5 Truths about Being a Grown Up

So I had a Birthday this week. For some reason something about being 26 seems a lot older than being 25… and I don’t like it.  I tutor a lot of high school students, most are 10 years younger than me, and I have heard them say many times "I can't wait to be an adult"...and maybe it is because the "older" I am getting the more I am realizing that being an "grown up" isn't all we thought it was cracked up to be.

Jenna Marbles already covered this in her “I Hate Being a Grown up” video, and there are multiple buzzfeed lists about the topic but I thought I would share my own 5 Truths about being a Grown Up:

Truth # 1: You have so many appointments, and they all cost money.

Appointments always sneak up on me and are always during the busiest week or at the most inconvenient times/locations.

Why yes dentist appointment I made 6 months ago, thank you for having me reschedule all of my tutoring. And there are always hidden costs. Go to the dentist (even with insurance): 50-100 bucks. Bring the cats to the vet: 200 bucks, Get winter tires off car: Couple Hundred bucks. (Being a grown adult: priceless. Ha.)

Truth #2: There are no magic house elves to clean for you
It is a tough life lesson to realize that if you don’t pick up your stuff, no one else will. You now have to deal with things like CLEANING THE BATHROOM. And DOING DISHES. And dealing with MOUNTAINS of LAUNDRY!

And all that stuff takes so much darn time! You could always try to delegate if you have a sig.other...but sometimes their version of a clean bathroom is just taking everything out of the bathroom and leaving on the "den" floor.

To be fair, the bathroom was clean!

Truth #3 Responsible life choices become mandatory.

A couple years back a responsible life choice would have been studying for a midterm...or doing an assignment before the night before it was due. Now responsible life choices include things like saving for a house, or even saving for retirement. Or planning a wedding! Some way more grown up people than me are even starting to have to be responsible for living human beings! Terrifying! (Note that I am currently blogging to avoid making a responsible life choice and finishing my taxes.)

Truth #4 If you aren't tired, you aren't doing adulthood right. 

I would say I have an average energy level, get my 6-8 hours of sleep, eat healthy etc. (see truth 4 above, responsible life choices), but in talking with EVERY OTHER ADULT, everyone is just so darn tired. Working 1 or 2 jobs, or working towards a post grad, or caring for other human beings means that adulthood is full of yawns, and lack of naps. Also there is caffine involved. When I was a kid I would resist going to bed so much that I would make myself sick just to get to stay awake longer, now I'm like "I can go to bed early...yess!"

Truth #5 Having a social life and/or hobbies takes effort.
After working, cleaning/cooking, making responsible choices, saving money, and loving going to bed early, you realize it takes even more effort to make MORE PLANS! In school/university, there were many (mostly free) clubs to join, and you just basically showed up. You could try anything you wanted (sports, musical theatre, debate, trivia club..yes that was a thing and it was awesome), and have time to do your homework and go to class. Yes there are still a tons of things to do now as a "grown-up", but now it just takes more effort to find it, most of it costs money, and its hard to find the time to fit everything in! Also, in school/university, you are around your friends all the time, now you actually have to put in effort to see people IRL. And getting everyone together when you all have free time, that takes some serious planning!


Basically,if any teenager is reading this right now 16 is probably more "fun" than 26 but I will include a caveat though. At 26 I am (and I think most people are), more confident than 16, know more about who I am, and know what my 5 year plan is. And I can do things cool things like order a pizza at 3:00pm just because, or book a trip to calgary to visit my friends without consulting my parents.

And if you are a "more grown up" person reading this you are probably laughing at me and saying "oh you think it is bad now, just wait until you are 36/46 etc!" I get that part of life is growing up, and getting more independent, while at the same time being more responsible...but that is something I don't like thinking about too much...it really puts a damper on my nap time!

What Grown Up Truth would you add? Anyone else ride magic carpets to dentist appointments?

Sunday Funday Foodstuffs: 3 Quick Healthy Meals

I meant to blog this on Wednesday since that is my "Blog about food day", but life happens, and this post is a Sunday night one instead. Deal with it.

In the past couple of weeks I have made some blog worthy meals (others not so much, pretty sure no one wants to hear about the toast with PB and banana I had for supper on Friday). Also, sorry for the blurry phone pics. My actual camera was accidentally left in Halifax back at Christmas because I was a little distracted the night before I left.

