You don't need to order pizza or Chinese take-out for lunch. That's how I got to be 340 pounds. Get in the habit of taking your lunch to work with you - or if you must eat out, try to find something healthy like a salad or - my personal "on-the-road" preference - find a Subway.

If you have the luxury of making a healthy lunch, here are some of my choices:

Turkey on Wheat

Nothing satisfies like like a turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread!

• 4 oz white turkey meat (120 cal)
• 2 slices of lite wheat bread (90 cal)
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• Lettuce & tomato (a few cals)

Yeah, if you don't like mustard you can splurge on a little mayo or Miracle Whip - but you're adding saturated fat to a nice low-fat lunch.

Frozen Dinners

There are a lot of great frozen "TV" dinners that make excellent lunches too. Many have only 200 to 300 calories. I'll talk more about these in the Dinners section. I love them for lunch too, so I thought I'd mention them here.

Soups

Soups make excellent lunch choices - especially in the cold winter months. Good soups are any vegetable-based soup, bean soups, lentil soup, etc. Avoid any soup that begins "cream of..." as they are usually packed with calories and fat. You can also remember to add a teaspoon of flax oil to your soup for your extra-healthy Omega 3 fat.

Still hungry after your soup? Go ahead and have yourself a small granola bar, or a fat-free yogurt. You can also have a piece of lite wheat bread. Dip it in your soup. Surprisingly, many brands of crackers have a lot of calories in them (they are pretty dense).

Chicken Baked Potato

Bake on potato (220 cal). Top with two ounces of cubed chicken breast meat (60 cal) and 1/2 an ounce of cheese (50 cal) or 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil (50 cal). Serve with a plate of steamed vegetables (like broccolli). Yum.

Big Salad

I love making salads. Remember, you can eat pretty much as much lettuce or spinach as you want, and there are only a few calories in it. The rule of thumb: the darker the leaves, the more nutrients in the lettuce. I personally like to mix 1/2 rommaine lettuce with 1/2 spinach leaves. Avoid the old iceburg lettuce. There's nothing wrong with it, but there are hardly any nutrients in it.

• 1 cup lettuce (10 cals)
• 1 cup spinach (10 cals)
• 2 tablespoons of chi-chi (garbanzo) beans (30 cal)
• 10 olives, your choice (50 cal)
• 5 slices cucumber (a few cals)
• a few oz of diced carrots (a few cals)
• a few oz of bean sprouts (a few cals)
• 1/2 tablespoon flax oil (50 cals)
• 1 tablespoon lite vinnaigrette dressing (35 cal)

An excellent salad - lots of volume, some good fat, and not a whole lot of calories. If you've already had your fat for the day, and are running out of calories, you can skip the flax oil. Also, if you want to turn this into a meal, go ahead and add 6 oz of grilled chicken or turkey breast (or my favorite: salmon) and you've got yourself an awesome dinner.

Peanut Butter Toast

Try this for a great, quick lunch:

• 1 slice lite wheat toast (45 cal)
• 2 teaspoons of "all natural" peanut or (preferably) almond butter (45 cal)

Serve with a container of fat-free yogurt (80 cal) and an apple (80 cal). Great lunch, few calories.

Tuna Tortilla

I love tuna fish. It has a good amount of protein, few calories, and tastes great. Make sure you get lite tuna packed in water, not oil.

• 3 oz tuna (100 cal)
• 1/2 tablespoon flax oil (50 cal)
• 1 flour or spinach tortilla (100 cal)
• A much lettuce or spinach as you can stuff in (a few cal)

Serve with a cup of vegetable soup, and you've got a great lunch.

Chicken Quesadilla

Don't add any oil to this... just put 3 oz of chicken and 1 oz of fat-free cheese sandwiched in a folded lite whole-wheat tortilla shell. Stick it in a frying pan (without oil - maybe a quick hit of 0-cal non-stick spray) until the outside is golden brown. Yummy.

Tuna & Cucumber Sandwich

One can of tuna fish. Two slices of whole wheat bread. Half a cucumber. Sesame seeds. Olive oil. Mix up the tuna, seeds, and oil. Slice up the cucumber. Slap it all on the bread. Awesome lunch. Serve with a couple of pickles.

Rick's Greek Salad

This is one of my favorite salads:

• Cooked chicken breast (canned works fine)
• Lettuce (or spinach)
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• Fat free feta cheese
• Olives
• Olive oil (low-cal people can use 0-cal cooking spray but it doesn't taste as good).
• Greek seasoning

Throw your veggies, cheese, and olives together in a salad bowl. Mix in a small amount of olive oil and sprinkle on some Greek seasoning.

In a pan, use a small amount of 0-cal spray or olive oil (1 tbsp works fine for me) and just heat up your already-cooked chicken breast. Sprinkle on some of the Greek seasoning.

Put your chicken on your salad. Mix it up. Enjoy!

Computer Training & Tutorials     Microsoft Access Tutorial     Gift Certificate Software     Weight Loss