- December 16, 2009
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Blog, Corporate Culture, Health at Workplace, Human Resource Management
These days, people are usually more concerned with career growth and tend to ignore the importance of maintaining a healthy diet at the workplace. Perhaps, life has become very hectic and has shifted everybody’s focus to concentrate more on career development because of increased competition in the job market, which barely gives them time to indulge in healthy activities. 
Hygiene is also important. It is the responsibility of the management to provide their employees with a healthy work environment and create awareness about its importance among the different work units. This gives an opportunity to the employees to learn what is good for their health and what is not. It helps in reducing the possibilities of different diseases, stress, depression, obesity, absenteeism and acts as a source of positive energy as well.
Other noticeable fact is that people often skip their meals at work which indicates their eagerness in improving their performance and getting things done on time. Therefore, our little efforts can help us gain a lot of benefits by realizing the significance of quality food consumption because there is a famous saying ‘you are what you eat’.
Kindly share your opinions on how we can improve our eating habits. Moreover, how do you maintain a healthy life style by taking out time from your tiring schedule?
Beneath all that will to be successful in the big bad world, while running everyday to win the never ending race, this critical question creeps every now and then and keeps constantly nagging at all those IT wizards and budding or successful entrepreneurs. But, what people do not understand is that there are always simple methods to healthy living:
1. Keep that workplace water bottle always filled with water. Drink that, finish and go refill – several websites have millions of articles on utility of water intake – You are healthy, look young and your skin glows..Increased water intake frequents your trip to the loo and water coolers (see you are walking more then you used to),
2. Never ask your office boys to get water, tea, or coffee for you. Walk to the coffee machine….self service is the best service.
3. Make it a habit to buy fruits every weekend..carry a bag with fruits (washed, cleaned)…You will just pick and eat that when you feel like munching…if you do not bring them in ready to eat form…believe me you will carry it back home or if you eat it without washing it will cause more harm then benefit
4. Your bag of fruits will not let you starve bcoz you are on diet and cannot eat that junk from the office pantry and if you are not a diet freak it will definitely cut down on your junk intake….Result – a healthier, younger you (what about all those texts on fruits being good for tissue repair and tissue building)
5. Always drink a glass of toned milk (no full creams)…if you feel milk is yukky!! add that favorite chocolate Horlicks or Bournvita….or make a fruit shake.
6. Buy less of potato and more of green vegetables….you cook what is available at home..if what is available is healthy you will automatically eat healthy without an extra effort….so go identify the vegetables you like and make it a point to buy them..
7. If possible make it a point to do at least half an hour of yoga or if you cannot walk to that nearest CD shop or the grocery store or the beauty parlour.
8. If you commute by public transport, leave your auto one km before your destination, stop taking rickshaw, leave 15 minutes early so that you can walk down to the nearest bus stop.
The above steps are tried and tested by me. I am sure this is not enough but at least it leads you to a healthier you and if you do not do it for one week start again. Do not leave it altogether and just keep feeling guilty about it.
I would be happy to see positive responses from the readers.
Lets not take excuse of busy schedules.Its possible to eat healthy food
while at work. Small zip lock pouches with dates and chana,ground nuts
made on wekend for a week and stored in your locker at work will make
great difference.Make arrangement to eat fruit in lunch hour.If you are getting lunch from home ,try to get curd or buttermilk ,otherwise a glass of milk should be part of breakfast at home.
Begin with at least one of these and add others.
I agree the fact that eating on a healthy way contributes to your wellness.
The major point, again, is to maintain a balance between your professional and personal life.
When you acquire more responsibilities, you have a heavy agenda, then, it is more difficult to take care about yourself. Then, you are missing time to cook at home, and you will buy ready-made meals, which are not healthy all the time.
But when the stress in increasing, you are also eating to compensate this stress, as a reward for the difficult time you have; like other people are drinking or smoking. Finally, you are falling in a vicious circle, you begin to put on weight, and you do not feel well physically as psychologically. You are loosing the respect of yourself, you do not trust on you, and it has a negative impact on your work and on the relationship with your colleagues.