Round 1: Salmon with Arugula Pesto and Celeriac Mash

With the Fresh City Farm bag, I happened to have a surplus of celeriac (root of a celery, tastes like a mixture between celery and potatoes), and arugula..what to do, what to do? But then I had a great experience...Ever google some random ingredients and find the exact meal you can make? That happened to me, when I found this recipe on The Food Coma Blog. The only thing I was missing was the brussel sprouts so I just cooked up some Kale in the same pan that I cooked the salmon, surprisingly the fishy remnants actually gave the kale a great flavour. To be fancy I used a circle mold for the celeriac mash and added a few leaves of arugula. Best  (?) part was, Mike wasn't home for dinner that night, so the fancy meal was for no reason at all!

Round 2: Roasted Veggie Lettuce Wraps with Curry Sauce

Once again, I had a surplus of root veggies, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and wing this recipe: 

1. Fill a baking sheet with Chopped Potatoes, Carrots, Turnip, Jerusalem Artichokes, Turnips, Squash, Garlic, Shallots (any root veggies you have on hand, beets would have been great in this)
2. Splash some EVOO, salt and pepper, and roast in the oven at 450 for 30 minutes, turning once halfway through. 
3. Plate on boston lettuce with some rice. 
4. Curry Dip: 2 tbsp of Plain greek yogurt, 2 tsp of Curry
5. Mix and eat! 

It turned out pretty delicious, and the curry yogurt gave a nice refreshing twist on such a "winter" meal...and it was nice and colourful!

Round 3: Cabbage and Collard Stir Fry and Kale Chips

Once again my inspiration for this meal was the overflow of veggies I had in my fridge, what is a tasty way to use up vegetables: STIR FRY!

1. Pan fry onions and garlic until fragrant (aka a few minutes)

2. Add mushrooms, red cabbage and 1/2 cup of soup broth, cook until cabbage softens

3. Add zucchini and tofu, and 1/4 cup of soy sauce, let cook for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally

4. Add collard greens, cook for 2-3 minutes.

5. Serve with hot sauce (if you DARE)

Meanwhile, to be random, make some Kale chips! 

Tear up Kale into bite size pieces and add some EVOO. After two nights of making the chips I have realized that I like my Kale naked..aka not too much oil. For a whole head of kale, I maybe use a tbsp or less. 

Mix with salt and pepper, and spice/flavor of your choice. (I used this as my excuse to try some Nutritional Yeast that I bought a while back. I had heard about how tasty it was from the blogosphere but didn't believe it. Sure enough I added about a 1 tbsp to the Kale chips and they tasted cheesy, bready and delicious.)

Cook for 20 mins at 375, flipping once, and watching carefully that they don't burn!

There you have it, 3 quick healthy meals with lots of veggies! 

Anyone have their favorite go-to healthy meals? Anyone else way too late to the Nutritional Yeast party?

World Map Pin Board DIY

You know those times when you find something on Pinterest and you go "I could do that!"...Well this Pin, was one of them:

Originally from Landofnod.com

It's not on the original website anymore though, because this was for sale at least two years ago. And that is around when I originally pinned it and planned to do it... seriously, I bought the materials for this project on March 7th...2012!! (I have a history of putting off projects..oops)

Anyway moral of the story is it is done, and it was actually super easy!

Step 1: Assemble supplies
Foam Poster Board
Adhesive Cork Board (like this)
Scotch Tape
Skizzors aka Scissors
A detail oriented project partner (thanks Mike!)

Step 1b..realize you grabbed the wrong poster board, and aren't going to use the adhesive spray

Step 2:
Go online and find a blank world map...or use this link. I used Microsoft Publisher to resize the photo to be the same size as the board, and I also changed the grey to white so it would save ink. It worked out being spread out over 6 letter sized pages, so not a huge print job. I would recommend printing two copies

Step 3:
Cut out continents..here is where the detail oriented assistant helps...or mad focus. Don't worry about the little islands, that will come later.

Step 4: Tape continents to the Cork Board, cut out cork board. Meanwhile have your detail oriented partner cut out all the small islands (we did this mostly by eye, but you could cut out the template, and cut out those pieces as well.) 

"Hey, Africa"

Step 5: Next comes a little puzzle time, and this is where having a second copy of the map helps. We put the map down on the poster board, positioned the continents over it, then carefully removed the paper on the back of the adhesive, and the map itself, and placed the continent on the poster board. The second map also helped place all those little islands. 

Step 6: Step back in awe at what was accomplished in about 1 hour. 

