January: the new year is the perfect time to make a fresh
start. The perfect time to make positive changes towards a healthier lifestyle,
to finally sign up to a gym, to become a happier, more confident person.
But it’s mid-January now. The post-Christmas hype is over,
and if you started the year on the ‘new year, new me’ health hype, your
willingness to preserver with this health kick may have begun to wane. One reason
for this could be down to our attitude towards health at work.
On average we spend around 38 hours a week at work. If we
take into account an average of eight hours of sleep a night, that’s 34% of our
entire conscious week spent at work. And if you work in an office, at a desk,
it’s often quite hard to stay healthy during this time.
So how best can we stay healthy while in the office? And more
importantly, stick at it for the rest of the year?
The key is by being prepared. If you work long hours or
attend lots of meetings during the day it’s usually just easier to pick up a
sarnie or snack. But implement just a handful of our ideas and you could soon
be reaping the rewards of a healthier lifestyle – alertness, productivity and
energy to name but a few.
Meal prep – Taking
a bit of time the night before or at a weekend to prep some nutritious yet
delicious meals for the week will not only save pounds in your bank account
each week, but pounds around your waist too! When cooking our own meals, we become
much more aware of the amount of salt, sugar etc. going into our dishes,
compared to buying processed food from the shop.
Take a look at The Everygirl for some easy meal prep ideas!
Get moving – It’s
so important not to spend your entire working day sat at your desk, but this
can easily be solved by making some small changes. Instead of emailing or
phoning colleagues, get out of your seat and go speak to them face-to-face.
Especially if they work in a different area of the office or on another floor.
And always take the stairs instead of the lift! If you work on
the ground floor, try parking a little further away from the office, or getting
off the bus / tram / train a stop earlier. A walk in the morning will help to wake
you up and leave you feeling revitalised for the day ahead.
Remember to get moving on your lunch too – especially if you’re
no longer heading to the shops for your usual £3 meal deal. Suggest a group of
your start a lunchtime walking club if you don’t like the idea of wondering
about on your own, and if the weather’s a bit shoddy wrap up warm and get on
with it – we’re hardy English folk after all!
Stay hydrated – Feeling
a bit peckish? You could be dehydrated instead. So before heading to the
biscuit tin or fridge grab a glass of water and see if that curbs your hunger.
If you regularly have fizzy drinks with your lunch try swapping
these out for water, green teas or smoothies and juices (although watch the
sugar content in these – especially pre-packaged ones)!
Beer fridge Fridays –
The obligatory beer fridge has become a staple in many office these days. And
it’s nice to be offered a treat on a Friday afternoon for all your hard work.
But if you’re trying to do Dry January or watching your calorie intake, a
bottle of beer isn’t the best bet. Try asking if some nice juices, J2Os and
flavoured waters can be added in there too.
Snacking – It’s
super hard to get out of the mindset of snacking, and sometimes our brain just needs
a bit of a boost between main meals. So as well as prepping your meals in
advance, try pulling together some healthier snacks to bring to the office too.
Things like nuts, fruit, veggie sticks, houmous, nut butters and hardboiled
eggs will fill you up – and stop you eating the cake Janet from Accounting
brought in today.
Healthy employees hare usually more productive, so it could be worthwhile asking for an office fruit bowl and regular fruit deliveries if you don’t already have one.
Get physical – With
families and busy social lives it can seem impossible to find time to also fit
in a trip to the gym. Yet a Lancet study from 2017 found that people need to do
at least an hour of physical activity a day to counter the negative health
impacts of every eight hours spent sitting.
Try utilizing the bit of free time you have each day instead.
It might be that by waking up a little earlier you can fit in an early morning
gym session, swim or run before work. Or there might be gym classes that fit in
with your lunch breaks. Find a gym that runs classes at a time that suits you.
This might involve spending a little more on your gym membership, but it’ll be
worth it in the long run if you’re then more likely to actually attend it.
Get social – Being
healthy in the workplace isn’t just about what you’re eating or the physical
activities you do; it’s also about having a healthy mindset. Social interactions
have been shown to reduce stress and promote happiness, so going for lunches
with colleagues and having non-work related chats in the kitchen will help you
return to your desk with a more positive attitude.
Stay clean – When
you’re sick, snotty and full of cold it’s very easy to fall out of your healthy
routine – and much harder to get back into it. The best way around this? Try to
avoid getting ill in the first place! Office environments are notorious for
spreading germs and bugs - we’ve all seen the whole office go down with flu at
the same time. But you can take steps to try prevent this – by giving your desk,
keyboard and phone a regular antibacterial wipe and by trying to stay away from
other sick people in the office if possible.
Treat yourself – We’re
about to go against everything we’re just said about healthy eating and
wellbeing – but hear us out. If you want to stick to your new healthy lifestyle
for more than just a few weeks, it’s important to give yourself a treat every
now and again…
Yes, have a beer from the office beer fridge once a month.
Delve into the biscuit barrel when you’ve had a good week at the gym. Go for a
pub lunch with your work mates every now and again. If you don’t reward
yourself with the odd treat you’ll end up hating this new healthy lifestyle and
will be more likely to give up on it altogether.
Another way to ensure you keep at your new healthy routine
is by taking baby steps. Don’t try to make loads of drastic lifestyle changes
all at once – it’ll become over-bearing and hard to stick at. Pick one thing
off the list you’re going to implement first, then once that becomes consistent
in your daily or weekly routine add in another, and so forth.
Staying healthy requires a bit of time and effort – it can’t
be achieved overnight. But adopt some of these habits into your daily routine
and you’ll begin to earn both the mental and physical benefits of doing so in
no time!