn’t have to gorge yourself just to gain muscle and didn’t have to put on pounds and pounds of ugly fat, either?
In short, what if I told you that proper dieting--whether you want to maximize fat loss or muscle growth--is much simpler and more enjoyable than you’ve been led to believe?
Imagine eating delicious, filling meals every day...never feeling starved or stuffed...having great energy levels and workouts...and watching your body respond exactly as you desire, dropping fat or adding muscle each and every week.
And imagine finally understanding how proper dieting really works, never again falling for the BS, tricks, and gimmicks pushed by “gurus” and other shysters.
Well, I have good news.
All these “fantasies” can be a reality...if you know how to do a handful of “little” things correctly.
You see, when you know how to diet properly--and this doesn’t mean learning to eat boiled chicken and raw broccoli six times per day--getting lean and muscular becomes simple, convenient, and dare I say...enjoyable.
And this book will show you the way.
Learn what causes “skinny fatness” and how to fix it.
Read MoreIf you want big, strong, round delts that pop, you want to do these shoulder exercises and workouts.
Read MoreLearn what muscle groups to train together and how to train each one optimally.
Read MoreIs the barbell or Smith machine bench press best for gaining strength and muscle?
Read MoreTake our 60-second quiz now to learn which supplements can help you achieve your fitness goals faster.
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That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you live in the UK or Canada, your order ships free when it’s over $99.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Many companies use shipping and handling fees to increase their profit margins, but here at Legion, we hate profits, so our shipping is free!
Okay, so we do dig on profits, but we also go in for happy customers, and free shipping works like gangbusters. So, if you’re outside the USA, your order ships free when it’s over $199.
Why the restriction on international orders? Unfortunately, shipping abroad is very expensive, and if we didn’t require a minimum order size, we’d lose a lot of money. But! We're also hustling to improve our international logistics and will be passing our savings along to our international customers.
Also, if you don’t absolutely love our stuff for whatever reason, we don’t request you deliver it to a PO box in the Gobi Desert by carrier pigeon.
We just . . . wait for it . . . give you your money back. No returns. No forms. No nonsense. Holy moo cows.
That means you can say “yes” now and decide later. You really have nothing to lose.
Many ingredients in supplements don’t have any scientifically validated benefits, and many ingredients that do are often underdosed to the point of irrelevance.
That’s why we only use the choice ingredients and precise doses shown to be effective in peer-reviewed scientific studies.
You need more than great ingredients to make great products—you also need proper doses. That’s why we use the precise doses of ingredients shown to be effective in peer-reviewed scientific studies.
“Natural” doesn’t always mean “better,” but in many cases, natural ingredients are superior to artificial ones for various reasons, including purity, safety, and efficacy.
That’s why all of our ingredients in all of our products come from plant and animal sources, including sweeteners, colors, and flavors.
If you want to ensure the supplements you’re swallowing every day are safe and effective, you want products produced in the USA.
That’s why all of our supplements are made in America in NSF-certified and FDA-inspected facilities that operate in accordance with the Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) regulations.
Did you know that supplements can contain dangerously high levels of toxins like lead, arsenic, and cadmium?
That’s why we test every ingredient of every supplement we produce for heavy metals, microbes, allergens, and other contaminants and ensure they meet the strict purity standards set by the FDA.
While artificial sweeteners may not be as dangerous as some people claim, studies suggest that regular consumption of these chemicals may indeed be harmful to our health.
That’s why all of our supplements are naturally sweetened and flavored and contain no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk.
Many ingredients in supplements don’t have any scientifically validated benefits. That’s why we only use choice ingredients shown to be effective in peer-reviewed scientific studies.
“Natural” doesn’t always mean “better,” but in many cases, natural ingredients are superior to artificial ones for various reasons, including purity, safety, and efficacy.
That’s why all of our ingredients in all of our products come from plant and animal sources, including sweeteners, colors, and flavors.
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Some popular pre-workouts are all-natural. Some contain the right mix of high-quality ingredients. Some provide clinically effective doses. But only Pulse checks each of these boxes.
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While these types of chemicals may not be as dangerous as some people claim, studies suggest that regular consumption of them may indeed be harmful to our health. And that’s why we don’t put any of them into our products.
Before you buy a sports supplement, you should know that it's clean, safe, and transparent. And that's exactly what Labdoor's third-party testing and certification means.
It's hard to know for sure, but this probably makes Pulse the most-popular all-natural pre-workout supplement in the world.
If you don’t absolutely love this product, just let us know, and we’ll give you a full refund on the spot. No forms or return necessary.
Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab by Labdoor™, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
Analyzed for purity and potency in a state-of-the-art ISO 17025 accredited lab, the gold standard of third-party lab testing.
This product doesn’t just “contain natural ingredients”—every ingredient is naturally sourced from plants and animals. This product contains no artificial or synthetic sweeteners or flavors of any kind.
Our scientific review board of nutritionists, dietitians, molecular biologists, doctors, and other accredited experts is responsible for reviewing every article, podcast, and video we produce to ensure they’re evidence based, accurate, trustworthy, and current.
Thanks to their connections, credentials, and academic experience, this team of MDs, PhDs, and other professionals has access to a wealth of research published in the largest and most prestigious journals in the world.
This allows them to not only review individual studies but also analyze the overall weight of the evidence on any and all topics related to diet, exercise, supplementation, and more.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, misleading, out-of-date, or anything less than factual, please let us know in the comments section of the article in question.
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