The monotony of working from home has started catching up with employees. Many have been yearning to go back to offices and resume their duties like before. Let’s go back to the beginning of the work-from-home culture. There have been many changes for employees to embrace. This includes finding a dedicated workplace where you are able to perform your best, trying to avoid distractions from other members of the household, charting a new daily schedule with your important activities and tasks, and also maintaining your health and wellness. What many people didn’t anticipate, were the changes to their diet and figuring out how to eat healthy.
What happened before the work from home culture, was that people were much more mobile and active. People also had an idea of their daily food consumption, but while working from home, it has been seen that less attention is paid to what is consumed. Most employees who work from home are confined to a place, in front of gadgets. Everything is done virtually and there’s no need to budge from the work area. All meetings and discussions are conducted over popular online platforms. Thus, quite often, food is eaten when in front of the screen. This can be compared to eating while watching television. You don’t realize the actual amount of food that you have had or sometimes even the type of food. All because there’s no actual focus on eating. Rather, eating is an activity that is done while performing your office tasks. Ultimately this can have an impact on your health.
You need to put some thought into this question. Over the past several months, what changes have you noticed in your food habits? Have they become better or worse? Have you been conscious or giving your full focus to the food that you eat? Have there been any changes to your health, both physically and mentally? These are a few scenarios that need your attention. Research on the dietary and lifestyle changes in a certain population has shown that there is a negative impact on the dietary habits and physical activity of adults due to the pandemic and lockdown measures. Though these changes are inevitable, and many positive things have happened due to the changes, you need to embrace those changes while being mindful of how they would affect your life. Here, let’s discuss more on how to maintain a good diet even while working in front of a computer.
How to Eat Healthy
- Keep your working space adequately stocked with healthy alternatives to snacks – if you’re a person who loves to snack, ensure that you have healthy snacks near your workspace. This could be fruits, salads, fresh juices, smoothies, i.e., anything that doesn’t drastically affect your blood sugar levels.
- Make sure to have a meal plan or schedule and stick to it – make it a habit to cook your meals and have them at set intervals. Home-cooked meals are better than having takeaway meals. Though sometimes, work can get overwhelming, and you may feel the urge to order from a restaurant, try preparing simple meals or salads as an alternative. Also, remember to step away from the screen during mealtime so that you know what you’re eating and are aware of the type and quantity of food. Lunch is one of the most important meals of the day since it acts as an interval between the first and second half of the day. It also gives you the much-needed break since starting work in the morning.
- Include a variety of nutrients in each meal – to ensure that you’re getting the required nutrition, prepare meals with different nutrients like proteins, fats, and carbohydrates in the recommended quantity. You can combine various nutrients in a single meal or distribute them across all meals to get the energy to keep you driven throughout the day.
Apart from being mindful of the food that you eat, make sure to include slight movement and physical activity during the day instead of sitting for long periods of time, even though you may be tempted to. A combination of a healthy diet and activity makes it a lot easier for you to maintain your health and weight during this new work-from-home schedule. It may seem difficult to manage everything while you’re at home but tweaking your diet with these simple suggestions can help in the long term in your goal on how to eat healthy.
