Eating again

Not only is that the title of this post, but it's kind of the story of my life. In addition to my lifelong preoccupation with food that I've already written about, now I'm the mom who gets asked, "What's for breakfast?" as soon as feet hit the floor and "What's for supper?" as soon as kiddoes are picked up from school. My personal favorite? "What are we doing for lunch?" before we've even left the church building on Sunday. God may have rested on the sabbath, but people who prepare food sure don't get to!

I'm still plowing through this whole eating thing. We eat supper at home more than we don't and planning, shopping, and preparing is all pretty manageable with the E-Mealz system. Breakfast in our house is typically cereal, yogurt, cheese sticks, and maybe toast or bagels. Since we've had to add more protein for Caleb, there are also mornings that I get up and poach eggs in an egg poacher that belonged to my grandmother. I love the memories that come with it and the quickness of getting five eggs started, just walking away, and having them ready in a few short minutes.

So where is the hard part?

Lunch.

I love going out for lunch with friends. I have wonderful friends. WONDERFUL FRIENDS! I love my co-workers and we try to eat together at least once a week. I have other friends who also work on campus and lunch is a great time to get away from campus, away from the office and get a boost of encouragement for facing life again.

Also, I'm not a morning person. I'm doing good to get anything pulled together for breakfast. Asking me to think about LUNCH is really asking me a lot. Because of that, I usually leave the house without anything in hand. There are times when I stock up on frozen lunch things and eat them in the break room, but honestly -- I often forget to buy them when I'm shopping.

So then 12:00 rolls around and I have to decide. To eat, or not to eat. That is the question. Usually the choice is to eat, but I'm unprepared. Choice A: going out with friends. Choice B: Something from the student center.

There are several options in the student center, but what I tend to get is the Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme. Oh my word. It is several layers of greasy Tex-Mex wannabe goodness and it is only $2.08 because of my faculty discount. OOH! And most of the time I don't even have to pay for it right then because I can use my ID and charge it until the end of the month.

Yep -- lunch is my downfall. Lack of preparation, the desire to get away, and quick and easy bad-for-me food create an ongoing situation of bad choices from Lisa.

I've been thinking about how to make changing my lunch routine (or lack thereof) a fun thing. How can I see this as a joy instead of a task?

I'd love to hear ideas from you. What do you do for lunch if you work away from home? Or better yet, how have you made changing habits a positive and enjoyable thing? I need your help, people!