What your lunchbox says about you
Much like the company you keep and the books you read, your lunchbox can reveal a surprising amount of information about your personal life: Are you a health enthusiast? Do you have a penchant for the occasional-not-so-occasional McDonalds supersize? Is your life more of a mess than you’re letting on (did you really just stuff that questionable looking bread into a bag with what looks like a box of tuna)?
Since I have, at one point or another, experienced the full range of-troublesome and complicated- scenarios involved in the political world of ‘lunchboxdom’, below are some detailed accounts of types of lunchers and what this says about you in business, day to day decisions, and life.
The (slightly too optimistic) opportunist.
You pack yourself a lunch of apples and veg, and carry it to work with a hopeful heart. You stick to your resolve with a ferocious determination that surpasses all understanding. That said, the moment someone even suggests that they’d like to hit up a nearby restaurant for a carb-loaded meal, you melt into a puddle on the floor and immediately discard your jaded veg in your eagerness.
What this says about you:
You may be trying to get yourself into good habits, but you haven’t quite mastered it yet. You are easily swayed by people, carbs, and anything that isn’t the fate you so gravely chose for yourself. Swing one way or another, but if you need help with your self-discipline, repeat after me (loudly, and with conviction please): “say no, never go”. This was a phrase I was taught during childhood in reference to talking to strangers, but in the world of lunchboxdom, an unsolicited, artery blocking lunch represents as much of a stranger danger as you’re ever going to find.
The control freak/organisaholic
You know the type (or maybe you are the type). Planned lunches for the week, all grocery shopping completed beforehand, and somehow finds the time to put together an immaculate, visually appealing lunchbox. These people are there to make us feel bad about our own lunches, all the while appeasing their inner sense of order and control (so really, they’re doing this for themselves). One such character made me so exasperated with my life that their cheese sauce made me cry (beware of the self-esteem dangers involved if you ever do find yourself eating alongside an organised luncher).
What this says about you:
You’ve got it under control. You are organised, on the ball, and most likely the owner of several colour coded folders that instil a secret sense of pride upon you every time you dip into them for ‘information’. I salute you. However, do be aware that one day, the build up of FOMO from the last few years of having a perfectly organised existence is going to hit you with one big bang, and you may find yourself looking back in regret, thinking of the spontaneous team lunches you could have had if only you hadn’t been so rigid and productive (This is my bitterness talking. I really wanted that cheese sauce).
The try hard.
Since we are now friends (anyone who has gotten this far is a friend to me), I’m going to be honest with you. I am the try hard, lunch box fiend. My heart is in the right place, but my sandwich rarely ever is. My packed lunch is nearly always missing something, and more often than not auto-destructs en route due to an astounding lack of planning, and cling film shortage.
What this says about you:
You haven’t quite got it together yet. You want to make good efforts and not waste the thousands of vegetables and would-be meals that have lived and left your fridge, but you don’t quite know how. You care immensely about getting things right, and doing things well, but perhaps this is stopping you achieve the things you want and you find yourself stuck in the middle ground between being disciplined and going with the flow.
The weird luncher
These are the people that eat really odd meals, like the aforementioned tuna and bread combo, or cheese filled sausages (definitely didn’t make this up). Their dishes almost always look like a rather unpleasant accident involving a sick cat, some curdled milk and a would-be tesco basic’s microwave meal (and those are the nicer ones).
What this says about you:
Although the description above sounds less than delightful, people that unknowingly bring weird and wonderful (mainly weird) lunches to their place of work are more often than not rather unique, free thinking individuals. They don’t realise they’re doing anything different because they don’t think of themselves as external people, figures that are affected by societal values (like the importance of how good their lunch looks). They like to follow their instincts and take the world as it comes. This may mean weird meals but it also means the integrity that comes with not caring how strange they are, and a person that, in business as well as in life, follows their gut instinct and doesn’t compromise on what they want because of what people think.
Some people piece together meals in a haphazard manner that is guaranteed to bring immediate shock and horror to anyone in the vicinity, whereas others throw themselves into making homely packed lunches (notes to self included) with an aplomb that is nothing short of admirable. What remains true, however, is that the way you plan your meals are not dissimilar to the way you plan your life. So next time you decide to hit that Burger King or feed yourself peanuts for lunch, take heed and think about what that may say about your life habits!
