the lunch box diet™
Simon Lovell

EAT ALL DAY, LOSE WEIGHT, FEEL GREAT

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

The Secret’s in the Box

Chapter 1 Why the Lunch Box Diet?

Chapter 2 Weight Loss: the Easy Way

Chapter 3 The Lunch Box Diet

Chapter 4 Your Rainbow of Great Flavours

Chapter 5 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Chapter 6 What’s for Dinner, Honey?

Chapter 7 Thirsty?

Chapter 8 Beyond Weight Loss

Chapter 9 Your 28-Day Plan

Chapter 10 Simon’s Lunch Box Diet Recipes

Index

lunch box diet

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

The Secret’s in the Box

Repeat after me: Let my wobbly belly never fall below my waistline again. On this path, despite previous efforts, I shall not be stressed, hungry, count my calories or make silly meals. I have broken from the unhealthy grasp of eating only meat, sipping water, munching a lonely carrot, spooning baby food, cabbage soup or any other unsustainable fix. From this day forward I shall live life, be vibrant and energised. When I reach my goal I will stand tall, proud and full of zest and share with others, as they look on with envy, the words: ‘The secret’s in the box.’

Chapter 1 Why the Lunch Box Diet?

First of all, well done! Put a massive smile on your face and feel the energy flowing from this second onwards!

The Lunch Box Diet is going to change the way you think about food, you’ll learn to know your body better than you have ever done before and the benefits to you over the next days, weeks and years are going to be significant.

This diet won’t only help you to lose weight; it might also get you doing more exciting things in your life. Maybe you’ll change your job and dump that annoying boss? Before I expand on this I want to tell you more about me so we can start building our relationship, which is going to be very important to your success.

I’ve worked as a personal trainer for many clients in one of the largest health clubs in the UK, so I know how difficult it can be for busy people to eat a healthy diet. Day in, day out, I’ve coached everyone from stay-at-home mums and dads to busy office workers and sportsmen and -women and I’ve found that they all have different routines, which makes controlling food intake different for everyone.

‘The Lunch Box Diet is going to change the way you think about food’

I’ve learned that a lot of the diet plans out there only take into account the food on the plate, not the tough demands upon your time and mental energies that modern life can bring. Many diets involve preparing meals and adding ingredients you just wouldn’t normally pick up, let alone have the time to prepare. My aim is to teach you how to build the Lunch Box Diet into your working day and train your taste buds to get used to a healthier way of eating. We’ll work hard together and, with my support, you’ll be able to get in shape, look great and feel more energised. It’s not just good for losing weight; it can also help to sustain a healthy balance in your diet. If you’re already an active person looking for an eating plan that complements your gym time, this plan will be ideal for you. This is the diet where you control what you eat based on your energy levels. What’s more you’ll never be hungry – ever – and you’ll lose weight. Yep, keep smiling!

My Story

I think it’s very important that professionals who set out to teach other people should base their teaching on personal experience. I haven’t been lean, strong and confident all my life – in fact, the contrary is true.

I was overweight in my early twenties and was easily a few jean sizes over what is classed as ‘normal’ these days. My average daily diet consisted of fried food, pizzas and microwave meals. My snacks were chocolate bars, my energy levels low and my confidence almost non-existent. When you’re down there, it’s hard to see out. I never thought that one day I would be writing a book about eating properly and spending most of my days teaching people how fitness and health can change their world. Hell, no!

But everyone has a turning point in their lives and mine came when I was bullied at school. Enough was enough. I joined a kung-fu class. At the class I met a guy called Tim. He took me under his wing, threw me into the gym and got me lifting weights. My body shape started to change and I got the buzz. I started attracting more girls – fantastic! As a guy who used to be the butt of everyone’s jokes, I loved it. Who wouldn’t? To Tim, who took me through those important first steps – thank you. I wouldn’t be writing this now and helping others if you hadn’t paid special attention to me.

Some of this back story may resonate with you because of experiences in your own life. It might not. But a lot of people who have problems with their weight have a story to tell. If I can connect with some of you in this way then we have a better chance of moving forward and developing together.

The Birth of the Diet

What I have found most satisfying about this project is that I never sat down and said, ‘I’m going to write a diet plan.’ It just snowballed from a simple three-page document I gave to my personal training clients. Those who followed my advice soon began to reap the rewards, and the feedback was excellent. Though I had believed it was a workable plan, I was still floored by the response. Everyone who tried it loved it. They passed it along to friends and family and before I knew it, people were asking me about my ‘diet’. That’s when I knew I had hit on something big.

The Lunch Box Diet was initially launched on the internet as an ebook, where it got rave reviews from top women’s magazines. They were saying things like ‘a way of life’ and ‘the best diet I’ve ever done’ (Elle magazine, January 2008). I knew that the plan worked because I used it myself and my clients were telling me it worked for them, but it was an unbelievable feeling when top-rated women’s publications were shouting it out to hundreds of thousands of people. That’s what led us to where we are now – the printed book.

‘I don’t want to be remembered for helping people to lose weight by drinking liquid diets and eating only one type of food’

I don’t want to be remembered for helping people to lose weight by drinking liquid diets and eating only one type of food, leaving them with no energy or zest for life. Instead, I want to help people to gain increased energy, improved concentration, better skin, no hunger pangs at work and improved overall health – the list goes on.

The great thing about the Lunch Box Diet is that after just a few days, you start to learn more about your body and it all happens quite naturally. If you are too strict about dieting or healthy eating, you will rebel. Of course, we all need an element of willpower to succeed but because you’re reading this I assume you’re ready to give it a go – so again, well done!