Someone got overzealous with Hawaii (we corrected that before the final)

Step 7: 

Put some pins in it of places you have been or places you want to go, and hang it up on a wall. The benefit of this weighing all of nothing pounds (foam and cork are pretty light), is that we just put two 3M strips on it, and put it in place!

Two years later...

There you have it, a very simple craft, and it only cost me about 15 bucks, and I have lots of cork leftover. (Side note, I just googled the original pin, and a similar one costs...15 bucks. Well now).

Anyone else spend St. Patrick's day weekend doing crafts? Anyone else procrastinate like crazy?? 

The Hot Yoga Experience

I am day 7 into a 10 day hot yoga challenge and finally wanted to share this post (it has been saved as a draft for over a year). Keep in mind I am not an expert, and this is just my own personal experience with Yoga. 

A couple years ago if someone had said to me “Yoga will Change your life” I would have laughed at them IN THE FACE. But they would have been right. Not to be all dramatic, and yogi-y but it is totally true.

First some background: I have always been a hyper type A person with 8 million thoughts going through my head. I am always planning, thinking ahead, and re-evaluating. If I let my brain wander I can simultaneously mentally have 3 to-do lists, a grocery list, a 5 year goal setting session, a future house decorated, and a song stuck in my head. Oh and look a cute dog just ran by. You get my point.

Totally ADHD.

I first did Yoga in university, in the crowded university gym with a bunch of other things happening in the other areas. My friend and I almost got kicked out because were laughing at how we couldn't hold the poses.The next attempt at Yoga was at a Goodlife studio in Halifax 3 summers ago, it was a quiet calm studio, the instructor was very yoga-y and they even had a chime thing to start the class to balance the chi or something. When I left that class I felt fresh and rejuvenated, and I started to go back.

Next I switched to Body flow, which is a mixture of Thai-Chi, Yoga and Pilaties. This gave me a work out, but also ended in a 5 minute shavasana, or 5 minutes of lying on the floor in the dark for you non-yoga people. Without being asleep those 5 minutes were probably the only time that I spent, just being still, lying, trying not to make 5 to-do lists in my head. Once again, no matter how stressed I was I would leave that class feeling mentally awesome, not to mention all the physical benefits.

While I lived in Halifax a friend (dragged me to) convinced me to try  5 classes of Moshka Hot Yoga. At first I was afraid (I was terrified..:P). I was worried it would be too hot, I would faint, I would feel claustrophobic. But I survived. I started in winter, and being able to spend 45 mins in a 35 degree room was so nice. Like a mini trip down south. 

Once I moved to Toronto, I found myself with a Bikram Yoga Centre coupon that included 5 free classes. I started going in February of 2012. Bikram Yoga is a Hatha style hot yoga class consisting of 26 postures and two breathing exercises. (more info here). 

When that ended I bought a discounted 20 class pass with the same coupon and ended up using most of the 20 between February and March in 2013. As much as it was tough to fit that many classes in 2 months, with work and tutoring, I found myself sad when the last class ended. Since there are a lot of groupons/deals for hot yoga I knew I could have probably studio hopped and gotten "the best deal" but after my frist 20 classes I realized I really liked the studio. I go to Bikram Yoga Centre, and the instructors are so great, and the studio is relaxing, welcoming and very clean! (Note they have no idea I am writing this post, and I'm not affiliated with them in anyway other than I go there and love it haha!)

So I bought a 40 class pass. I have been going at least once a week since June, through the hottest days and the coldest days. I did a little 5 day challenge at the beginning of January, and now (during March Break, so no tutoring) I am trying a 10 day challenge, and so far I am feeling great! I even dragged my friend for her first class, (just as my friend dragged me), and  as much as she glared at me after, I think she liked it!

Above and beyond the physical benefits, there have been some personal "lessons learned" about Yoga that I wanted to share. (Once again, these are just my personal lessons/observations!)

1. “A Yoga Session is called a Practice” I could do Bikram Yoga for 20 years, and would still have room to improve, and there isn't really an end goal. This is important to me because I am such a goal driven person. I can't say “In 3 months, I will do eagle perfectly” that isn't the way it works. This has taught me to look at other things in my life and career and understand that somethings will just happen with time. Patience is key!

2. “Only You can Impact Your Practice” I doesn't matter what the person next to me does, or if the instructor isn't the one I normally go to, it is all about my mindset. This has helped me realize that what other people do shouldn't impact my life. It is about my reaction to them that impacts my life. For example, yes it is annoying when someone cuts me off in traffic, but if I freak out about it and get road rage, I am letting the other person control me, and that isn't cool.

