Last week I was hoping to show some progress on my Lunchtime struggles from a recent post but I never did for various reasons. Those reasons are mostly based on my disorganization and tendency to forget or lose things.

However, I have been improving the process this week and have made some small achievements, I think! On Monday evening I went to the Kaufmarkt across the street from the office and purchased: almonds, salad leaves, mushrooms, shredded carrot, sprouts, olives and goat’s cheese. I also found a tiny bottle of olive oil although I am still looking for a similar-sized balsamic.

I took these back to the hotel and assembled the team.

I’ve decided to ditch the grains as a part of the salad as it’s just too much mess and effort to organize. The sprouts are a good substitute, though.

Last week I was affected by my typical morning forgetfulness and left my salad in the hotel fridge instead of packing it for work. This week I prevented this omission by hanging a colourful tote bag on the fridge doorknob and a bright reminder not to forget again and it seemed to work!

Next week I might keep it all at work if possible which will hopefully prevent forgetful problems entirely. The issue here is that one day a week I am supposed to work in a different building across the river. This could perhaps be solved by making the salad after work and then transporting it to the hotel and then to the second office. I don’t love it, though. Perhaps on these days I should just suck it up and eat in the canteen.

I can see why none of my other consulting colleagues ever bother with this. It’s a pretty big hassle to buy and assemble the ingredients and you certainly aren’t saving any money. I’m going to try to stick with it, though: mostly because the canteen food is simply so dire and depressing.