What Lies Ahead?

‘Don’t run away! If you’re not a vegetable lover, I’m going to teach you how easy it is to retrain your taste buds so that you will no longer want to hide your veggies’

So what is this Lunch Box Diet? I’ll go into depth later but as a very quick summary, the Lunch Box Diet is a fantastic, easy way of eating that lets you eat a normal breakfast and dinner and shows you how to ‘graze’ your way through the rest of the day. ‘Grazing’ means nibbling small quantities of food all day long, whenever you’re hungry. The diet is based on some very simple principles, one of which you’ve known about since you were a child: eat your veggies. Don’t run away! If you’re not a vegetable lover, I’m going to teach you how easy it is to retrain your taste buds so that you will no longer want to hide your veggies in your napkin or feed them to the dog under the table.

I’ll explain the low-down on healthy, effective, lasting weight loss. I’ll guide you through the effect metabolism has on your ability to lose weight. I’ll show you why you are far better off eating little and often than starving yourself. All those girls who starve themselves down to size ‘negative-two’ thin are asking for a heap of trouble in the future. At the very least, they’ll simply gain the weight back (usually plus some) and find it more difficult to maintain an ideal body weight. In the worst case, they may end up with a serious, life-threatening eating disorder. I don’t want that for you. I want you to be healthy and vibrant…that’s what sexy is.

Speaking of which, we’re also going to look at the emotional aspects of eating. I’ve been in the personal training business long enough to know that issues surrounding weight gain go beyond what you put in your mouth. Sometimes it’s a lot about why.

Once we’re through all of the basics, I’m going to instruct you on how to follow the diet. I can’t wait to show you all of its wonderful components and start you on the path to looking and feeling fabulous. I’ll take you through the rainbow of vegetables and tell you all about the wonderful options when choosing lean protein (which go way beyond chicken). The Lunch Box Diet is easy to use if you don’t eat meat, because you’ll learn about other types of protein and how to incorporate them into your day.

I believe that ‘sauce’ should live up to its name by being ‘saucy’. I’ll show you how breaking up with those creamy dressings and heavy cheese sauces will be just as good for you as it was to dump that dreadful ex! Healthy sauce is anything but dull. My lunch boxes are delicious and yours will be too. I’ll give you plenty of fabulous recipes to get you started.

Many diets today are based on reducing your carbohydrate intake. We’ll talk about carbs and I’ll show you why the low-carb craze is neither completely wrong nor completely right.

You’ll be eating a normal breakfast and dinner in addition to the scrumptious contents of your lunch box – but what does ‘normal’ mean? I wish I could tell you that you can eat a monstrous stack of toast with bacon for breakfast and a 12-ounce T-bone steak, butter-stuffed baked potato and half a chocolate cake for dinner and still lose weight. Of course, I could say that – but then I’d be telling you a big fat lie! Don’t worry. Conversely, I’m not going to tell you that all you can have is a carrot stick and a cup of hot water. What I will do is talk a bit about portions and provide you with some healthy ideas so we can gradually build you up to a healthier new you, forever!

Unexpected Benefits

Don’t you just love it when you get an unexpected bonus on your salary? You may have bought this book because you want to lose weight, but there’s a hidden bonus because this diet goes way beyond weight loss. I didn’t even realise how much so until I did some research. I’d simply chosen what I believed to be a healthy way of losing weight. When I looked into the food choices more deeply, I found out all sorts of things about what they can do in terms of your general health and I’m going to share that knowledge with you in chapter 8.

As well as getting a beautiful new body, your skin will improve and your hair will be healthier. Even more importantly, your heart will be healthier and you will be reducing your risk of developing disease. That’s just a little bit of what goes on with your body when you eat the way I’m going to show you.

The best news of all is that you are going to feel better than you ever have in your life. You’ll soon discover that this isn’t merely a ‘diet’ – it’s a revolutionary way of eating well that you will want to follow for life. Just give it seven days.

So, what are you waiting for? Welcome to your Lunch Box Diet.

Chapter 2 Weight Loss: the Easy Way

You’ve tried and failed and tried and failed again. I’m sure you’ve blamed yourself

I don’t want to eat flavourless foods. I don’t want to give up my favourites. I don’t want to starve myself. I don’t want to measure things or count calories or anything of the sort. And I’m sure you don’t either.

Why? Because all of that is extremely stressful, as if life weren’t stressful enough all on its own.

And guess what? All that stress could actually be making you heavier. We all react to stress differently. Since I began exercising, I tend to take out my frustrations in the gym. It wasn’t always that way, though.

I used to let the pressures in my life affect me negatively. A long day in the office then a trip to the pub after work led to a sore head in the morning, followed by cravings for stodgy foods that would slow me down yet again, causing a snowball effect that left me with the movement and motivation of a sloth. Not a nice feeling.

Mind and Body
Reducing Stress

Learn a relaxation technique. Practising relaxation isn’t difficult. All you need is five minutes in a quiet setting. Close your eyes, breathe in deeply through your nose and feel your belly fill up. Exhale through your nose feeling your belly empty. If thoughts come to mind, just let them go with the breath. Concentrate on the breath – that’s it!

Listen to music. Keep music in the car, in the kitchen, in your bedroom, in the study, at the treadmill, in your gym bag…everywhere! Choose the background music to your life. Music can relax us, it can fire us up, and it can touch on every emotion in between. It’s also a great way of relieving stress.

We’ve heard for years about stress affecting our hearts. But it affects more, so much more. It affects nearly every part of our physical selves.