3. “NOW is the only important time”. I cannot hold a posture if I am worried about something outside of the posture, whether that is the outfit I am wearing, or the towel, or the pile of dishes at home. By focusing on the NOW, it helps my practice. This also helps outside of Yoga, because so many people spend so much time worrying about the past, and the what ifs. I still have to work on this, but I try to focus on the NOW more so then the unknown.

4.“Every day is different” I have gone into a class when I felt great and then laid on my mat for the full 1.5 hrs. I have also gone in when I feel like crap and was able to do every posture. I cannot predict what will happen in the class, I just have to let it happen. I find this helps when dealing with unknowns in life in general!

5. “Shavasana is the most important pose” Lying on the floor still, with out fidgeting, and trying to not think of anything can be the hardest part of the class. But with time, I find I am improving on this. I enjoy this time to just shut off my brain and not think of anything. This 3-5 minutes of complete nothing helps me stay focused outside of the class. 

There are many more things, but in general yoga is teaching me patience, control, acceptance, focus, and overall peace. Whoa totally went all zen on you there. Next post I'll be back to normal I promise...but one last meme:

   

Anyone else find extra benefits from their exercise? Anyone else love kitteh yoga?

Fitness Friday: The Challenge and an Upper Body Workout

After writing that this was the first year that I didn’t have any fitness/diet New Years Goals, I went and joined a “Challenge” at work. Oops.

A coworker of mine and her friends, and a friend of mine started this 8 week challenge from this blog, and asked me if I wanted to join! After checking out the challenge I realized I did most of the tasks, and it was more about encouraging healthy lifestyles than actual weight loss.

Quick summary: Everyone pays into the challenge (we chose $10) each, and you get points for doing healthy things on a weekly basis (Monday-Sunday). There are certain items that have a built in rest day (exercise up to 5 days a week), so it seemed like it is a very doable challenge. The person with the most points would get half the money (in our case $40) and the person who had the most weight loss points (based on % lost, and maintaining weight) would get the other half.

Points are given based on the following:

1 Point-Contact with a Teammate
3 Points-64 oz. of Water
3 Points-Stop Eating Before 9pm
3 Points-2 Servings of Fruit
5 Points-3 Servings of Vegetables
(6 days) 5 Points-No Sweets
5 Points-Keep a Food Journal
(5 days) 5 Points-30 Minutes of Exercise OR 7 Points-45 Minutes of Exercise

I knew I wouldn’t be winning the weight loss part of the challenge, so that wasn’t my main focus, I wanted to win the healthy living points. From week 1-3 I didn’t lose any points, and I lost a few pounds. I think the slightly increase of exercise (4x a week to 5x a week) and the no cookies helped me lose a little more weight per week than I had been in the past (0.3lbs/week vs 1lb/week).

That being said it wasn’t super easy. For me the hardest part was not having sweets (6 days a week), and not eating after 9. I realized from the challenge that I am a big night time snacker, and even though I don’t buy sweets myself, there is always temptation from free work cookies, Valentine’s Day, and sweet snacks while tutoring. Here is a sample of what I was dealing with:

Rocky road brownie, I ate the berries instead

I got those brownies on Sunday after already having a free day and eating sweets the past Wednesday. I then had to wait until Monday to eat them…yay resisting temptation by one day. I had the berries instead. Unfortunately though, the next Wednesday I also was offered delicious homemade rice pudding, and felt very bad about turning that down, so I lost some points...or so I thought.

But on that Friday, after 4/8 weeks of doing the challenge, my coworker emailed me to tell me that her friends hadn’t started and had all dropped out, and the challenge had kind of fallen apart. I was ok with ending the challenge then, but my friend wanted to continue since both of us were having success, and my coworker decided to stay on as well, and then another friend joined in…and then we decided to do it for another 8 weeks.

(Note that there was a weekend “off” the challenge. I may or may not have eaten a lot of dark chocolate).

This time the buy in was $20, and the person who loses the most weight % gets $20, and the person who gets the most healthy living points gets the rest (and yes the same person could get all the money!) So now the potential prize is $80 bucks, slightly more substantial!

We also adjusted the point system slightly, so now instead of having “free” days with working out and no sweets, everyone has a bonus 20 points for each week to decide where to use them. We have also decided instead of no sweets, we have turned the rule into no junkfood (more than 100 calories), so now we can have a small treat every day without losing points.

I know this sounds insanely complicated, but really it isn’t too bad. My co-worker made a fancy spreadsheet to track all the points, so it is pretty straight forward. Nothing too life changing, just little lifestyle changes to be SUPER HEALTHY.