The quality of what you are eating is also important. I worked more than one year for a company where I had the opportunity to get a hot meal for a good price. But when I noticed after that it was easy for me on an organization point of you, but I had not really the choice to eat what I want. It was a good quality food, but not always healthy, and I had not really control on my diet.
There is not only the fact to favor quality food, but also when you are buying products on a local market, choosing fresh products, it is more significant that to buy ready-made product. There is a social dimension which contributes also to your life balance.
The conclusion of this is that you need to take time with yourself.
Regards,
Eric
If you consider the good old times when people used to be employed in factories, the eating times were fixed. As an employee whatever designation we have, we should stick to having lunch at the fixed time. If you are going to have a long meeting, then you can tell all the attendees that there will be a lunch break. If you are not the organizer of the meeting, then you can request the organizer to give a lunch break. Lunch time should be strictly adhered to.
In the workplace, you will find both fast foods and stuff such as fresh juices, salads and sandwiches. Sometimes, we cannot relish the fast food. Therefore, we can alternate between fast food and healthy stuff.
There are relatively few businesses that provide healthy food at a reasonable price. As sad as it is, most successful food and bev businesses serve fast food that is rarely healthy and one goes for the ease of those places rather than seek healthier options.
I think things like an office fruit basket, and relationships with affordable healthy eateries could help if companies are really concerned, but the truth is that they are not.
Also I believe locally there is a culture of poor eating habits which we are not particularly bothered to address. Salads for example are supplementaries to meals rather than main courses.
In organizations I have worked in, I have rarely noticed people skipping meals as they use it as an avenue to relax with co-workers and recharge for the afternoon session.
I’m in a unique situation, where each live appearance I make at an event or party features lots of food… Much of it usually is fried or fattening… I decided about 1 1/2 months ago to give up all soda, desserts and high calorie carbs and lost almost 20 lbs. so far…
So, as a result, I totally stay away from these foods when offered and go for the veggies instead…
Eat less,
Move more…
Cheers…
I think that we can improve our eating habits by drinking a lot of water. We can live in more than seven days by just drinking water.
In addition, we can eat a lot of vegetable for our healthy diet. I would like to share everyone that I read somewhere articles tell that eating a lot of vegetables make our body to move very quickly as well as live longer.
There is no excuse on not eating healthy…it is the will power to do so. You can bring various of good snacks and fruits dto nibble on while you work. If you are asked to go out for lunch lots of restaurants have great vegetarian dishes or low calorie dishes. Salads are a way to go with a chicken wrap or veggie wrap. Bring lots of celery sticks, carrots, broccoli, yogourt to work if you are hungry in between meals. Popcorn is good too. As for drinks, bottled water. At least you are cleansing yourself.
I am motivated by the people around me. I observe people with good habits who look and feel well. I notice people who eat a lot of junk and are obese and sluggish.
I grab fruit or bread and put it in my purse when I head out the door so that I have something to snack on that is not candy or soda.
I use the best quality food I can. This includes growing it myself, buying locally grown, buying organic, using fresh…as much as possible. I limit processed food and create from scratch. This really does save me time and money: saves me trips to the store, saves me gasoline, saves me doctor bills because I’m healthier. I also try to buy in bulk, and I use a cold storage area in my basement to store some fruits and veggies over the winter. I almost always make enough at dinner so that I have leftovers for a couple nights worth of more dinners plus lunch. Another good way to do this is to spend a few hours on the weekend cooking up a soup, a stew and/or roast chicken/beef. Freeze anything you won’t use within a few days, and you’ve got instant meals ready. But even if you’re eating the best quality food, you still have to be careful about portion control. I never ever skip a meal, by the way. I always eat breakfast, have a snack midmorning and mid afternoon, and eat dinner before 7pm. This way I’m hungery for breakfast the next day.
As individuals we must all make our own choices, whether healthy or unhealthy food is presented to us at the workplace. The important thing is to educate yourself on healthy food choices. Do not assume that the commercials on TV telling you what’s healthy to eat are correct. They’re just trying to sell their product. I have found Weston A. Price Foundation to be an excellent source of information on nutrient-dense foods.
