Bring My Lunch Challenge and Christmas Comes Early

Happy Tuesday! I have been overwhelmed and excited by the response to my Marathon Must Have giveaway. Many people have asked whether the giveaway is sponsored. Nope, this giveaway is coming directly from me as a thank you for everything you all, as my beloved readers and fans, do on a daily basis! Don’t forget, it ends in three short hours!

So far, my lunch challenge is going very well and I successfully brought my lunch every day last week and the past two days this week so far. In fact, it has become a team trend and my co-worker and I have swapped out our lunch outings for Starbucks outings. We take full advantage of their discount refills!  This allows us to still enjoy a break from work, some fresh air, and catch up away from our desks!

My lunches aren’t very creative but they are inexpensive, healthy, well-rounded, and feature plenty of crunch; something I crave during the day. I’ve also stocked my desk drawer with a few “staples” for days that I’m hungrier than normal or have the munchies.

My office drawer staples include:

• Uncle Sam’s cereal
• Protein powder
• Progresso low sodium soups
• Individual size popcorn
• Tea bags
• Dried cherries

Below is a sampling of my daily lunches:

Most days, I pack a sandwich, Chobani yogurt, apple, cheese stick, pickles, and an Adora Disk. I normally take some “safety food” daily such as hummus and vegetables or an extra piece of fruit as well. The best thing about this lunch is that I have the option to buy the “on sale” product most weeks since there are such a wide variety of yogurt, sandwich thin, and cheese stick brands!

In other news, this evening, the first sign of the holidays arrived!

As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemakers Program with Walgreens Photo Center, I received a $50 Walgreens gift card to use towards a photo purchase.

My mother, nor I, are very timely when it comes to holiday cards. Every year the holidays sneak up on me and suddenly I have 50 cards to order, address, and mail during one December weekend. When I went to the Walgreens Photo center homepage greetings card were the first thing they advertised, therefore inspiring me to use the $50 towards Christmas cards.

Creating a card was simple and quick, the whole process only taking 10 minutes! The longest amount of time was spent trying to find non sweaty photographs. Twelve hours later, the finished products were waiting for me at the Walgreens around the corner.

In addition, when I picked up my order, the receipt was accompanied by a $10 coupon for my next Walgreens photo center order!

I’ll definitely be taking advantage of the coupon for my marathon pictures in a few weeks!