Dieting can be a tricky thing. You try to eat healthy and make better choices, but sometimes looks can be deceiving. What appears to be a healthy food may have more fat grams or calories than you might first think. So let’s take a look at three different lunch options that sound healthy, but might not be depending on how you make them.
A Tuna Melt
A tuna melt can make an easy and delicious lunch, but it could pack more calories than you were originally intending. Try to cut back on the mayonnaise that you use. You could also substitute light mayo or canola oil to make it a little more figure friendly. Making a tuna salad with a little chopped celery or carrot would add a few vitamins and bring in new flavors. Also, look at what you’re pairing your tuna melt with. A bag of potato chips might be a convenient side, but it’s certainly not the healthiest one. Trade that for sliced apples, a banana, or some veggie sticks to keep the meal as healthy and well-rounded as possible.
A Turkey Spinach Wrap
If you’re trying to lose weight or just eat healthy, you might find yourself picking something like a turkey spinach wrap off of a lunch menu. But you might be unpleasantly surprised at the nutritional information in that wrap. Here’s how you can make a truly health wrap. Use a whole grain wrap to make sure that you have the nutrients and fiber that your body needs instead of empty calories. Spinach is a great vegetable to include in your wrap, but why not add others? If you fill your wrap with vegetables, you will prevent cravings mid-afternoon and fill your body with the nutrients that it needs. You should also avoid the mayonnaise and try to find a healthier dressing instead. A great recipe to try is a mix of lemon juice and olive oil with a little capers and salt and pepper. This will add a lot of flavor to your wrap without being high in fat grams and calories like a packet of mayonnaise would.
A Salad
Salad is a very typical diet food and it makes a great lunch. But salad is also one of those endlessly customizable foods that can be really healthy or really bad for you, and it all depends on what goes in it. What should you avoid putting in your salad? Bacon crumbles add a lot of flavor to salads, but let’s face it. Everybody knows that bacon is very fatty. Cheese might have some protein and calcium, but if you have too much, you’ll find a high calorie salad on your hands. It is also best to cut down on the dressing as much as possible. Use just enough to add a little flavor to every bite. Shaking or stirring your salad can really spread around the dressing so you don’t have to put much in. Instead of throwing in toppings like cheese and bacon that add a lot of fat grams and calories to your salad, focus on vegetables that you really love. You could even add in some chopped apples or grapes to add some new flavors.
