The Lunch Formula That Hits 30g of Protein Without Thinking About It

This article is part two in a series on fuelling foundations. Last week we covered why eating enough as an active woman is more important that most people realise and some practical steps to ensure you are giving your body the fuel it needs.

If you missed part one you can find it here

The Meal That Most People Get Wrong

Breakfast usually gets a lot of attention in wellness and lifestyle spaces and dinner tends to have the most effort poured into it. Lunch, often stuffed somewhere in the middle of a busy day, at your desk or in between meetings, often gets whatever’s left – a quick meal deal, small snack because you don’t have time, or sometimes nothing at all leaving you starving and eating everything in sight by 4pm.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Lunch is often the meal where active women fall short on protein and satiety – and because your protein needs are spread across the day, what you eat at 1pm can have a major impact on how well your recovery is going, how your hunger levels are throughout the rest of the afternoon and how your body responds to training.

The good news is that lunch is also one of the easiest meals to fix because it benefits from a simple repeatable structure. You don’t need to spend hours meal prepping or think too hard, you just need a formula.

The Lunch Formula

All you need for a solid, satiating and protein-packed lunch are 4 components. That’s it.

• A Protein base – aim for around 30g of protein. This is the anchor of your meal. Good options include: chicken, tinned fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, tofu, lentils, beans or chickpeas. It is often easier to get 30g of protein from animal sources but plant based proteins can absolutely work with the right volume and variety.
• A Carbohydrate source. This is your energy and satiety. Rice, pasta, wraps, bread, potatoes, grains like bulgur wheat or quinoa are all great. Don’t skip the carbs to keep lunch “light”. If you’re training regularly, your body needs the fuel, and a protein only lunch will leave you hungry and searching for snacks in no time.
• Vegetables These add volume, colour and micronutrients to your meals. It doesn’t need to be fancy – leftover roasted veg from dinner, raw from the fridge, a handful of salad leaves, it all works.
• Fat for flavour and fullness. Add a splash of olive oil to your roasted veg, a slice of avocado, a sprinkle of nuts and seeds or some cheese. Fat slows your digestion, adds flavour and rounds out your meal so that you feel full and satisfied. Meals that skip the fat tend to feel unsatisfying even if they are technically adequate.

This isn’t a rigid formula to build the perfect bowl everyday, it’s a mental checklist to run through quickly. Make it a habit – “do I have protein carbs, veg and fat?”. When that habit is second nature you can stop thinking about and let it just happen.

Four Real Life Examples

These aren’t elaborate recipes. They are the simple thing you can pull together in under 10 minutes with a little prep work

• Chicken and rice bowl with roasted veg and tahini.
  Batch cook some chicken breast or thighs at the weekend with some roasted veg or whatever you have in the fridge. A spoon of tahini thinned out with water and lemon juice makes a super speedy dressing. Pair with batch cooked rice, or use microwaveable packet rice for a quick meal that packs 35-40g of protein.
• Tuna and butter bean salad with sourdough.
  Mix a tin of tuna, half a tin of butter beans, some chopped cucumber & cherry tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Serve with 2 slices of sourdough bread. Ready in 5 minutes, 35g of protein, no cooking required. Easily swap out ingredients to suit – e.g. change the beans or add pepper instead of cucumber.
• Eggs and smoked salmon on toast with salad.
  Scramble or poach 2 eggs. Serve with smoked salmon, wholegrain toast and a little spinach or rocket on the side for 30-35g of protein and some great omega 3 benefits.
• Greek yogurt-based mezze plate.
  A large serving of greek yoghurt served with pitta bread, hummus, and whatever veg is in the fridge e.g. tomatoes, cucumber and olives. Add a sprinkle of feta for extra flavour. 25-30g of protein and another quick, no cooking required recipe ready in a few minutes.

None of these are fancy. They’re designed to be practical, repeatable and quick. They are easily customisable, work well in sandwiches or wraps for even more portability and deliver exactly what you need for a weekday lunch.

Making it Work on Busy Days

This formula works if the components are available. This is where a little bit of preparation makes all the difference. We’ll go into this in more detail in part three but the basic principle is this: if you have a protein and carbohydrate source ready to go, lunch will take 5 minutes to prepare and hits your protein goals without any effort.

• Keep in mind that cooking everything fresh makes it harder than it needs to be – batch cook a few things for the week that keep and reheat well to reduce decision making.

• Keep a “lunch shelf” in your fridge. A section where your prepped components live so that they are easy to see and grab each day.

• If things go wrong – that’s life sometimes. One lunch that’s less than ideal doesn’t undo anything. The goal is consistency over the long-term, not perfection every single day.

Next up in this series: how to set up your week so that all this actually happens, without spending your entire weekend sweating in the kitchen