Links:
* http://www.westonaprice.org
Did you know that Bruce Lee ate 6 times a day and had basically “0” body weight? Eating smaller but more frequently helps keep your Metabolism higher…then again…you also need common sense to pick between something healthy & a tweenky!
In one place where I work, they put boxes of fruit out twice a week. It’s good in making you think twice before going to the chocolate machine. Only trouble is a lot of the apples and pears are very hard, so all the bananas go first!
Once again, there is only one solution.
FREE, MANDATORY LUNCHES!
z
Salima:
It takes the same time to choose a hamburger or a chicken salad and it takes the same time eating them
I learned this the hard way, it is a matter of seeting your mind to focus on what is healthy the same places that offer any kind of junk/ unhealthy food offer healthy food as well so it is just an excuse
It is not a heavy schedule, it is not we are too busy to grab anything it is a personal choice that we make
Bring your own lunch. Buy a thermos for soup, another for your beverage of choice, and an insulated bag to carry all this stuff in.
The pressure of work is too strong ..so people have to work,work and work,forget the health..
We have no choice,but hope we can take care ourselves…the health is most important for us..
For Worksite Wellness
Lauren Swann, MS, RD, LDN also suggests these experts on this topic:
* Denice Ferko-Adams, MPH, RD
* Cathy Leman, MA, RD, LD
* Zonya Foco
Bring your lunch with you, that way you can control what you eat. Make yourself eat lunch, no skipping because you are “too busy.”
Bring your own HEALTHY lunch to work. My favorite is ham sandwiches & tomatoes with some fruit juice and a banana later in the day. Also make it a point to schedule lunch time each day on your calendar just like you do with meetings and actuallly EAT at that time if there are no other appts scheduled at that time.
This takes a commitment to your own wellness. The best advice I’ve ever heard is to consider how the food is going to make you feel after you eat it. If healthy, tasty food isn’t available at work–most times it isn’t–it takes less than 10 minutes each night to pack a lunch and snacks,
Prepare all foods in batches at home. Freeze or save extra single servings. Have enough fresh fruit on hand to last one week. Wash all fresh fruit and veggies at one time, so you have no excuse to hit the vending machine.Save your treats for after dinner.
I’ve long suffered by working in a highly demanding position where I often used to forget having lunch-and at times even a glass of water. While I believe that employee well being should be considered by organizations, it is upto us how much we care about our own health.
Some ideas for employers include: a round of cold water twice a day, since offices already send tea and coffee this way. Also, keep green tea as an option in addition to tea and coffee. Lunch breaks should be imposed by switching off the lights and working equipment so that people are forced to eat lunch on time. HR deptts should send a weekly health round up internal newsletter that talks about simple health care tips while working. I know of an ad agency in Karachi where exercising equipment has been placed on the top floor with proper arrangements for working out. Anybody staying beyond designated office hours should be asked to spend 30 mins on the treadmill.
Since health is primarily in our hands, we, as employees need to step up for our ownselves. I was advising my best friend today that if you are too busy to order lunch on time, give a priority list to your receptionist and ask her to place an order from the list everyday on time. We also need to keep in mind that a job is a job, but our health is essential for our mental and physical well being. We can survive without a job but unhealthy habits have long term adverse affects.
Heard on Oprah once that people treat you just as you treat your ownself. Eat healthy and be happy 🙂
I think it’s important to make sure that healthy food is available in the office. The vending machines, cafeterias should be stocked with healthy food and some not-so-healthy foods as well. We can’t force people to eat healthy 24/7. People have the right to choose what they consume. Besides, going completely healthy will irritate workers. Phasing in healthy food is a better option than going healthy all of a sudden. Before taking any steps in this area, it’s important to get input from employees (find out what healthy foods they like to eat and would eat).
Also, an exercise routine at a set time during the day would encourage a healthy lifestyle. At my previous employer, each employee would take turns leading stretching/yoga sessions.
that is fine if you work in an office
but when you are driving down the road there is little time to stop and eat properly if you can eat at all
Best practices is what followed by Google in this department. being a costly affair, all company cannot manage it. They can create awareness may be through weekly internal newsletter etc etc.