To organize the fitness part of the next 8 weeks I made a little chart (similar to my triathlon training chart) that has different workouts mapped out so I can see my progress. Tuesday was a strength day for me so I adapted a workout from PB Fingers to focus on my upper body and thought it might be good to share!

Anyone else doing fitness/weight loss challenge? Anyone else have a really hard time saying no to homemade baked goods!!

Thoughts of a Transit Commuter

(Yes I realize this has nothing to do with Canada winning Gold this morning, Mike is judging me slightly for this...he said I should write a hockey related post, I told him to leave me alone and get his own blog.)
I grew up in a town with no public transit. No wait I lied, we had a bus service for a month when I was in high school. My first foray into "commuting" was attempting to catch that bus for a whole afternoon with some friends from school. We drove to city hall to get the schedule, and then drove to a bus stop to meet the bus. But alas, there was no bus. So then we drove to another stop to catch the fabled bus, and still no bus. We spent the afternoon driving around to try to use public transit. How ironic (don't you think?).

This lack of a bus was probably a good indication for the overall experience of public transit: frustration and disappointment at waiting for non existent buses.

Source

In Halifax I got more comfortable with using transit, but driving or walking was my commute of choice. Even after moving to Toronto, I stayed car dependant, and I would still walk 30 minutes vs paying 3 dollars for TTC. But then EVERYTHING CHANGED. Just kidding, not much changed except I started working downtown, and Mike started working slightly north of the city so he gets our car everyday. This leaves me, for the first time in my life, a regular public transit user.

Even though I am walking distance to work, I use the subway/bus system most days for tutoring. I have gotten comfortable with the rush hour commute, the slew of people at union station, the "schedule" of the buses. I have even downloaded a few e-books to keep me entertained. It is legit.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a slew of mishaps (accidentally missing my stop on the subway, 45 minute waits for busses etc.) but I don't actually mind the TTC (GASP!). I know it could be better (more subways/LRTs would be nice!) but compared to Toronto driving, it is a little more relaxing. I can listen to music, read a magazine/book, or just do nothing. On a positive day I look at my time commuting as "free time". On a not so positive day I miss the bus, and wait for 45 minutes is the freezing rain with wet feet, and complain about it for 3 months.

One thing commuting has given me is ample fodder for blog post material:

If you are TTC commuter you may have noticed that on the big scary exit turnstiles there is a sign that says no bicycles. I noticed this one day and had a chuckle, thinking "Who was the one goof that tried to get their bike through the turnstile"...and then I googled and found this:

Source

From the blog.to article, this happens once or twice a week. Apparently there are a lot of goofs that make that sign worthy.

Not stopping there, normal people do a lot of strange things while using the TTC. I have witnessed seemingly average business men and women, who I assume deal with people on a functioning level on a daily basis degrade to reflections of our palaeolithic ancestors:

"Ugh. stop. next. move."
"Seat. Mine. [point]"

Or the slightly more poetic on a crowded subway/bus: "BACK THE $%!# UP"

People can get very territorial during the crowded rush hour commute. Once after waiting FOREVER for a late bus at Lawrence Station, the bus finally arrived, and people were very polite letting people get off the bus. But behind the calm façade of Canadian politeness was a quick eyeing of the rest of the anxious crowd. You could almost hear people thinking "If you cut in front of me I WILL CUT YOU!" At that moment I realized if humans are near vicious after waiting for 20 extra minutes for a bus, what will happen in a hypothetical post apocalyptic world.  Hunger games could be more accurate than we all imagine...dun dun dunnnnn.

But if that is actually the future I will be prepared. Using transit has made me walk more than driving ever could. On an average week I am walking at least 10 km extra, and that doesn't even include all the in station walking. (Side note, it gives me great personal satisfaction to take the stairs and pass the CROWD waiting for the escalator..heehee).

Source

 Plus, even though when I moved to Toronto I vowed to never run for a Subway (they come every 2 minutes, there is no need to run for one), I will still run for a bus that comes only every 20 minutes when it is -20 degs out. Who needs the gym when you have commuting!

In conclusion, as much as commuting can be frustrating (45 mins wait for a bus, sorry I can't get over it), I can use it as free time, get some exercise, and roll my eyes at the people who run for the subway.

What is your favourite/least favourite way of commuting? Feel free to share some of your best/worst commuting stories in the comments!

WIAW: 5 Lunch and Snack Ideas (Mostly Vegetarian Friendly!)

