You would not believe my shock when I stepped into the kitchen this morning and discovered that my husband had packed his own lunch! He said he threw it together “in about 8 seconds” and he chose an Easy Lunchbox, so I was very proud of him. My guy likes to eat out. He’d eat out 3 meals a day if it was realistic to do so, but thankfully for our waistlines and budgets, having 2 small children makes that impractical!

While he generally likes to go out for a hoagie, an authentic Philly cheesesteak, or a Chipotle burrito, he’s become inspired by recent weight loss to make a diet change and pick up some momentum to lose even more.  We’ve been doing P90X together for about two weeks and he’s already lost 7.5 pounds without even making a change in his eating habits.  Meanwhile, I have been strictly following a nutrition plan and doing the workouts, and I have lost 6.5.  Not fair, right?!?  Well, I am very close to goal weight and I have less to lose, so it is actually a victory for me too!

Back to today’s lunch… I was expecting that he’d go out as usual, but then I found this sitting on the table:

The ‘Before’ Lunch

My first thought was “Wow! I am so proud of my man for doing this!” and my second thought was “Where are the veggies???”  Since he was trying to turn a new leaf, I just couldn’t live with sending him off with a boring 2-color lunch (white chicken and cheese, pink peach).  While he was getting himself ready to go, I snapped a before pic of his lunchbox and then got busy working on the makeover.  Check out the after photo:

The ‘before’ lunch was so light comparatively… this lunch is a bit of a clunker. For having added a mere 60 calories or so, I added a lot more nutrition, eye-appealing color, and fiber for satiety.  The upgraded lunch has 3 pieces of grilled chicken breast on top of a bed of lettuce.  I added carrots, 2 laughing cow lite wedges, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and cheddar cheese hearts.  This should make his lunch a little happier today and keep him out of the company’s cafe looking for more.

I keep lots of ‘easy’ prepped veggies like this on hand, so it really took only a minute to drop it in the lunchbox and maybe 30 seconds to cut some cheese hearts with a cookie cutter.  So, with a combined effort of 2 minutes, he’ll have a nice and healthy lunch instead of a greasy hoagie!  Score!

A lot of my bento blogging friends pack grown-up lunches all the time.  Here are some fun examples for you to check out if you want to make one for yourself or your partner:

What’s in Mom’s Lunch Bag: Clerks 2

Beneficial-Bento: Greek Salad

Lunches fit for a Kid: Pasta

Bentoriffic: Rice and Beans Wraps

Biting the Hand that Feeds You: Spinach Salad

Keeley McGuire Blog: Typical Work Lunch

iPackLunch: Stunning Salad

Keitha’s Chaos: Turkey & Cream Cheese Roll-up

What’s For Lunch at Our House: Sushi Bento

BentOnBetterLunches: Super Cute Salad

Mommy & Me Lunch Box: Taco Salad

Pretty impressive, huh?  You can click on any of the images to go to their corresponding website. I hope you found an inspiration for something new to try.  Who do you pack lunches for?  I’d love to see any of your exciting creations too if you want to comment with the link.

Want an EasyLunchbox of your own?  They’re 4 for $13.95 at amazon.com.