5 Healthy Lunch Habits for Career Women

It’s so easy for career women to get caught up in a busy work day and let their eating habits suffer.

I used to be that person and it led to weight gain and disappointment in myself after the fact. Mainly because I knew better, but continued with the poor lunch habits anyway.

I completely turned that around with fairly minimal effort.

Since I only needed to invest minimal effort, I was able to stay consistent, so healthy lunch habits soon developed. That’s why I’m sharing these 5 healthy lunch habits for career women with you.

Decide What Lunch Foods You’ll Feel Good About

Deciding ahead of time works wonders as far as keeping you making decisions that are in alignment with your health or weight loss goals.

Deciding what lunch foods you’ll feel good about really helped me, because I wanted to no longer feel disappointed in myself. I wanted to feel that I made a decision I could be proud of.

As an Eating Habit Coach, I know this will help you as well. Avoiding the discomfort of disappointment (or any other negative emotion), is a big motivator. Also, keeping in mind your future goals and how they benefit you is another big motivator.

This means deciding ahead of time which lunch foods will help you avoid any negative emotion afterward plus help you reach your goals is so powerful.

So that can mean a salad with protein on it, leftover chicken and veggies from the night before, or minestrone soup from the cafe next to your office. You get to decide what exactly it is that will make you feel better.

• LISTEN OR READ: 7 Energy Boosting Habits for Career Women (Podcast Episode)
• GET WEEKLY TIPS: Eating Habits, Weight Loss, Mindset (Weekly Email)

Make it as Easy as Possible

Whenever you want to create a new habit, you have to make the new action (behavior) as easy as possible to do.

That way, it’s not only easy to do once, but easy to do multiple times. The more you do it, the more likely it will actually become a habit.

So whatever you’ve decided to eat ahead of time for lunch (that you’ll feel good about), set yourself up for success by making it easier to pack that healthier lunch.

Either pack it the night before and set an alert on your phone reminding you to do it, or put out a few things the night before that will make it easier to pack it up the morning of.

You’ll increase your chances of following through on what you intended. That’s one of the most useful of the 5 healthy lunch habits for career women. One that I found incredibly helpful myself.

• LISTEN OR READ: Healthier Breakfast Habits (Podcast Episode)

Say “Yes” to Yourself Before Others

One of the biggest things I see with career women who are trying to lose weight or change their eating habits is that they say “yes” to others too often.

What I mean is, when someone offers you a dessert, chips, fries, or just more food in general, you can end up saying “yes” just to appease them. To avoid the uncomfortable “no” and the fear of them taking offense.

But if you don’t learn to say “yes” to yourself, your goals, your health, you’ll continue on the path you’re currently on that you’d rather not be on.

Saying “no” when someone offers you something you weren’t planning on eating or don’t feel you need or want, doesn’t offend them. Your actions can never cause a feeling of offense in someone.

What they THINK about your actions may cause them to feel offended. They’re in control of their own thoughts, their perceptions, not you. So that means THEY’RE the ones that cause themselves to feel offended, not you.

Just keep that in mind, and make sure to say “yes” to yourself without concern of offending someone.

Saying “yes” to yourself can sometimes be one of the toughest of these 5 healthy lunch habits for career women. Especially because you may find that you have a habit of doing everything for everyone else, and forgetting about yourself.

• LISTEN OR READ: Self-Compassion and Your Eating Habits (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: Social Eating Habits (Podcast Episode)

Step Away From Your Workspace

Another of the 5 healthy lunch habits for career women is to not eat your lunch at your desk (unless you absolutely have to).

When you eat at your desk, you’ll likely be working as well, or get distracted by something work-related. When this happens, it’s difficult to pay attention to enjoying your food and knowing when you’ve actually had enough to eat.

Often, mindless eating results in overeating. Mindless eating is when you’re not fully focused on the act of eating, because your attention is elsewhere.

So, choose a spot you can go to eat your lunch, preferably outside if you’re able to. This was something I had to be really intentional about, but you’ll notice the difference when you do separate your lunch from your work.

• LISTEN OR READ: Mindful Eating for Weight Loss (Podcast Episode)
• LISTEN OR READ: My Emotional Eating Habit (Podcast Episode)

Only Eat if You’re Actually Hungry

Did you know that you don’t have to eat at lunch time if you’re not hungry? And if you find yourself hungry at another time that’s not the traditional lunch time, you can eat at that time instead?

Eating a full meal at lunchtime is something that was just arbitrarily chosen by people many years ago. This doesn’t mean everyone is going to be hungry at that time. It also doesn’t mean you need to eat a full meal.

You can eat just a small snack if you feel that’s all you really need. You can delay your lunchtime until a little later, or eat a little earlier if need be.

You get to decide when you eat and if you’re trying to build healthy eating habits, that should be when you’re truly hungry. So just ask yourself at lunch time, if you really are hungry and see what amount of food will satisfy that hunger.

Believe it or not, this is a skill that I commonly help my clients with…and it works. It can seem difficult when you don’t know how exactly to go about it, but I can help you.

Book a time to talk with me via Zoom or phone regarding any eating habits you need help with, or if you’re struggling to lose weight and keep it off without feeling deprived.

• LISTEN OR READ: Food Craving vs. True Hunger (Podcast Episode)

A Final Tip to Help

Reading these 5 healthy lunch habits for career women is great, but our human brains retain things much more easily when written down at least once.

So, take a quick moment to write down each of these 5 healthy lunch habits, and put them in a spot to serve as a reminder so you can actually implement as many as you’d like.

You’ve already taken the time to read this blog post, so taking an extra 30 seconds to jot down the 5 healthy lunch habits will increase your likelihood of success.