The meal: Breakfast burrito with beans, potatoes, bacon, eggs, cheese and salsa, and a Sprite Zero.
Kimberly Snyder's Assessment: "The burrito contains several types of protein (eggs, beans, and dairy, which contains casein protein that is especially difficult to digest), plus two different kinds of starch (potatoes and the wrap). Combining all of these different foods, which need different processes inside the stomach to be broken down, makes this lunch very difficult to digest. It's important to note that digestion can take 50 to 80 percent of our total body's energy and, if we're wasting energy on digestion, it's not being used to help rebuild skin and hair cells, or to help you be stellar at work."
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Make these tweaks:
"Start by hydrating before lunch (30 minutes or so) and try to drink as little as possible during lunch, which helps make digestion easier. Start lunch with some sort of raw vegetable -- a salad of sorts or at least a few celery or carrot sticks. If you love the idea of a burrito, let's change the contents so that it will be easier for your body to digest, like salsa, onions, spinach, mushrooms, peppers and black beans."
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Makeover No. 4: Jess, Project Manager
The meal: Eat Right Macaroni and Cheese Frozen Meal, 1/2 cup of watermelon, 1/2 cup of mango, 1/2 cup of sugar snap peas, 2 Girl Scout cookies, 100 Calorie pack popcorn, nonfat blueberry yogurt, 1 whole tomato
Kimberly Snyder's assessment: "First of all, there are so many different foods in this lunch that it is mindboggling -- and definitely belly-boggling. There are a few different kinds of dairy, two different kinds of fruit, various forms of starches, and a few veggies thrown in there (though none of them are dark, leafy veggies, which would be ideal). Eating so many different kinds of food groups at once takes an enormous amount of work to digest.
"To be blunt, the 'Eat Right Macaroni and Cheese Frozen Meal' should be called 'Eat Wrong.'"
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Make these tweaks:
"My first piece of advice to Jess is simplify her meal into fewer food groups. A salad with different veggies in it is one thing, as the veggies digest easily and well.
"I also urge Jess to stop eating all processed food, especially on a daily basis. Try to find fresh options for lunch, including salads and other whole foods that don't have to be reheated in a microwave."
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Makeover No. 5: Sarah, Senior Editor
The meal: Turkey Sandwich on a wheat roll with lettuce and garlic/olive oil spread, reduced-fat tortilla chips with tomatillo salsa, and a Coke Zero.
Kimberly Snyder's assessment: "For anyone that cares about beauty, health, or trying to delay or slow aging even a little bit, Coke Zero ranks among the worst things you can put in your body. Sure we can slather sunscreens and anti-aging creams on all day long, but putting acidic chemicals into the body will erode our beauty and age us from the inside out.
"I'd also love to see more fresh, water-containing produce in her lunch. Right now the only veggie I see is a measly piece of lettuce on her sandwich.
"The corn chips may be reduced in fat, but corn chips in general sure are starchy and also full of low quality, bloating table salt."
Do you have a New Year's resolution that goes something like "get healthy," "lose weight," or "cut down on junk food"?
While it might be tempting to throw out every last potato chip and Hershey's Kiss in a new year cleansing ritual, you know by now that deprivation usually leads to late-night ice cream or burger runs (where way more calories are consumed than if you'd just let yourself have the freakin' Kiss).
Most experts say the best way to get healthier is to start slow and keep the junk food in moderation. And the easiest way to get your healthy diet started: Make over your lunch.
Breakfast is tricky -- you're still half asleep and certainly not up to calculating the calories in your cereal and coffee. And by the time dinner rolls around you just need to eat, and a salad probably isn't going to cut it. But lunch is different. You can make it in advance and take a little time the night before to put together a healthy meal that'll keep you satisfied -- and also help you reach your health goals. And once you're used to making healthy lunches every day, it'll be easier to move onto the other meals and snacks -- and who knows, maybe even kick that Hershey's habit for good.
To help get you started, we looked at five women's normal lunches, then had Kimberly Snyder, nutritionist to celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Fergie, weigh in on how to make them over into good-for-you meals. Check them out to get ideas for your own brown bag makeover.