When we have very stressful lives, there are many physical symptoms. Joints ache, muscles feel weak, our hormones are out of whack, our immune systems are weakened, and these physical problems just add to the psychological pressure we’re under. And guess what? As if the plate of brownies you consumed the other night after losing that promotion to your idiot colleague wasn’t enough, the physical way in which your body responded to all that stress you’ve been under might have added a few extra pounds as well.

We produce the hormone cortisol when we are under stress and the kicker is that Cortisol can cause you to produce more abdominal fat. Abdominal fat is undesirable aesthetically, and it also contains the most dangerous type of body fat. This is called ‘visceral fat’, and it has been linked to increased rates of cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes as well as breast cancer in women.

So, should you just give up and let yourself go? I mean, after all, it’s not as if we can stop stressful things from happening, right? What do we do? First of all, you stop putting undue stress on yourself. Maybe it’s inadvisable to tell the boss what you really think about his or her latest idiotic idea, but you can reduce personal stress by choosing not to follow ridiculously restrictive diets. Stop starving yourself or following plans that are clearly unhealthy. Stop denying yourself the foods you love. Stop eating flavourless foods because you’ve been told you’ll lose weight if you follow a particular meal plan. It makes me so angry that people are adding to their life stresses because of their constant quest to be thin and perfect. It really doesn’t need to be that way.

Free Yourself from Stress
Reducing Stress

Learn to let go of anger. Anger can help us if it produces the drive we need to overcome problems in our lives. However, when anger becomes resentment it only holds us back. Sometimes, we just have to let it go. Trust me, it takes a lot more energy to hold on to anger than it does to be happy. It’s a choice you can make.

I know you want to lose weight, but healthy weight loss doesn’t have to be stressful. My clients are busy people who find that working out relieves stress from the daily grind. The last thing I want to do is add more stress to their lives. The Lunch Box Diet is convenient and versatile. People enjoy making and eating their own creations and coming up with new secret recipes. Colleagues, clients and friends are always trying to get a peek in my box, and I love to share ideas. If people didn’t share then we would never learn.

Here’s another piece of advice: ‘Surround yourself with people you aspire to be like and you will end up being like them. Surround yourself with stressed people and you’ll end up being stressed yourself.’ The same can be said if you surround yourself with people who eat bad, junky foods. Have a think about who you are and how much of that is influenced by the people you surround yourself with. You may want to make a few changes in your life to help you on a more positive path, and this in turn will assist with your weight loss.

I’ve found that my clients like losing weight without the stress of traditional dieting. That’s why I allow occasional indulgences while helping you to retrain your taste buds to enjoy healthy foods.

You’ll find that when you eat a diet full of highly nutritious foods, you will be more energetic, stronger and healthier overall. When you are less susceptible to illness and feeling your best, stress is much easier to handle. In addition, you’ll discover that there’s no better stress-buster than a good session in the gym or other energetic pursuits. You don’t have to exercise on the Lunch Box Diet but you’ll probably be more inclined to get up and be active after only a short while on this diet.

Ultimately, my goal is to help you lose weight, learn to eat healthily for life, get you working out and do it all without stress. Leave those fad starvation diets behind and let’s delve into a little science.

We tend to beat ourselves up for being overweight. We feel as though it’s all about what we did or didn’t do. Guess what? It’s not all up to you. You weren’t necessarily the one who failed. There’s a better than zero chance that the diet failed you!

There are reasons why diets fail us. To understand this, you need to know a few basic nutritional principles. Don’t worry, I’ll make it fun! Keep reading.

The first is a simple maths equation.

weight maintenance: what goes in = what goes out

What goes in is obviously the food you consume measured in calories, which is the measurement term used for energy. Your energy intake must be equivalent to what your body burns in order to simply maintain your weight. What doesn’t get burned is stored as fat.

Burn, Baby, Burn
Reducing Stress

Stop driving yourself crazy with guilt. Guilt is a wasted emotion. There are days when you get it all done and days when you don’t. Accomplish the big things, the imperative things, but if you let a few little things slide to free up time for more important things like exercise or family time, that’s okay!

We burn energy day and night to perform the basic necessities of life: breathing, digestion, brain function and so forth. The amount of energy burned for these basic functions varies according to a person’s size, age and sex. The larger the person, the harder the body has to work, so the more energy is burned. As we get older, we burn less energy – which may very well be why some of you bought this book in the first place. For the first time in your life, you might be experiencing weight gain.

Most of us do more during the day than simply breathing and digesting food (I hope!). How much more varies. Some of us have physically active jobs. Others spend the day sitting behind a desk. But we all have choices about what we do with our free time. For some, relaxing means lying on the sofa and for others it means going on a bracing hike.

I don’t want you to count every calorie, nor to become a slave to the ‘calories burned’ function on your treadmill. However, you must adjust your eating to accommodate your activity level. It’s just common sense.

Setting a Budget

Energy intake can be seen as a budget. When you wake up, you get a basic allowance according to your energy needs for the day that you can spend without paying the price of weight gain. All day long you spend this energy budget whenever you eat. If you take some form of exercise, you earn more energy so your budget for food is larger. You can eat more without gaining weight than others who are less active. We’ll talk more about food budget and food choices when we get into the Lunch Box Diet itself, so grab a highlighter and mark up the page here.

For now, let’s go back to our equation. I’m assuming you care less about weight maintenance and a lot more about weight loss. So, in looking at our equation, you can easily see that in order to lose weight, you need to do one of two things – or both.

