Healthy Lunch or Junk? Meal Prep For Work.

Time: 9:36 am
Feeling: Full and sleepy

I'm at work. Just had breakfast, and I feel soo full and sleepy. I wonder if I'll be able to eat lunch. Yeah, I brought lunch to work, and that's what I actually want to talk about.

Source: Pinterest

If you know me, one thing you should know is that I'm big on saving money and cutting down on unnecessary expenditure as much as I can. Lol, but as much as I do this, I like to enjoy myself once in a while; I just go "Lois, just spend this money, na one life".

When I started working, in 2017, I found out that I did not like buying junk for lunch, for two major reasons:

• It was very unsatisfying, gosh! I'm not a big eater at all, I usually eat small helpings of food, but this just didn't cut it. It was usually a drink and biscuits and some candy.
• It was really expensive! It didn't seem like it, but it was! For something that's absolutely not filling.

I eventually decided to try to take lunch as much as I could. I don't think I took lunch to work every day though. Moving forward, during NYSC, I didn't take lunch to work, but I made sure to have breakfast (every day, I think) before work, I used to go to work not so early and return at noon, but for someone who isn't really an early breakfast person, it took so much discipline and effort 'cause I wasn't ready to have ulcer kill me. 

I'm currently in Uganda, and when I started this job, I went back to the cycle of eating biscuits and other unsatisfying things. Two months into the job, I decided I was going to start making lunch. It wasn't easy if I'm being honest, because, laziness didn't want me to tehehe. I checked Pinterest for quick lunch ideas - in fact, I already had a board for it, but I became slightly aggressive about it, and since then, I have been packing lunch!  I also think another motivating factor could be that I prefer home-cooked meals. I'm a bit (kidding. A lot) wary about germs the germs present in food cooked in restaurants. I only love food made in really fancy restaurants, because I want to desperately believe that they're cooked under more sanitary conditions.

It requires a level of discipline to keep up with this. Sometimes, I cook the meal after dinner, while I am cleaning the kitchen, other times, depending on what it is, I cook it in the morning (after the major preparations have been made, like cutting up the potatoes for chips, or cutting up the veggies) for freshness, and other times, I just take leftovers! Smartypants.

Today, I did not only pack lunch, but I also packed breakfast! Although, my timing sucked, could have woken up a bit earlier, but my bed was really cozy.

For breakfast, I usually buy biscuits on my way to work. The biscuits cost 300 Naira  (I work thrice a week), In a month, that would be about 1500 Naira. It seems pretty small, it is actually really small in fact. But look, I decided that it wasn't actually worth it, not as filling as bread, not as cheap as bread, not as much as bread ( I shared some of the bread with my siblings, definitely worth it!). I could always take some eggs from home, or buy an avocado, I can definitely do more with bread. The bread costs 250 Naira. Tell me it is not better than biscuits, I mean, I got to share, and it'll last the whole week. Worth it, if you ask me. Not necessarily way cheaper, but has way more value. I could always switch things up, I'm pretty sure I'll get tired of bread. When I think of something else I'll let you know. Although, if I feel like buying biscuits, I'd definitely get them, because na one life.


Taking food to work definitely trumps buying lunch or junk, if you ask me. It requires a level of commitment, but once you start, you'll get used to it, and you'll find other ways to put your money to use, or you could simply save it.

Tell me what you think. Do you already do this or do you find it stressful?

P.S.: I don't mind helping construct a time table for you!

Much love,
Fifi.