Walking in the hallways before lunch can be an unpleasant experience. It is common to see students rushing to the cafeteria to get a good spot in line. If you happen to be one of these students, then you understand how frustrating it is when you get to lunch 5 seconds late and you have to stand in line for half of lunch before you actually receive your food.  Packing and bring your lunch to school makes it easy to avoid this problem.

This may not seem like a habit that helps your health, but it can be if you know what to pack. Packing your lunch causes you to be in control of what you eat, while standing in a lunch line creates many temptations to make unhealthy choices.

When you pack your own lunch you can bring a variety of food so you are not always eating the same thing. This also allows you to eat things that may not be available to you in school.
If you have activities after school, such as sports or drama, you can pack a bigger lunch and be able to save food for a snack later. Make sure to pack foods for your lunch with a high amount of carbohydrates to give yourself energy throughout the whole day.

Another big advantage of bringing your own lunch is that you also don’t have to spend yours or your parent’s money. Buying lunch everyday for a month is about $70. Especially since the economy is not doing so great right now, saving money is something everyone is looking for.

If you already bring your lunch to school, make sure you change up what your eating.  Peanut butter and jelly may be your favorite sandwich but that does not mean it is healthy to eat it everyday. A good way to switch up your lunch is to go to the grocery store with your parents so you can help pick out what foods they buy. You can also buy a thermos so then you can bring soup to school and still have it hot when lunch comes around. Try different fresh fruits and vegetables everyday.  If you do not like fruits and vegetables, you can try them with peanut butter or ranch respectively.