Reduce what goes in (lower energy intake)

Increase what goes out (burn more energy)

Eat less and burn more energy (preferred)

Seems simple, right? For the most part, it is. But how much should you cut out of your diet in order to lose weight at an optimum rate? Again I don’t want you to count but for the sake of understanding, I’ll tell you a bit more. One pound of body weight is more or less equivalent to 3,500 calories. Rather convenient considering there are seven days in a week. You can quickly see that if you reduce your energy intake by 500 calories a day or burn an additional 500 calories (about a 40-minute jog/run on the treadmill), you should theoretically lose about a pound a week.

You might be tempted to adjust this even more severely to lose weight more quickly. The fact is, in order to lose weight effectively – in other words keep the weight off – slow and steady is the key. There are guidelines to what people say is safe, but we need to remember that, depending on your current weight and the changes to your diet and exercise, weight will drop off at different rates per individual – usually the heavier you are the more initially and then less as your weight comes down closer to maintenance level. What we want to steer away from is a ridiculous calorie chop where you’re taking in a stupidly low amount of calories per day, but don’t worry, that’s not going to happen here! You won’t be able to continue a very low-calorie diet forever and once you resume eating more than carrot sticks and hot water, you’ll gain it back. It also mucks up your metabolism, which we’ll discuss later (see page 25). Fortunately with the Lunch Box Diet, it’s a sustainable plan that you can see working long term as part of your new, happy lifestyle!

Why Diets Fail

The majority of fad diets are nothing more than very low-calorie diets with a gimmick or smoke screen to cover up this fact. Whether you’re told to eat a grapefruit or drink a strange mixture, at the end of the day, you’ve consumed fewer calories, often to the extreme.

At best, there’s a small grain of truth in each theory but only to a minuscule degree. All that these diets do is, once again, cover up the fact that calories are being restricted, no matter what horse and pony show went into making you not eat. And most of the time, you will not be able to stick with it because people, quite simply, get hungry! We like to eat. We don’t usually enjoy hunger pangs, weakness and dizziness. We do enjoy treats like chocolate and crisps. We can go some time without these things but if you ignore a craving long enough, chances are it’ll come back to bite you on the bum and a little craving for a taste of chocolate will snowball into eating an entire box!

Let’s recap:

 Healthy weight loss relies on one equation.

 Fad diets fail because most are very low-calorie diets (VLCDs for short).

 Fad diets fail because they are too stringent.

 Fad diets fail because they are not built for the long run.

Fad diets fail because starving yourself will mess with your metabolism! Metabolism? I know what you’re thinking: ‘You said you’d keep it simple!’ I will, I will.

The Bear Necessities

‘When you eat small amounts of food frequently throughout the day (graze) rather than starve yourself, your metabolism remains at optimum fuel-burning level’

Metabolism is the rate at which our bodies burn calories or, in other words, fuel. The higher the metabolism, the faster the fuel is burned. The lower the metabolism, the slower fuel is burned. When you starve yourself, you end up lowering your metabolism.

The best way I can explain how metabolism aids in weight loss is to talk about bears. Huh? You heard me right. A bear spends all summer fattening itself up. It has to fatten up to get through the whole winter without eating. A bear’s metabolism slows way, way down during hibernation. This is the body’s way of preserving all that fat the bear put on last summer. Good for the bear, not so good for you. When was the last time you saw a bear having to wear a backless cocktail dress?

When we starve ourselves, we do the same thing to our metabolism as hibernation does to the bear’s metabolism. Without any new fuel source, your body works as efficiently as possible by lowering its metabolism to conserve any existing fuel. It stores what it can. Conversely, when you eat small amounts of food frequently throughout the day (graze) rather than starve yourself, your metabolism remains at optimum fuel-burning level. It can rely on getting fuel every one to two hours and therefore it burns fuel instead of storing it.

That being said, you can’t eat high-calorie, high-fat food every one to two hours and still lose weight. So, what do you eat? That’s where my diet plan comes into play.

In designing the diet, I knew I wanted my clients to graze but I didn’t want to give them a blanket instruction to eat all day. They needed to eat foods that had a lot of nutritional punch per bite without a lot of calories. They needed something lasting and tasty yet without a ton of calories. Some foods are just fattening and may be low in nutrients. Those are the types of foods that, when consumed regularly, make us fat.

Beyond the Mirror
Overcoming Emotional Eating

Next time you overeat or indulge in fattening comfort foods, write down the emotions you are feeling.

When you feel the urge to eat, ask yourself, ‘Am I physically hungry or emotionally hungry?’

Keep temptation out of the fridge and cupboards. If instant gratification isn’t available, you’re less likely to eat for the wrong reasons.

Go for a walk, run or hit the gym the next time you’re angry, sad or anxious.

Before you reach for that pizza slice, stop, close your eyes and visualize the life you want for yourself. Will the pizza slice get you there? Will it fix what’s wrong?

In a world where thin is in and obesity is (what the heck rhymes with obesity?) not, it’s tough to be heavy for a whole plethora of reasons. Many of you are reading this book because you’re tired of being heavy and have chosen to do something about it. Good on you!

I’ve seen so many people literally change their entire lives when they drop the pounds. For most people, food means so much more than just fuel for our bodies. We use it at nearly every celebration: birthday cake, Easter eggs, and don’t even get me started on the days of feasting around Christmas. We’re taught at a very, very young age that sweets and cake are pleasant and that pleasant things make us feel good. If you scrape a knee, you get a plaster followed by a lolly to turn off the tears.

