Many of us make sacrifices with our health and fitness because of the time pressures of our jobs. This is especially true of ambitious people in corporate environments like investment banks and law firms.
One of the main reasons for the increase in the number of overweight or obese people in the western world is the reliance on more quickly attainable but less healthy sources of food, such as fast-food takeaway or microwaveable ready meals.
“People who work very hard have less time to cook and prepare healthier meals for dinner, so they tend to consume meals that are very quick and easy to prepare, but filled with processed meat, sugar and saturated fat,” said weight management expert John Taylor of Discovery Learning in the United Kingdom.
Here are five tips to help you stay healthy despite the demands of your busy professional life:
1) Stay clear of free junk food
Most offices and places of work have a spot where people leave items such as birthday cake from their homes, doughnuts from the café, or chocolate sweets from their holiday for their co-workers to enjoy. Stay clear of these, no matter how tempting they look.
If you find yourself getting peckish during work hours despite having already had lunch, try drinking a pint of plain water. Water fills one’s stomach and reduces hunger sensations.
2) Seek opportunities to keep active
During your workday, take advantage of every possible opportunity to be active. Use the staircase, not the lift. Park your car some distance from the entrance, or take public transport to the nearest stop or station and walk the rest of the way. Make sure you get up and stretch your legs and walk up and down a few times every forty-five minutes or so. If you have a free hour for lunch, take a brisk walk around the block.
3) Bring a packed lunch
Most busy working professionals go to cafes or supermarkets near to their place of work to get lunch. If you bring your own lunch to work, you can control the composition of your lunches and keep them healthy and low in sugar and fat. Try to stick with light meals that one or two types of vegetable. If you insist on going somewhere to buy lunch each day, spend a little extra and buy healthy meals containing fresh ingredients.
4) Take preventative measures
Part of health and fitness is preventing illnesses by maintaining and fortifying the natural defences of our bodies. Try to have five items of fruit and vegetables each day, but especially items of fruit that are rich in vitamin c. People who eat an orange and a kiwi fruit every day often report that they never get colds or flus.
5) Remember sleep
Sleep is an often ignored but important part of staying physically and emotionally healthy. Many of us have jobs that require us to work long hours or occasionally burn the midnight oil to get something done in time for a deadline, and when we try to do this and still fit in the things we like to do in our spare time, we can end up not getting as much sleep as we should. Try to make sure you get at least six, preferably seven or eight hours of sleep every night. If you’re feeling drained by the weekend, by all means have a lie in and catch up on Saturday morning.
