A full month of home-packed lunches -- can you do it?
It’s back-to-school season, a time for parents, teachers and others who work in schools to say goodbye to summer and hello to the task of filling up that lunch box. And for those of us that aren’t going back to school, it’s a good time of year to get back into gear after a long, lazy summer and get into the habit of packing a lunch each day.
Brown-bag lunches have countless health and economical benefits. By packing your own lunch and snacks, you have control over ingredients and portions, making it easier to keep your diet in check. Brown-bagging it also saves money — restaurant and fast-food lunches can run up to $15 per day; imagine saving that money instead.
But planning lunches can be difficult. With all of the other responsibilities at home and at work, and 2 other meals a day to plan out, grabbing lunch on-the-go is often the easiest option. Difficult doesn’t mean impossible, though, and we love a challenge. So for the month of September, we’re challenging ourselves and our readers to eat a home-packed lunch each day of the workweek. Care to join us? We can do this together.
The Details:
- The challenge: Bring your lunch to work each weekday for the month of September (Thursday, 9/1-Friday, 9/30).
- A Healthy Eats editor will blog several times per week about the challenge. We’ll offer recipes, tips, and inspiration to help with the struggles of packing a lunch.
- Each Tuesday, we’ll post on Healthy Eats with a roundup of links from other bloggers participating in the challenge. If you’d like to be included in the round-up, links are due by 5 pm ET each Monday.
- We’ll chat daily on Twitter about what we’re eating with the hashtag #brownbag.
- We’ll host a dietitian-led Facebook chat, mid-month, about healthy lunch options.
Think you can do it? Join in and help us spread the word on healthy, home-packed lunches. Simply email Healthy Eats at foodnetworkhealthyeats at gmail dot com to get in on the fun. We’ll send you any follow-up information, as well as a graphic you can use on your Brown Bag blog posts. Participants are encouraged to take the full challenge — one month without purchasing lunch on weekdays (it’s okay to eat out on weekends and Labor Day), but you can blog about the Brown Bag Challenge as often as you’d like; it doesn’t have to be daily. And you’re free to choose your favorite lunch container; you certainly do not have to use a brown bag.
I usually pack my lunch anyways, but I think this challenge will help me make sure I am doing it EVERY DAY. It is so easy to get lazy and pick up Subway or hot food from the grocery store on my lunch break! Good luck, have fun everyone!
I'm going to give this a try and see how many of my friends at work want to join. We teach and going out for lunch is not possible. This will definitely save us money and perhaps we'll all lose a few while getting some great lunch ideas. Good luck to everyone!
Count me in
I AM SO IN!!!!
FABULOUS Timing.. September 1st is like New Year's EVE for getting back to health. I'm IN!~
Chere Bork
gona giv it a try..so im n
Count me in! I bring my lunch daily as I am conditioning now for competition in November it will continue to keep me focused and hopefully motivate others! My diet is very clean eating with an array of complex carbs, vege's and chicken, fish and turkey! What a great idea and not only promotes healthy eating but saving money too!!
[...] Food Network’s Brown Bag Challenge came at the perfect time. Spending $80 a month on lunch still seemed excessive so I decided to take the challenge. For the entire month of September, I am going to bring lunch from home every day. The challenge is all about both eating healthy and saving money. I like it because I find every excuse as to why I can just buy lunch when I’m in the city. Lunch with friends, fresh air, not enough time in the morning. I have a 45 minute commute and get to work at 8 AM, but I can wakeup 5 minutes earlier to pack my lunch, especially if that means I can save $80. My fresh air excuse is no good because I can just eat outside or take a walk after I finish my lunch. And lunch with friends? Well, we rarely eat inside a restaurant, our lunch usually consists of grabbing something and eating down by the water. So really, this challenge is not negatively affecting any part of my lifestyle. [...]
Does it count if I buy tacos from Taco Belland back them for lunch the rest of the week? It's so hard to decide what to make other than the old school sandwiches. I need more ideas that tease my tastebuds.
i eat out every meal…. would like to start learning how to cook for myself… and easy recipes to start out with?
Rachel Ray is a great place to start!