Eating healthy could be challenging to do at work. Especially with a demanding job, the tendency to stress-eat by eating a lot or eating unhealthy “comfort food” increases. Another issue is that the local commissary or cafeteria may not be serving enough healthy food choices at your workplace. And for those workplaces with no commissaries, employees would often order or eat at a fast food chain due to only having a limited amount of time for lunch.
Unhealthy meals and eating habits at work can cause many issues such as weight gain, hypertension, and other similar problems, and it may not be enough to compensate by eating healthy at home or hitting the gym after work. So, to stay healthy, it’s vital for you also to have balanced meals and healthy eating habits at work.
Plan Ahead and Stick to the Plan
Before your work week starts, you can plot out your meals. You can schedule what you’ll be eating. If you’re dependent on what the workforce commissary can offer, you can ask the commissary or cafeteria on what they’ll be cooking for the week so you can plan. It may be hard to stick with your plan, especially if your co-workers or boss treats the office with free meals such as pizza and whatnot. In these cases, you can always join in on the treat to avoid being a social pariah, but make sure that you manage your portions responsibly. You can even keep a food diary to keep track of what you’ve eaten so you’d be aware of your food and nutritional intake and you can plan changes on your diet accordingly.
Pack Healthy Home-Cooked Meals
In line with the first pointer, making your healthy home-cooked meals could be the easiest way to ensure that you eat healthily. You can prepare your lunch and snacks for the entire day; this would help you cut the junk food and avoid eating outside your meal plan.
Choose Healthier Food Options
If you don’t have the time, tools, or skills to prepare your home meals, you can always buy pre-packed healthy meals or order from healthy restaurants or food businesses. There are many sub shop franchises and lunchbox caterers that offer to deliver healthy meals to your workplace; some may even offer to let you plan the healthy meals they’ll be delivering to you for the entire week or month.
Be Hydrated
It’s important to still be able to drink your required amount of water a day. Not only does water keep you healthy, but it also ensures that you function well at work; dehydration can significantly affect one’s productivity. Also, drinking water before meals can help you curb your appetite and make you feel full a lot faster.
Conclusion
Eating healthy is always an option; you need to prepare and plan. We spend a considerable part of our adult lives at work, so it’s important that we also eat properly to avoid any health issues now and in the future, so make sure to keep these pointers in mind when you’re ready to make a change towards a healthier lifestyle.