Growing up I watched my parents pack lunches for my brother and I (and themselves) almost every single day. I could probably count the number of times I ever bought lunch. So it makes sense that most work days Mike and I pack our lunches, but just to add some complexity, we normally have to pack two "lunches": one for lunch time, and one to eat on the way to tutoring for dinner/supper. They have to be portable, able to eat cold, and not a sandwich everyday.

And even more confusing: Typically I pack breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, a afternoon snack and sometimes even supper. (I will have a blog post about breakfasts at some point, but for now I will focus on lunches and snacks!) 

This means that I have packing my lunch and snacks almost down to a science! Morning snack is almost always almonds, fruit, and dried fruit. Lunch is as detailed below, afternoon snack is veggies and a protein. Packing my lunch everyday means I save some skrillz, and keeps me eating healthy. Don't get me wrong, I love a good sushi take out once and a while, but I try to pack my lunch most days!

Two things: 1. I'm not a vegetarian, however in making this post I realized most of the meals are veggie friendly! 2. I get fruit at work, so the fruit I typically eat is unpictured, but add an apple or banana or even sometimes fruit salad to the pictures below!

Lunch idea 1: Leftovers

I know it seems simple, but some of my favourite lunches are leftovers. Especially when I have to eat supper on the run (normally a wrap), having a warm lunch is pretty tasty. Most things can be packed as lunches. I like stir fry, rice an beans etc. I do not bring fish leftovers to work (only exception is tuna salad). I don't want to be that one person who makes the office smell like fish!

From lower right cc:
Breakfast Egg and Veggie Scramble
Lunch Chickpea, Zucchini and Garlic Scapes with Rice (leftovers)
Snacks: Cucumber, Almonds, Yogurt, Carrots, Hummas

Lunch Idea 2: Soups

Same idea of the leftovers, make a big pot of soup and I have lunch for days! I keep my soups full of veggies and protein (this one is Tuscan bean soup with Kale...veggie friendly). I normally either put a carb in the soup (rice, potatoes) or I will eat some pita with the soup to give me energy for the rest of the day. 

Tuscan Bean Soup

Lunch Idea 3: Salad

Just after Christmas I bought this lunch contraption to try to simplify lugging so many containers to work/around Toronto. Salad is my go to lunch, but truthfully it can be unsatisfying. I pump up my salads with FLAVOUR aka salsa. I can pretty much eat anything with salsa on it and think it is delicious. To keep my salad's filling I typically top them with beans or chicken. 

Lunch: Romaine Lettuce Salad with Sprouts, Black Beans and Salsa
Snacks: Dates, Almonds, Strawberries, Veggie Pulp Muffin, Babybel, Turkey Pepperoni stick, cucumber

 Even leftover salads have been know to turn into lunch:

Lunch: Iceberg Lettuce, Chickpeas, Peppers, Tomatoes, Avocado, Tahini Dressing
Snacks: Almonds, Dates (not pictured), Hummus, Carrots, Turkey Pepperoni, Babybel

Lunch Idea 4: Wraps
I eat a lot of wraps more for dinner than for lunch, as my dinner has to be consumed on the go! My favourite wraps include hummus and salsa (I put that stuff on everything!) and lots of veggies. Other alternatives include chicken, ham and cheese etc...oh and "Burritos" made out of veggies!

Burritos on tortilla or on Collard greens
Refried Beans, Rice, Black Beans, Sprouts, Salsa, Plain Greek Yogurt, Cheese

Lunch idea 5: Snacky Lunch
Imagine this as grown up lunchables. It is really just a bunch of snacky things thrown together for a lunch:

Turkey Pepperoni, Veggies, Cheese, Pita

Here is how that concept pans out for a full day of food, I used this concept for a snacky dinner:

Breakfast: Cereal, Greek yogurt
AM Snack: Dates, Almonds
Lunch: Open faced Burger sandwich (the burger is in the upper left container)
PM Snack: 1/4 Avocado, Strawberries
Post Hot Yoga: Granola Bar
Dinner: Small baked Potato, Snowpeas, 2 Hard-boiled Eggs, 1/4 Avocado

There ya have it...5 lunch ideas, nothing too ground breaking, but still tasty! Oh I forgot the most important bit: I make my lunches/dinners/snacks the night before, because if I didn't I would end up being lazy in the morning, and having to buy my breakfast lunch and dinner!!

What is your favourite "on the go meal"? Anyone else get super lazy in the morning and end up buying everything to eat that day?