10 Tips for Packing Lunch After a Heart Attack

If you or a loved one has had a heart attack or similar event, figuring out what to eat day after day quickly becomes one of the trickier parts of your rehab! When you go back to work, you’ll have to take your (perhaps newfound) heart-healthier eating habits out the door. Ack!

Whether you’re heading to the office or on the road, what can you take? (Some people even pre-pack lunch when working from home, just to build in structure.)

Either way it’s worth it… make a good lunch and you’ll not only reduce your risk of another cardiac episode, but also be more focused, productive, and motivated. You might even make it to dinner without a hangry incident.

Read on for my top ten tips.

1. Balance your plate

You’ve likely seen some version of this picture before, and with good reason. Using this guide to plan meals can help lower your chances of future heart problems, keep blood sugar stable, and even support better mental health.

For most people this means packing (and eating!) more veggies and fruit, while cutting back on grains.

Think beyond the carrot stick! One of our favourite tricks is to tuck a handful of prewashed spinach beneath leftovers when reheating them in the microwave. Voila! Extra serving of antioxidant-rich dark green leafy veggies. (See this post for more examples and video.)

Sweet Spot Favourite: Pasta with Roasted Vegetables and Goat Cheese (Dietitians of Canada Cookspiration) – Pasta is the perfect vehicle for vegetables! Shift the proportions so that the noodles are just a quarter of the dish and the vegetables are about half. If you’re not that much of a roasted vegetable lover, go easier and just pack a piece of fruit. If you don’t love goat cheese, this works with feta too.

RD pro tip: This dish could use a bit more protein – consider pairing with a cup of Greek yogurt or a hard-boiled egg.

2. Make your grains whole

Building up this habit can deliver sustained energy, extra fibre, and a gentler blood sugar rise. Options include whole grain bread, crackers, or for a lower-sodium option, grains you boil like barley, brown rice, farro, or quinoa, incorporated into your main dish.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Lentil & Barley Salad (Julie van Rosendaal) – This isn’t the prettiest salad, but it’s delicious if you’re generous with the seasonings (tomato, feta, chopped onion, freshly ground black pepper, and the simplest ever balsamic vinaigrette). Bonus: lentils!

3. Incorporate heart-healthy protein sources

Many people struggle to think of lunch ideas that aren’t (processed) sandwich meat. There are tons of them! Out of that rut we go.

Nutritious options include, in order loosely from heart-health promoting to neutral(ish): Leftover or canned salmon (or other fish), legumes, yogurt, nuts and seeds, skinless chicken (or other lean meats), cheese, or eggs.

(Note that nuts aren’t the most protein-rich option, but eating them daily reduces the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease generally by 23% and coronary heart disease, the kind that causes heart attacks, by 25%. Yes to that.)

Sweet Spot Favourite: Anything from my “7 Easy Sandwich Alternatives to Processed Meat,” such as roasted pork tenderloin or egg salad.

4. Enjoy heart-healthy fats

Heart-healthy fats aren’t a “less guilty” pleasure – they’re an important part of a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern! (And most contribute valuable nutrients too.)

Think nuts, seeds, avocado, olive or canola oil, plus all of the wonderful things we can make with them, like oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, vinaigrettes, guacamole, pesto, tahini dressing, and peanut butter.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Kale and White Bean Power Bowls (Budget Bytes) – Like every recipe I suggest here, make it for supper the night before, so you only cook once and eat twice. Plan enough so you have leftovers for lunch. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want packing lunch to take more than 5-10 minutes.

5. Remember to hydrate

Water will do, but if you want to make it more interesting, you have options!

Vegetable juice (low-sodium) gives you an extra serving for your “half the plate” veggies goal. Unsweetened black or green delivers heart-healthy antioxidants. Even coffee hydrates and some evidence suggests that coffee helps reduce your chances of getting type 2 diabetes and may even boost your chances of living longer!

You’ll find seven more non-water options in my post, 10 Low-Sugar Beverages That Aren’t (Plain Old) Water.

Sweet Spot Favourite: 8 Infused Water Recipes. There are so many creative combinations there, you’re sure to find something you like. It doesn’t count as a serving, but if you like the flavour, you’ll probably drink more water.

6. Plan ahead

Making a meal plan can be the most dreaded item on your to-do list, but it’s one of those that often ends up taking less time than you expect and/or paying off with a glorious feeling of organization all week long.

My number one meal planning tip is to keep it simple! In terms of lunch, that means using leftovers from supper whenever you can.

Also, just focus on the main dish you’ll pack for lunch. Complementary snacks and sides will come easily if you have a well-stocked pantry.

Finally, to make meal planning faster, start by building a structure that repeats, and then build in variety by varying the specifics.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Here’s a simple repeating lunch structure you can try:

• Monday – leftovers from a big batch you made yesterday for supper – chili, stew, or hearty soup when it’s cool and salad when it’s warm. (Use my 10 Delicious Heart-Healthy Salads Without Lettuce for inspiration.)
• Tuesday – big batch leftovers again
• Wednesday – leftovers from “Taco Tuesday” you made for dinner last night
• Thursday – a sandwich plus sides
• Friday – a plateful of snacks or a wrap to use up whatever is left from the week (you’ll need to be a member of my free Facebook group to get those ideas, but we’ll admit you as soon as we can)

Boom! See, you can do this!