The lolly doesn’t fix the wound, but distracts the child’s attention from the pain. When you’re sad, lonely, restless, anxious or angry, your ‘lolly’ might be chocolate cake or a fast-food burger that distracts you from your emotions. For a brief moment, you’re preoccupying yourself by doing something pleasurable. Unfortunately, it’s not lasting and, just like the lolly, it doesn’t fix the wound. Food can’t fix what’s really wrong.

What’s worse is that the excess food is only complicating your life further. It’s a vicious cycle. We eat too much because we’re depressed, we gain weight, we get more depressed, we eat more, we gain more and so on. Stop the cycle! When you start treating your body right, when you take control of your weight instead of letting it control you, you empower yourself to make other changes in your life.

You may not be able to fix everything overnight but a journey begins with a single step. You have taken that step by purchasing this book and trusting me. I won’t let you down! I’ll be with you on that journey.

Kids and Emotional Eating

I really want what’s best for you and your kiddos. I hope these little tips will get you thinking about what you can do.

Try not to use food as a comfort with your kids. Instead of a lolly when they scrape their knee, how about a hug or kiss after the plaster? Perhaps suggest a trip to the book shop.

Dump the idea of ‘finish your food’. Don’t say things like ‘If you don’t finish your food, you can’t have dessert.’ Try to trust what they tell you about their bodies.

Don’t make food a focal point. Get your kids moving more by planning fun activities such as hikes, bike rides, or some other type of family adventure.

Slowly replace any fattening foods kept in the house with healthier alternatives.

Suggest a trip to the park after dinner instead of serving dessert.

For starters I urge everyone to join the Lunch Box Diet community (see page 224) at www.lunchboxdiet.co.uk – go and do it now. I will send you regular emails to keep you motivated and this is key to your success! I’m constantly coming up with new techniques, tips and tricks and I’ll share these with you. How about that for an added bonus?

Though looking good will be a big part of the end result of following this diet plan, what’s most important is how you will perceive yourself from the inside out once you begin the Lunch Box Diet. Eating healthily means feeling good. More energy, less illness, less chance of developing diseases related to obesity. You’ll be able to enjoy your life.

Whenever you’re feeling down, remember this word:

BELIEVE!

Believe in this diet. Believe in your efforts. Believe in me. Believe, above all, in you and your abilities!

We’ll get there! I promise!

Okay, enough pep talk. Can you feel the energy? If not, put the book down for a minute, get off your bum and jog around the couch ten times.

Ready? Let’s get to work. Turn the page.

Chapter 3 The Lunch Box Diet

You made it! We finally get to delve into this life-changing eating plan. You’re days away from feeling fantastic!

Hard to believe? Believe it, because in just seven days you’re going to feel the effects of optimum nutrition. Work independently for a month, following the lunch box system, or finish my 28-day plan and you’ll be on top of the world.

The Box

Okay, remember our little chat about healthy weight loss, grazing and metabolism (see page 25)? You’re now going to find out why you had to go back to school for a bit.

Here’s what you will be doing:

1 Eat a healthy breakfast (or your normal breakfast and build up to a healthier one).

2 Graze from your lunch box between breakfast and dinner.

3 Eat a healthy dinner (or your normal dinner and build up to a healthier one).

The lunch box concept is simply the most effective and easiest way to control most people’s nutrition because:

 You know exactly what you’re eating.

 You don’t have to plan and prepare meal after meal.

 You will have a choice of foods that will enable you to enjoy eating from your plastic friend!

Lunch boxes are quick to put together, tasty and will give you bucketloads of energy! Not to mention the added health benefits that we’ll discuss later in Chapter 8.

When working with personal training clients, I always ask them to keep a record of their food intake (a food diary) for about a week to get an idea of what they like and how they eat. I often find that the pitfalls of their dieting behaviour have a lot to do with their busy lifestyles. I suggest you keep a food diary yourself and note down your own thoughts on your food consumption; you may get a bit of a shock, but that’s fine. Just write down everything you eat for a week, including any drinks, and the times you eat, plus the exercise you take.

Finding healthy options during a normal, busy day is extremely difficult. My clients would either go without because they didn’t have good choices, or they would opt for the fast-food or vending-machine items out of sheer necessity. We simply don’t make informed choices when we’re hungry, and that’s why the Lunch Box Diet is such a good way of eating. By grazing out of a box that you prepare ahead of time, you will be eliminating two major barriers to healthy weight loss.

 You won’t end up choosing junk because your blood sugar levels will be more balanced.

 You won’t devour the contents of the fridge as soon as you get a chance.

I’ll talk about breakfast and dinner in a bit (see chapter 6) but for now, let’s concentrate on the box itself.

The Method
Preparing Quick Boxes

Pick pre-cooked meats and mixed vegetable packs.

Cook extra meat at your evening meal to put in your box the next day.

Stock up on herbs and other dressing ingredients from Group C.

Buy frozen vegetables.

Bribe your partner to make your box at the same time as they’re making their own.

Remember: I don’t want you to have the hassle of measuring and weighing and counting calories. That’s why I keep it simple. If you can count, you can do this!

You’ll need a container with a lid that has a volume of between 2 and 5 litres. To find the volume of your box, simply pour water into it from a measuring jug. Mine is about the size of a shoebox and I’d class myself as an average-sized male. The size will become more apparent to you as you go along with the diet and adjustments can easily be made. The simple rule here is to pack more than you think you’ll need at first and then drop the box size (or simply the amount of food you put in it) once you’re used to the system. The main thing is not to pack too little and go hungry.

The idea is that you will eat a few mouthfuls from your box every hour or so – never to the point thatyou’re full, only until you’re satisfied. This is what grazing is. Your brain takes around 20 to 30 minutes to catch up with your stomach so take a few bites and if in 20 to 30 minutes you’re still hungry, take a few more bites. Yep, it’s as easy as that.

