Healthy Lunchbox Swaps for Adults

Back-to-School Reset and Adult Lunchboxes 0:00

Our next guest says August is kind of like the new January when the kids head back to school. It is a good chance for adults to hit the reset button too. We've got Doctor Amy Duffy here and it's all about packing your own lunch box and grownups make shifts too Well, we get the hustle and bustle of getting the kids ready and back to school. Mine go back on Friday. It's still summertime, right? And it's really easy for us to just forget about us and do a grab and go or fast food or whatever. But let's rethink how we can have a cool adult lunchbox, too.

Yeah, perfect. So it starts with the right fuel. You brought three or so grown up lunch box swaps for focus and energy. And the first one we start way on the left side. Instead of the sandwich on white bread, we do one instead. Yeah. We're just going to do a wrap. I made an easy turkey cheese. Throw some avocado. Add that with some veggies and your fruit of your choice and you're going have a great energy packed, fuel packed.

Turkey Wrap Lunch Swap 0:52

If you eat something like this, it's just a card load, a sugar load and you're gonna end up being tired and grouchy the rest of the day. And that wrap can come together, just the nice big lettuce, roll everything up. You just roll it up and it is really easy. Excellent. Next is the store bought salads that we see a lot. This is an easy grab. Sometimes it a whole salad or whatever they've got. That's convenient, but you say instead of that, we choose something different. Yeah, you can make your own salad in a jar.

I made this super easy last night. Then you put a little bit of olive oil. You know, this one particularly is a pasta salad with bread. Again, just a ton. It makes you think it's healthy because it says the S word, right? But really, we're not dealing with any kind of vegetable. There's no protein. I threw some sunflower seeds in there for a little crunch instead of a crouton kind stuff. So super easy to pack that and go. You're saying not all salads are created equal. Can I dump this in and check this out?

This is great thing to back and you just feel good about looking forward to your lunch break.

Salad in a Jar and Meal Prep Tips 1:51

Jumping that out. You got, you know, store-bought dressings, too, are full of sugar and, yeah, I don't know if it's going to come out... Sometimes you put the sauce... You can put a dressing inside and that's probably what makes it come. Right, so I put dressing on the bottom. And that way, when you end up, then it's just right there at the top. That is a fine-looking salad. Makes it super easy. Just a little bit of meal prep. You're a big advocate of that, right? You know, that took five minutes, maybe, from a grilled chicken or something you had the night before.

So if you already have the ingredients there from dinner or some thing, just throw it in when your putting leftovers away. Much better than that bag of chips from the vending machine. Exactly. And then you also say you replace your granola bar and diet soda. We have those. I didn't bring a diet soda because I don't even want to buy it. What do we replace that with? You know, you might have a granola bar. I also brought this just, again, this kind of quick and easy thing you may grab. Most of the kids are doing these lunchables or whatever, but you can make your own little bento box.

A lot of places like Starbucks have these, too. But you've got your high protein with your eggs, some cheese, and some fruits. And then we made these super cool protein bars that we have recipe for. So that's another way, whether you're packing that in your lunch or Save that for your two or three afternoon snack when you need a little bit of energy, then you've got it already packed and ready to go, and you're skipping the vending machine choices.

Bento Box Snacks and Protein Bars 3:10

And when we talk about something satisfying, those really do a great thing. So you got a recipe, because people love eating them, but they don't necessarily love making them because they do not know how easy it is. Again, they're so easy. Right here we start with granola. This is actually oatmeal. It's just regular old oatmeal, and I threw a little pinch of salt in there, even though that's not in the recipe. When I mixed these up, I felt like they needed a bit of a salt. So that, throw in some chocolate chips in their.

We've got some flax seeds, so that is going to add some hormone balancing. And also those kind of expand. I'm sorry, those are chia seeds. But you can use chia or flex. They expand in your belly, they make you feel fuller, too, which is nice. That's a great trick. This a chocolate protein powder. Oh, wow. Again, that adding a lot of chocolate flavor, but also giving you some extra protein pack. and then I mix those together, that's honey and peanut butter. Excellent mixture, this is how it all stays together.

And then you throw this little splash of vanilla in there, gives again that little sweetness to it. So, you know, the only sweetener is maybe a tablespoon of honey in here and whatever you have in your chocolate chips. You can make as big of a mess as you want to. Thank you. I looked up to see if there was a close-up of that. And then this is all going to come together and then you just roll it in these little balls or you could pack it into a square and cut, you know, put it, in the fridge and you can cut it.

Into like little squares too to make your own little granola bar. So whatever shape you want to mess with, if you don't want get your hands really messy and it's not too messy once it all comes together. It's a masterpiece, especially when they're balled up and ready. So as I take a bite of this, you know, let's just talk about the whole reset that's happening. You say people are often, we're so worried about new backpacks and the supplies and then we are kind of frazzled. Any other kind self care tips to keep in mind?

Fall Reset, Planning Ahead, and Self-Care 4:46

about what you did for your New Year's resolutions in January. This is like another New Years, right? It's the start of the new school year. Even if you don't have kids in school, there's still this sort of general kind of summer's coming to an end, let's get a restart refresh for the fall. So just start thinking about planning ahead. Even if it takes getting up 10 minutes early to do something like this, it doesn't take a whole lot of time and effort. This is not just about diet. I'm not talking about lifestyle.

Minimizing the amount of chemicals and things that are coming into these quick foods, that's a huge distraction to your brain. It's a huge stress on your system. We always talk about stress and what what's going on on the inside as well. So the more we can control what we're putting in our body and you know it doesn't have to be organic even though I would love that. But you take when we take we were getting more control instead of this prepackaged stuff. And it's a matter of making a priority of it because once you make a prior of the time is available.

It becomes a habit and that's normal and then it is a one off if you have to go grab something through the drive through. We're inspired it will be a good year. People find Dr. Amy Duffy at Carolina integrative medicine in Clemson.