Day 17 - Eat a Healthy Lunch

Read the recommendations for this practice here:
Day 17

This is something I believe in very strongly. Because of my digestive problems, I have to eat throughout the day, and I have to have very specific foods, so I have to make sure I have the right foods to eat. I usually spend time on Fridays or Saturdays prepping my meals for the week. The first thing I do is my meal plan for the week. I plan my breakfasts, mid morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and supper. My lunch is my main meal of the day, and supper is usually light. I prepare my healthy lunches in advance.

• I'll make a batch of egg muffins using the veges I'm allowed and then freeze them in packs of 2. These are great and heat up nicely in the school microwave.
• I make a sweet potato and tuna pie that also freezes well and heats up easily. This one provides 4 meals.
• I buy small packets of smoked salmon which I have with salad and 2 slices of my Paleo seed bread.
• When I cook chicken I always keep some for the next day, which I have with salad.
• About once every 2 weeks I get Chinese takeaway. Because I don't eat much at night, this delivery generally lasts me 4 meals. I order spring rolls, vegetables, a hot dish such as chicken cashew nut, and fried rice with vegetables. I'll have maybe 2 spring rolls and some vegetables for my supper, and split the chicken dish and rice into 2 tupperwares for 2 lunches. Then I have the remaining spring rolls and any left over vegetables for my breakfast. And all this only costs me around 80LE (which is about R120). A bargain, I'd say!

Once a week I eat out with my friends either at the Club, or a restaurant. Now that the Ocean Basket has opened up near my home, I have been there a couple of times and it was awesome! My night out is usually a Thursday (which is our Friday here in Egypt), so I pack a lighter lunch or sometimes buy something from the canteen. The food in our canteen is awesome, and there are healthy options. On a Thursday they do a chicken wrap which is delicious - grilled chicken breast mixed with salad vegetables and tahini, in a wrap which they then grill to warm it up. This costs 20LE (R30) and is one of my favourite lunches from the canteen. It is not a huge portion, so I don't feel bloated after I've eaten.

I also eat fruit every day at lunch time. I am quite restricted on which fruits I can eat, but luckily the ones I am allowed are freely available here. At the moment, honeydew melons are in season, and oranges are just on their way out, but I have been making myself fruit salads consisting of orange and melon with some ginger powder sprinkled over it. Yum! I prepare this every 3 days or so, and keep it in the fridge and just pack a portion into my lunch box in the morning.

I also have a healthy snack such as zucchini muffins. Again, I bake a batch of these on the weekend and freeze them. I think they are my favourite Paleo snack, and because there's no sugar in them they don't upset my bacterias! I bought some circular tupperwares that they fit into pefectly, and pop them into my lunch box every morning. By the time the lunch bell rings they are defrosted, and sometimes I'll pop my muffin of the day into the microwave for a few seconds just to warm it up. I have made these muffins a good few times now, and I have learnt how to make them really well, and now that I'm making my own almond flour, they are even better.

On Saturday, the day of this challenge, I was in the middle of the Sahara Desert, and wasn't sure if I would be able to achieve it this day, but as it turned out, I did. We stopped at an oasis on our way back from the desert, and we had a delicious Bedouin-style lunch which consisted of spicy chicken, both cooked and pickled vegetables, baladi bread, tahini, and pasta. I was able to eat some chicken and vegetables with some baladi bread spread with tahini. So another tick on my calendar!