How To Eat a Balanced Lunch When You're Busy

We are all busy and that's probably why we tend to lean towards convenience foods. We don't really know how to eat well when time is tight.

Here are some tips to think through when time is tight that will make eating a balanced lunch (and any meal for that matter) a little easier to chew.

Firstly, know your schedule. Simply knowing when you are likely to be busy helps when you need to do some planning. If you know that you've got back to back meetings and the day will be rushed from start to finish, its important to be aware that you might not get to have a very long break at lunch at all, so choosing something that is very quick and easy might be the way to go.

Also, knowing if you've got a late night the night before and a rushed morning before work might govern the items you choose to put into your lunchbox because you simply don't have the time to prepare much.

Which brings us to our second tip, which is to pre-prepare items ahead of time. Just as you know you'll have a busy day with lots of tasks or meetings you often know which mornings you'll have a little longer to prepare your packed lunch or which nights you can get things ready ahead of time. When you know these times it makes it a little easier to put things together for your lunches so that you can rely on them when time is tight.

For example you might pre-portion out some dried fruit for lunches into small containers or bags so that you can grab them on the run on other days. Or you might put some fruit bread into individual serves so that you can simply pick it up and pop it in your lunch bag as you head out the door for work one morning. Once you've pre-portioned out some items it might be useful to freeze them in pre-portioned lots for quick access when you're busy.

Often the weekends or your days off are great for this type of task, you may even be able to fit in a little baking and pre-portion some of these items and put them in the freezer so that you can used these for lunches during the week.

The third tip is to prepare some extra from the meal you had the night before that you can take and reheat at work the next day, if you have a microwave at work. Preparing extra and portioning it into the container the night before allows you to grab it out of the fridge quickly on the way to work and also tends to be the envy of staff at work, because you have a very interesting, tasty lunch. You will probably find that you will very much look forward to during the morning too.

We often think of frozen or canned fruit and vegetables to be substandard to fresh. The preservation techniques used these days are very good and these types of fruits and vegetables are definitely suitable to include in a balanced lunch. This is tip number 4. They are a great way to ensure you have fruit and vegetables included in your lunch and most importantly, they are particularly quick, easy and convenient while still ensuring your nutritional needs are being met. Another point to highlight about canned items is that you can easily add more protein and fibre to a salad with tinned beans or lentils and these are quick and convenient.

And finally, tip number 5 is, think quick and easy when you're planning what you're eating for the week or you are at the supermarket. Simply thinking what you might be able to turn into quick and easy lunches or pre-portion into lunch size options is hugely helpful. If your budget allows, a lot of food items can be purchased in individual serve portions, which means that you don't even have to pre-portion them at all.

There are 5 tips for you to help when you want to keep your lunch balanced, but time is tight.

For more tips on balancing your lunch despite your business, special diets and generally healthy eating at lunch see http://www.pinterest.com/fitnessmiss