Healthy Recipes for Lunch

1 fist-sized portion of whole grain/mixed bean staple food, 2 fist-sized portions of high-fiber vegetables, and 1 palm-thick portion of high-quality protein. There is no need to strictly follow dietary restrictions or count calories. Eating the right ratio can not only maintain your energy for an afternoon, but also help you stabilize your weight and reduce metabolic problems if you stick to it for a long time.

To be honest, the biggest pitfall I ever encountered was following the trend of eating carbon-free lunches. At that time, I saw bloggers saying that eating carbohydrates would make me sleepy in the afternoon, so I just ate boiled vegetables and a small piece of chicken breast at noon. I really felt that my mind was clearer in the first two days, but it didn't last a week. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, I drooled at the fried chicken on the takeout app. I couldn't bear it until I got off work and bought a hand pancake with intestines and eggs at the subway entrance. In half a month, I gained two pounds.

Nowadays, there is a fierce debate on the Internet about whether to eat carbohydrates for lunch. Low-carb and ketogenic people think that polished rice and white flour can raise sugar quickly and make you drowsy after eating, which will affect your efficiency. It is best to replace it with vegetables and protein.； The traditional view of nutrition is that as long as you choose the right whole grain staple food and eat it in moderation, you can keep your blood sugar stable and you won't feel hungry or panicked or unable to concentrate. After trying it myself, I feel that you don't have to go to extremes. It's fine to eat less than half a bowl of multigrain rice. If there is an important report or a meeting in the afternoon, I change the staple food to half a corn, and my mind is indeed clearer.

I have been carrying rice for almost two years, and I have never bought the kind of online celebrity healthy meals that cost dozens of yuan. Calculated, the cost of a meal is only about ten yuan. Let me give you a reference for the combination I often eat: Monday is 3 slices of beef tendon + stir-fried spinach + a small bowl of three-color quinoa rice. Tuesday is pan-fried pangasius + garlic that can be cooked in an air fryer in 10 minutes. Broccoli + half a steamed sweet potato. Sometimes you get up late and don’t want to cook. You can still make a healthy meal by ordering takeout, such as skinless chicken drumsticks + 5 steamed dumplings + a cold vegetable from Shaxian County, or steamed fish + tomato scrambled eggs from a Chinese fast food restaurant. Ask the boss to reduce the amount of rice by half. Don’t drink the sweet soup provided. Just switch to the free barley tea.

Oh, by the way, vegetarian friends don’t need to panic. You don’t need to make up any protein powder. Just replace the animal protein with northern tofu, chickpeas, mushrooms, etc. A palm-thick northern tofu and a small handful of soft boiled chickpeas have enough protein content. My vegetarian colleagues have been eating this for more than half a year, and there are no problems with the protein index in the physical examination. Friends who control sugar should reduce the proportion of white rice in their staple food to less than one-third and replace it with miscellaneous beans such as oats and adzuki beans. The rate of blood sugar rise is much slower, and you will not be so sleepy after eating that you can't open your eyes.

I've seen people say that you have to stand for half an hour after lunch to lose weight. I stupidly stood for half a month before, and my legs got sore while standing and I got acid reflux. Later, I asked a friend who is a nutritionist and I found out that walking slowly for 5 minutes is enough. Even sitting, as long as you don't bend over and cradle your stomach, is better than standing.

After all, a healthy lunch is meant to make you feel comfortable. You don’t have to force yourself to eat boiled vegetables that you don’t like to eat just to make up for the proportion. If you really want to eat sweet and sour pork ribs today, just order a piece with stir-fried lettuce and two mouthfuls of rice. It is still a qualified healthy meal. Making eating a KPI that needs to be strictly implemented goes against the original intention of health.