7. Prep ahead

While meal planning involves sitting down with pen and paper, or digital alternatives, meal prep means making some of your food in advance.

Please don’t think this has to be two or three hours on Sunday. The weekend is too precious!

What can you do with just a little extra time?

My favourite is to make a meal on Sundays that leaves us with lots of leftovers, but takes just a little longer to cook. Instead of cook once, eat twice, you’re looking for cook once, eat three or four or six times!

Those chilis, soups, and stews work well if you want to stock the freezer. Invest in some good freezable meal-sized containers so you can just pull them out and go.

Do one of these a week for a month and you’ll have four different meals options going forward. After that you can do a freezable big batch less often and still maintain your inventory.

(Only do this with meals you’ve tried before and LOVE.)

Big grain or bean salads are great but don’t freeze well, so I would just plan for them for a couple of meals into the week. You’ll be sick of them after four times in a row!

Some people prefer to spend time prepping meal components. I like the ones that take time to cook but not much hands on time. Think grilling extra chicken, pan-frying ground turkey, cooking a big pot of farro (you can freeze it), or boiling eggs.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Hamburger Lentil Soup (Alberta Pulse Growers) – Use lean ground beef or turkey and this will be a wonderfully heart-healthy and tasty lunch worthy of a spot in your freezer.

8. Remember to pack snacks!

Depending on how long you’ll be out of the house, you’ll probably benefit from a healthy snack or two. Structure it like a mini balanced plate: A fruit or veg, something for protein, and if you need extra calories for active work or a workout, some whole grains.

If you’re not sure when to plan a snack, or how much, a Registered Dietitian can help, or you can join my Sweet Spot Kitchen community, which includes a course that covers this in more detail.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Blueberry-Ricotta Swirl (from my 30 Minute Heart Healthy Cookbook) – If you want to elevate your snack game in just a few minutes, this one is the call. Give yourself something you’ll really look forward to at 3:30pm when you need a pick-me-up.

9. No time to make lunch? Do this instead

I get it. Some days (or weeks) are like that. If you know you’re going to have to rely on a drive-through (which takes longer than eating a lunch you’ve packed), consider supplementing it with extra fruit, veggies, or protein.

If you won’t even have time to pack even a few snacks, keep some at work: Almonds in your desk, a bag of apples in the fridge. A partial boost of heart-health is still worth doing, This isn’t an all or nothing game.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Throw an apple, package of snap peas, individually-wrapped cheese, hard-boiled egg, and/or yogurt into an insulated lunch bag with a freezer pack. If you’ve done your shopping, you should be able to do that in a minute or two.

10. Make it car-friendly (if you need to)

If you eat in your car, you can do this too, you road warrior you! You’ll just need to make a few tweaks.

If you leave your lunch in the car for an extended period, depending on for how long, plan for it to be significantly warmer than the outside temperature. I was shocked to see in that study how much hotter the car gets vs the temperature outside. You want to keep it warmer than 4°C (40°F), so unless it’s the dead of winter, you’ll need a good insulated bag and ice pack to keep your food safe.

Alternatively, take hot meals in a thermos. To keep it hotter for longer, start by filling the thermos with boiling water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, warm up your leftovers in the microwave as hot as you can.

If it’s very cold out, put your Thermos in an insulated lunch bag with no ice pack, for an extra layer of insulation.

If you don’t want to bother with a thermos, and you get bored with sandwiches, vary it up with salads (see last week’s post, 10 Delicious Heart-Healthy Salads Without Lettuce), grain bowls, wraps, or a collection of snacks.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Black Bean Salad with Corn, Red Peppers, Avocado & Lime-Cilantro Vinaigrette – Once Upon a Chef – Cut in half unless you want the promised **eight** servings. And unless you have the time or amazing corn, save time with frozen corn instead of fresh.

Bonus: Make it something you enjoy!

This is every bit as important as the other ten tips if you’ll have any hope of sticking with it long term. It’s only the bonus because 11 isn’t a very nice number for blog posts. Every part of the sweet spot matters equally:

Keep experimenting until you find combinations of heart-healthy foods that you look forward to eating to break up your workday.

Perhaps for you this means adding energy balls (like these) for dessert or including cheese or mayo in your sandwich (they’re not as bad for you as you might think).

Maybe it even means a sandwich on white bread if you really don’t like whole grain. Me, I hate whole wheat pasta. Just can’t do it. Finding your sweet spot means compromising where you need to.

Sweet Spot Favourite: Think about *your* favourite meals! Everyone loves something different. How you can tweak them to incorporate tips 1-4? Don’t try to be perfect. An 8/10 you love beats a 10/10 that tastes like cardboard to you.

Share your favourite lunch!

Have you got something you love to pack for lunch? Snap a photo and share in our Facebook group full of smart and supportive home cooks. If you haven’t yet joined, we’d love to have you!