Lunch Suggestions?

Make sandwhiches the night before and refrigerate along with soem fruit, when you take them out in the morning they will be fresh, it's super quick and they will be perfect by your dinner time/ have stayed fresh.

You could look up alternatives to the unhealthy stuff at the fast food chains, msot like mcdonalds have to offer 'healthy' options now so if you maybe look at the menus online you could pick some 'safe' meals.

Soup in a flask is another good one or cereal and refrigerate the milk.

They have very small ice chests, I took one to work with me at one of my jobs. They are big enough to fit your lunch and not too bulky to carry. You could put a small ice pack in with the food to keep it cold.

Ever since I started my new job, I have run into issues with lunch and began adding lbs.

I've always worked with companies that had a break room with an average sized refrigerator, which allowed me to pack a light lunch or leave leftovers in from previous meals. My new company is much smaller and they have a rented office space that has a tiny break room, that also passes as the copy room. In this room, we have a mini-fridge that is pretty packed with everyone's random food/condiments. Another downside is that the mini-fridge is old and does not cool very well - the "freezer" section often pools water that should be ice. A few other points - I am surrounded by fast food places, which are usually where I end up. These add temptations and unhealthy options. I typically take lunch around 1pm, where most people go at noon, so a freezer bag might not keep foods cold long enough.

Now, with that picture painted, what healthy lunch options would you suggest? I'm curious if anyone has healthier alternatives that do not require refrigeration (for too long) or can make it 5 hours into the work day without making me sick. Eating fast food is really getting old Thanks in advance!

Buy a mini insulated cool bag AND some reusable freezer blocks and carry lunch, this really does keep food cool for a while: some things can be frozen taken out that morning then will be defrosted by lunchtime. You can even have stuff like prawns and rice that obviously do not want to sit around in the warm by taking them to work frozen, get a cheap refrigerator thermometer and run a test if you are concerned.

Honestly you can be too paranoid about getting sick because most stuff that infects us prefers to be at about 37C which is way higher than an insulated cool bag full of cold foods plus a freezer block, if they are not at that temperature they grow slowly. The important thing is to keep your immune system healthy including your gut flora, it's more than capable of dealing with a certain amount of invading microorganisms, after all many people's mouths are chock full of bacteria. You might take a course of freeze dried probiotic capsules every so often, watch that your diet is rich in prebiotics, vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids as normal.

Don't carry cash and cards you don't NEED to work, only take them the day you need gas and groceries say and you can't buy fast food.

Get a lunch bag that is big enough to put in an ice pack. That way you don't have to worry about the fridge and can leave the bag at your desk. I can usually cramp a lot of stuff into mine and still have room for an ice pack. Mine is actually a heat/cold ice pack for my leg that I use.