So you’ve made the decision to eat low carb- kudos to you for that. However, you may soon realize that it can easily become a lot more difficult than you anticipated; at least without diligent thought and preparation.
So What’s To Be Done?
Let’s face it- we all have jobs (or at least I hope so!) and it can be quite the task to wake up very early in the morning to prepare food, then struggle through morning commute for who knows how many more hours. Then, as soon as you reach into work, you run down to the vending machine and pick up a Snickers. Whoa there! You’re off to a bad start.
What if I told you, that you can carry your food with you? Yes, I know you won’t be spending hours in the kitchen before work, but there are ways you can expedite preparation time, and have delicious, healthy and most importantly portable low carb meals at your disposal.
Related: Help! I Miss My Carbs: How To Overcome Your Carb Addiction
First, A Few Quick Tips:
- Do the bulk (or all) of your preparation on weekends– you can easily cut veggies for salads, marinate and grill meat, and even portion off entire meals, all over a Sunday afternoon.
- Make a List of All the Likely Needed Food for the Week– you’re more likely to fall off a diligent plan if you have nothing to eat! So, stock up, and cook happily!
- Don’t Go Condiment Heavy– by this, we mean try to limit or restrict the amount of condiments added to these otherwise healthy and low carb meals. Condiments are loaded with hidden carbs and sodium, which can leave you scratching your head wondering where you’re going wrong.
Related: Low Carb Diets For Heart Health
With That Out Of The Way, Here Are Some Great, Healthy And Portable Low Carb Meals Ideas
- Bread-less Sandwiches: finding it hard to forego your delicious bread based sandwiches? For many people, bread forms a very important meal base, around which endless varieties of sandwiches can be concocted. Going cold turkey on bread when on a low carb diet can drive you bananas! But, luckily, you can use lettuce to substitute as bread slices, or even in the case of bun less burgers! Sandwiches are the ultimate portable food, and this can be a godsend. Fill with lean meats, onion, ranch dressing for a zesty kick (which coincidentally is low in carbs wink wink!) and, in limitation, a bit of cheese. You can try a new type of lettuce sandwich everyday if you like!
- Stir Fried Veggies And Seafood: don’t like to cut up and prepare veggies on the weekend? (Lazy, aren’t you!) Then, still no reason to stress. You can just as easily pick up a bag of frozen veggies from you supermarket freezer isle, and easily whip out a few for a tasty stir fry. Add shrimp in the mix, or even canned tuna, and what you’ve got is a powerful and portable meal rich in heart healthy Omega-3 Fatty acids and lots of Zinc (watch out for that libido increase!)
- Low Carb Bento Boxes– bento boxes may be unknown to you, but they can be a very nice way to spruce up a boring or visually dead diet. The way food looks plays an important part in its perceived taste, and this is especially where bento box low carb meals excel. All you need is a lunch bowl with 3-4 compartments, and fill with various foods in each. Typically, Japanese Bento contains rice, but low carb substitutions are a quick and easy fix. You can fill one compartment with seasoned or stir fried veggies (your choice; I love the way stir fried Brussels sprouts taste!), one compartment with a lean meat of your choice, or even better fish; and a boiled egg or two in the other compartment. Sprinkle a little soy sauce (low carb!) over the dish and you will have a delectable meal that looks stunning too.
- Smoked Or Grilled Kebabs– love a good Fourth of July weekend? So do we! Well, now you can have your mini HEALTHY low carb barbecue whenever you need! Just fire up that grill (gas or charcoal) and make your own kebabs on skewers! Accessorize with sweet bell peppers, onion, tomatoes, maybe some bacon, and even the occasional pineapple chunk. A very low carb portable meal as long as you do not go overboard with the pineapple.
- Good Old Salads– nothing beats a nice salad when it comes to health, and convenience. Salads take a mere minutes to prepare, can be done however you like, and are filling too. Load up with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and lean meats of your choice (turkey works well here). Hey, if you like pack two servings for a long day!
Now that you’ve seen the simplicity of packing a healthy low carb meal, there’s no longer a reason to not carry yours from home.
The portability of these meals is unmatched; you can likely fit them in your handbag or even pocket!
