trying to eat whole foods, but lunch confuses me

It's fine to eat a sandwich with regular bread even when trying to eat whole. The best way to approach any major change or dietary restriction is with the 80/20 idea. 80% of the time you can eat your perfectly clean and whole foods, the other 20% is your margin of error. So your bread can fall in that 20%.

My local grocery store has a line that's called Open Nature that is 100% natural whole wheat, whole grain bread. But has the soft, lighter texture that many "healthy" breads lack. You could look for something like that, knowing that even though it's processed (as any bread you find in a store, in a bag, sliced up for you will be) it's at least natural ingredients. (No HFCS, weird sweeteners, stuff like that)

Or just keep eating whatever your favorite bread is and know that it's part of your 20% and that it's just your favorite bread so you're going to keep eating it.

Wrap your sandwich ingredients in a large Romain lettuce leaf.

I eat leftovers for lunch. Or homemade chicken salad (with a fork, no bread, no crackers).

Thank you for responding to my post no one seems interested in the info I'm requesting. I'm having a hard time not eating sandwiches, it's so ingrained in my head to eat a sandwich for lunch. I do alright with breakfast and dinner but it all falls apart for me at lunch, it feels as if I'm doing either breakfast or dinner twice.

It's probably not so much that no one is interested...it's probably more that there is a lot of activity so the post drops to a page further back on the "Recent Posts"...which is where a lot of people look. If you aren't getting responses, "Bump" your post...

I used to be a big sandwich guy myself...and I also don't go all out whole foods, just a lot more of them. I still do sandwiches, just less often...mostly because bread (even my awesome 21 whole grains bread) has a lot of calories and only marginal nutritional value. It took me awhile to get away from sandwiches, but now I hardly think about it. I'll often just have left-overs from whatever I prepared the night before. If no left overs (like today)...I just throw something together. Today I'm having 5.5 oz of rotisserie chicken meat (left over from a stew I made a few days ago) with two servings of broccoli (I will steam in a microwave) and 1/2 an avocado.

It's basically all about breaking a habit and routine...

Lunch occurs in the middle of the day generally between the hours of 10:30 and 1 pm.

Soup if you have somewhere to heat it. Then for that 'have to hold something and chew lots', veggies and dips might work with that, eg carrot sticks and cottage cheese if you do dairy, bean dip if you don't.

I was raised on the belief that lunch is a sandwich and that's it. So I had a hard time figuring out things to do once I was an adult and bored with sandwiches, and as well once I started eating cleaner. I traded sandwiches for wraps. I went through a period where I just ate a lot of things - for example, tuna, rotisserie chicken, fruit, cheese, nuts, etc. all on their own but at the same time. Now I'm more of a salad person at lunch time - today was quinoa, lentils, celery, grape tomatoes mixed with olive oil and lemon juice and covered in feta cheese

I usually make Taco Chicken Chili or some other kind of soup and portion them out for the weeks lunches. I have sandwiches also, I use the Healthy Life 100% Soft Whole Wheat bread.

It's fairly easy to make substitutions, though they are usually more expensive.

When speaking strictly of a whole foods diet (my disclaimer against nay-sayers), uncured meats are better, as they don't have the nitrates, and are usually much lower in sodium. They're usually a better cut of meat, too, and aren't so processed. fresh, organic veggies make excellent companions. You can make your own mayo (pretty simple--blend olive oil, white vinegar, and egg... you can google for exact recipes), and get some all-natural mustard. Or you can skip the mayo and mustard and just use olive oil and a sprinkle of vinegar (if you like). Raw cheeses are super yummy, and much better for digestion than the pasteurized ones (and the nutrients in them, like calcium, are easier to absorb and utilize). There are a lot of good breads out there that will fit into a whole foods diet. Dave's or Ezekiel are good, though you may have to try different varieties until you find one you really like. Udi's is good, too, though it can be pricey for the size of the slice. Or you can just make your own bread... It's pretty easy if you have a breadmaker, and use a mix from Bob's Red Mill.

Or you can skip the sandwich altogether and go for a salad with your favorite sandwich toppings, plus a few more veggies.

I like to make a little stir-fry sorta thing for lunch. I roast squash at night and keep it in the fridge for later use. So for lunch, I'll take roasted squash, chicken sausage (I like Al Fresco, as it's gluten and nitrate free), and maybe a few other veggies, and sautee them in my cast iron skillet. Sometimes I'll put the squash and sausage over a bed of lettuce, and sprinkle it with my homemade vinaigrette. VERY delicious, and quite filling for just under 400 cals!

Lunchtime - I love sandwiches too! I don't know where you are located but Silver Hills Little Big Bread has made me so much happier in my weight loss journey! It's essentially one piece of sprouted grain bread cut in half so you can put your fillings in between and it's like having a whole sandwich with the bread of half!

Trying to eat only whole foods, but want a sandwich for lunch? Eat the WHOLE sandwich. Problem solved.

I'm cool with lunch but 'fourth meal' bakes my noodle. I mean does it have to be eaten at Taco Bell?

I like this sorta stuff: big salads with lots of veggies and some sort of protein, leftovers from the previous night's dinner, sandwich fillings or burgers wrapped in big leaves of lettuce (romaine, as someone suggested), sweet potatoes with all sorts of stuff on top, eggs and bacon, eggs and sausage, some sort of frittata and a green salad, etc.