You’ll learn quickly that you can be easily satisfied on less when you graze because you’re constantly refuelling the body. Your stomach will adjust to less food just as it does the opposite when we overeat. When you pig out at a meal you stretch the stomach, making it more difficult to feel satisfied at the next meal, and you’re left on the sofa feeling tired and bloated. Yep, it’s that vicious cycle again, which you will now break!

Grazing does the exact opposite, super-fast, leaving you brimming with energy. What this means is that over time, you can reduce the size of your lunch box as you’ll need less to feel satisfied. I never want you to feel hungry – that’s the main thing; but if you are regularly having trouble finishing your box, just cut down the contents. It’s as easy as that!

What Do You Put in the Box?

There are three groups that you will be choosing from:

Group A: Vegetables – 45-60 per cent of your box by volume

Group B: Lean Protein – 15-30 per cent of your box by volume

Group C: Sauce – 10 per cent of your box by volume

And as an optional extra ONLY if you have high activity levels or diabetes:

Group D: Active Carbs System – 0-30 per cent quantity depends on energy requirements

As you can see, your largest portion of the box is comprised of vegetables. You’ll be choosing five veggies from the Group A list. The key here is to be colourful. You’re most likely to create the perfect combination of nutrients when you choose a rainbow of vegetables because different colours indicate that they contain different kinds of the nutrients known as phytochemicals.

Group A: Vegetables

45-60% Pick 5

Vegetable Tastebud Builder

I encourage you to use the guide below to wean your way to liking vegetables – your key to a healthier lifestyle. Pick the option that applies to you.

You love vegetables so much that you could have been one in your previous life.

Fantastic! You can use the Lunch Box Diet up to seven days a week if you wish.

You’re a fan of vegetables, but like to be naughty sometimes.

No problem. Use the diet in your working week and take a couple of days off at weekends to reward yourself.

I don’t mind vegetables but I prefer other foods.

Okay, so bring the diet into your life three days a week and increase that once you begin to feel the benefits.

Vegetables? Sure! I love ketchup and lettuce on my burger!

You should have a lunch box once a week to begin with and try adding another day every couple of weeks to gradually educate your digestive system and taste buds.

Whenever you can, use fresh, raw, organic vegetables. For the ones that need to be cooked, you can steam, grill, oven bake or microwave them. Please don’t torture your veggies by boiling the life and the nutrients out of them and don’t add oil or butter when preparing them. You’ll be adding flavour to your box later, so be patient!

Now, you might be thinking ‘I’m not a rabbit, Simon! I can’t possibly eat all those weeds and things!’ No worries! If your taste buds are used to greasy, calorie-laden foods like pizza, bacon and eggs, cakes and sweets, you’ll have a bit of adjustment to make. All that sugar, sodium and saturated fat does indeed taste good but what’s the price? Your belly, bum and thighs. Not to mention clogged arteries, diabetes, high blood pressure, bad skin and hair…the list goes on and on.

Individual tastes vary from person to person, partly due to our genetic make-up and partly because of the tastes we are introduced to as very young children. Some people might be under-tasters and some may be super-tasters. This has to do with the number of taste buds per square centimetre on your tongue. Under-tasters with fewer taste buds tend to pile on the sugar and go heavy with salt. Vegetables taste bland for these folks. On the other hand, super-tasters with a lot of taste buds might find some veggies overwhelmingly bitter.

It’s not hard to retrain your taste buds and get to know your vegetables (check out my bite-sized tips). Truth is, if you don’t, I can safely say you’ll continue to have weight issues and be unhealthy as well. Fact of the matter is, we weren’t put on this earth to eat crisps and chocolate bars. Ask yourself, did Mother Nature grow it that way? We were provided with certain basic foods that are good for us in their natural state. By eating naturally, we’re giving ourselves what we need. If you don’t like vegetables it’s because you’ve been eating rubbish for so long that you’ve got used to it. But if you want to be vibrant, sexy, full of energy and taut around the stomach then you will need to acquire a taste for vegetables at some point.

Group B: Protein

15-30% Pick 1

Here’s where you’ll be getting your staying power. Protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates and therefore leaves you feeling satisfied longer. Pick one type of protein source for each lunch box.

Choose quality meat and avoid the pre-packaged stuff that is mostly fillers and water and is poor in nutritional value. Although better-quality meats cost a bit more, you’ll quickly realise that you need less of them to satisfy you. I also advocate buying organic if you can afford it (see page 80 for the reasons why) but it’s not imperative.

Beef

Lean cuts: sirloin, rump steak, topside, silverside

Lamb

Shoulder, rack or cutlets

Fish

Oily fish: salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel, trout, tuna White fish: sole, haddock, cod, sea bass, sea bream, skate

Shellfish

Prawns, shrimp, crab, lobster, mussels, cockles, scallops, oysters

Poultry

White meat: chicken or turkey breast

Pork

Pork and lean cuts of ham

Dairy

Eggs

Plant sources

Tofu, chickpeas, beans, seeds and nuts

Money Saving

Proteins can be pricy, so here are the ones with the best nutritional bang for your buck:

Eggs

Beans (aduki, blackeye, borlotti, flageolet, haricot, red kidney)

Chickpeas

Lentils

Tinned fish (sardines, pilchards, mackerel, salmon, tuna)

Turkey breast

Group C: Dressing

10%

Sprinkle a dressing into your box after adding vegetables and protein, to bring it alive. I like hot sauces, herbs and black pepper – make your own or buy them (see page 91), but read the labels for added sugar and E numbers. Don’t worry about the calories since you’re only sprinkling or drizzling.

Cheese (lightly sprinkled – all types)

Chinese-style dressings (made with tahini, rice vinegar, sesame oil and soy sauce)

Chutney (see page 214 for recipe)

Fruit, chopped (apple, watermelon, pear, strawberries)

Garlic, ginger and onion

Guacamole (avocado, tomato, lime juice, red onion, chilli)

Harissa paste (made with chilli, garlic, caraway, coriander and olive oil)

Herbs (fresh – any kind at all)

Hummus (mashed chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice and garlic)

Lemon, lime, apple or orange juice

Marinades (see page 212 for recipes)

Oils (olive or nut – just a splash)

Olives and capers

Pepper sauce (my favourite!)

Pesto (see page 215 for recipe)

Salsa (see page 214 for recipe)

Sauerkraut

Soy sauce (choose the ‘light’ varieties)

Tapenade (olive paste with lemon juice and garlic)

Teriyaki sauce (see page 213 for recipe)

Thai fish sauce (made with anchovies)

Tomato sauce (fresh, see page 87 for recipe)

Tzatziki (fresh, see page 214 for recipe)

Vinegar (plain, fruit-flavoured, cider or wine, or vinaigrettes)

Wasabi, soy and ginger (traditional sushi accompaniments)

Once again, be creative. I’ve provided you with some suggestions and you can invent your own combinations.

A little oil goes a long way. Though olive oil and walnut oil are good fats, they have a strong flavour and you shouldn’t drench your lunch box in them. You can always add a bit more if you need to, but don’t forget that your veggies and meats will be absorbing the flavouring as they marinate in the box throughout the day, making the taste more intense. You don’t want everything to taste like pickles by 5pm! You might consider tossing in a small, sealed container of sauce so that you can add extra later if you need to.

Group D: Active Carbs

Extra 0-30%

Depending on the kind of lifestyle you lead, you may require a little more energy in your box to keep you going. If you sit in an office most of the day, I’d like you to stick with the standard box with groups A, B and C, and see how your energy levels compare to normal. Chances are if you’re used to eating three times a day you will notice a significant improvement as your blood sugar levels stabilise. You’ll be surprised how much energy you get just by picking at your box.

I never want you to lack energy, so if you feel sluggish, add in one active carb from the list below and see how you perform. Bear in mind that there could be other factors affecting your energy level, such as lack of sleep. You should also add an active carb if you suffer from diabetes.

If you are taking an exercise class or going to the gym, leave around an hour and a half for your food to digest beforehand. Take your box with you so you can replenish your energy directly after your session instead of grabbing unhealthy snacks. Alternatively, a banana is a good post-gym snack.

Let’s just recap the box contents

Group A: Vegetables – Grab a selection of five and throw them into your box.

Group B: Protein – Choose one protein source per box.

Group C: Dressing – Essential to add flavour; a little goes a long way.

Group D: Active carbs – Only add these if you have high activity levels.

The Lunch Box Diet Tremor

You’ve prepared your box for the day and it’s already looking pretty tasty, but how do you get it bursting with flavour? It’s time for a box tremor! Seal your lid, grasp the edges for extra seal protection and perform the 5-second tremor. Go. You’ll be surprised at how much difference this makes to the flavour of your box. Those tomatoes will split, seeping their juices; beetroots will blast their purple flavour around; and those herbs and spices will trickle onto every leaf. Yummy!

Chapter 4 Your Rainbow of Great Flavours

Choosing a great combination of colours and flavours adds aesthetic appeal and provides optimum nutrition

Group A: Vegetables

Eating lots of vegetables is a great way to achieve healthy weight loss because they are low in calories and very versatile. If you grew up on tinned green beans and corn, then you might not be aware of all the different choices.

Raw vs Cooked

When vegetables are raw, they contain all the goodness that Mother Nature intended. On the whole, when we start manipulating them in the kitchen, little by little they lose nutritional value. Have you ever looked at the water in a pan in which you’ve boiled broccoli? It’s green, right? Carrot water is orange. Magic trick? No. What you’re looking at is the phytochemicals that you’ve just boiled out of the vegetable.

Phytochemicals give vegetables their bright beautiful colours and they also provide you with powerful substances called antioxidants. Our bodies are full of little guys called free radicals that are created by environmental factors such as sunlight and pollution and other things that we ingest. They create quite a bit of damage, ageing cells and damaging tissues. Antioxidants have the ability to neutralise free radicals and rid the body of them, thus helping to prevent cellular and tissue damage and protect you from life-threatening diseases such as cancer. Which is a good reason to eat as many as you can.

Another reason to avoid too much unnecessary cooking is that it breaks down the fibre content of vegetables and makes it less effective. Fibre is the indigestible portion of plants that is necessary for a healthy digestive system. It helps move the stomach contents through the digestive system and aids in elimination. In other words, it stops you getting constipated.

Vegetables that need to be cooked can be lightly steamed, microwaved, briefly roasted in a hot oven or grilled. Be careful what you add to them, though. Butter, cheese, dressings and other types of heavy sauce are popular ways of preparing vegetables but try vinegars, pepper sauces, black pepper, onion, shallots or garlic instead to avoid adding fat and calories to such wonderful little packages of nutrition.

Red
Beetroots
Folic Acid

Folic acid (or folate) is extremely important for pregnant women, as it helps prevent the birth defect spina bifida. It is also important for heart health and mental health, as low folate has been linked to depression.

The ‘sweet beet’ is finally gaining the recognition it deserves. Beetroots are packed full of nutrients such as folic acid, vitamin C and potassium and they contain fibre and other antioxidants as well.

Selection: Though we most often think of beetroots as ‘red’ they can actually be orange or white in colour and their size can range from little golf balls to baseballs. When purchased with their greens still attached, make sure the leaves are fresh-looking and not wilted. Without the leaves, beets should be of good colour and heavy, devoid of wrinkly or sprouting skin.

Preparation: They are incredibly versatile in the kitchen and can be prepared in a number of ways. Peel them and cut into chunks then either place them in a quarter cup of water in a microwavable dish and cook on high for around 10 minutes or steam them on the stove until tender. Don’t boil the nutrients out of them the way grandma used to do. Quite excellent served cold, they are perfect for your lunch box! And don’t forget to save their greens and roots – these are edible and full of nutrients. Just wash and toss in your lunch box.

Peppers
Indole

The antioxidant indole has been shown to block the effects of excess oestrogen in the body, which leads some scientists to believe that it may reduce the chances of developing breast cancer. Good levels of indole can be found in the brassica group of vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and sprouts.

We’ll discuss the spicy, hot guys on page 86, but here I’m talking about bell peppers, which can be red, yellow, orange or green. They add flavour and zest but have very few calories and a lot of antioxidants. (Remember those things we talked about that neutralise free radicals, so are anti-ageing and anti-cancer?) Red peppers contain more than three times as much vitamin C as oranges as well as being a good supply of beta-carotene (which the body converts to vitamin A). In addition, they contain a fair amount of fibre and vitamin B6.

Selection: The colour should be vibrant and rich. Stay away from pale peppers as they are of poorer quality and nutritional value. They should be heavy and firm with no soft spots.

Preparation: Wash, cut a circle around the stem and pull out the core. Rinse the seeds out. With a sharp knife, cut in half and slice into strips then remove the remaining white membrane where the core was attached. Leave in strips or chop them up. Your choice!

Radishes

Radishes are great for flavour, colour and vitamin C as well as an antioxidant called indole (see left). Though we tend to think of ‘red’ radishes, there are other varieties and their flavour changes from the sweet white icicles to the sharp black radish.

Selection: Choose healthy-looking radishes with bright, fresh greens.

Preparation: Chop off the greens before storing and they will last longer in the fridge. When ready to use, simply rinse and chop to desired size.

Rhubarb

Rhubarb’s tart flavour makes it a great addition to your lunch box; however, the traditional method of cooking rhubarb with tons of sugar needs to be modified. Rhubarb offers fibre, potassium and calcium and 100 grams of rhubarb (without sugar) is only 7 calories!

Selection: Rhubarb should be crisp and glossy. The colour can range from pale green or pink all the way to a deep red colour and doesn’t matter when you’re making a selection. The most tender stalks will be less than 3cm thick. Remove any traces of leaves as they contain a corrosive toxin called oxalic acid.

Preparation: Rhubarb is too tart to eat alone but it need not be drenched in sugar. Use sweet berries or sweet cider vinegar in the water when you boil it, with maybe just a teaspoonful of honey to taste.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a universal favourite used widely in many different cuisines. They’re full of antioxidants, including the superantioxidant lycopene, which has strong anti-cancer properties and has been shown to reduce the harmful process of oxidation of LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol in the blood. Try heirloom tomatoes if you can find them. They are as varied in flavour as they are in shape and colour. These charismatic guys can be green, yellow, red, orange and even a deep colour that looks almost black. Red and orange are the sweetest and green is tart. Try sunblush and sundried tomatoes as well for a more intense flavour.

Selection: Steer clear of hot-house tomatoes. These pale guys contain up to 50 per cent fewer phytochemicals than they would have had if they’d been grown in the sun and left on the vine to ripen. If a tomato isn’t a gorgeous red, it probably isn’t very good. Choose tomatoes that are firm but not rock hard and let them sit out on the counter in an attractive dish.

They are ripe when they feel supple yet not too soft. Store tomatoes in a cool place on the countertop. You can speed up the ripening process by placing them in a brown paper bag.

Preparation: Tomatoes are wonderful chopped up, used for fresh salsa (see page 214) or roasted, and go wonderfully with nearly any lunch box combination.

Watermelon

A fruit, but worthy of a veggie listing and great in your lunchbox because of its sweet, mouth-watering flavour and its beta-carotene, lycopene and potassium content.

Selection: Watermelon is definitely seasonal and, as a rule of thumb, the less expensive, the better the fruit. Produce that is in abundance is generally the freshest and markets put them on sale because of this reason. Choose seedless varieties for convenience and make sure it is firm and has no soft spots. Look for a lighter-coloured rough patch somewhere that indicates that the fruit has had some ripening time lying on the ground in the field.

Preparation: I like to chop it up and sprinkle it in a ‘salty’ lunch box combination to take the edge off the salt. See the ‘Trim Turkey’ lunch box recipe on page 198.

Orange & Yellow
Carrots

Can’t forget the good old carrot. Full of beta-carotene, this endearing veggie is probably the easiest to snack on. Ever seen a rabbit wearing glasses? Seriously, it’s long been known that the beta-carotene found in carrots is great for eye health. They are an easy way to add orange to your lunch box and should be a staple in your fridge.

Selection: Crisp and fresh-looking is the key, with nice bright orange colouring.

Preparation: Most of us are pretty familiar with carrots, so the only piece of advice I have to add is that the pre-washed organic baby carrots sold in the bag are a nice convenience to have on hand for those rushed mornings.

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