5 Ways to Eat Healthy at Work
By Adam
July 11, 2013
Lifestyle
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We spend the majority of our week at the office, but it’s not always the most productive environment when it comes to fostering a healthy lifestyle. From eating at our desks, to visiting nearby burger joints, to grabbing a mid-afternoon snack from the vending machine, there can be many temptations that threaten to derail a healthy diet.
But fitting nutritious eating into your busy workday isn’t as hard as it seems, and can do wonders to boost your productivity and mood. Check out these tips to help you stay healthy at the office.
Start with a good breakfast
Eating a hearty breakfast is the basis for establishing a healthy diet. Start your day off right with a nutritious meal that will keep you energized and alert for hours. Foods high in protein and low in fat will keep you full longer and allow you to avoid a mid-morning crash. Try oatmeal, whole grain toast with peanut butter, or a hard-boiled egg with fruit. Having a nutritious breakfast will not only make you feel energized, it will help you concentrate and perform better.
Order in healthy catering
Packing a lunch every day is difficult for people with busy schedules, which is why many of us turn to greasy fast food for a quick bite on the go. A great alternative is ordering in. Restaurants like Extreme Pita offer catering, which provides a wide variety of healthy choices for a range of budgets and tastes. Extreme Pita’s catering menu features 25 pitas with less than 450 calories, and all of their fresh fillings are grilled in water instead of oil. Opt for hearty wraps made with whole-grain bread (Canada’s Food Guide recommends 6-8 servings of grains per day), filled with fresh veggies and lean meats. Choose salads, pita chips and fresh veggies as your sides. Extreme Pita lets you choose between personal lunch boxes, boardroom meeting combos, and pita platters for a customized catering experience. Get $10 off your next catering order by printing out this blog post. (See below for details.)
Take a lunch break
Make time in your schedule to take a break from work and focus on your meal. Instead of mindlessly munching away while staring at your computer screen, concentrating on your meal will keep you aware of how much you’re eating and allow you to better detect when you’re full. Stepping away from your desk will also help you feel refreshed and rejuvenated, whether you’re bringing your meal to a nearby park or walking up some stairs to use the lunch room on another floor. If you need more motivation to step away during lunch, keep this in mind: numerous studies indicate the average work desk is teeming with bacteria.
Keep healthy snacks on hand
Snacking between meals will give you fuel for the rest of the day and prevent you from overeating at dinner. Canada’s Food Guide suggests eating at least one dark green and one orange vegetable every day, so trying bringing in baby carrots and edamame to have at your desk. Other great snacks to keep on hand include trail-mix, whole-wheat crackers, dried fruit, and nuts. If there’s a fridge in your office, leave some vegetables, fruit, berries, hummus, and non-fat Greek yogurt in there.
Stay hydrated with water
Cut back on your coffee and tea intake, since caffeine is a diuretic and can make your body lose water. Not only will skipping your morning latte save you money, it’ll also save you empty calories. In the afternoon, avoid those sugary sodas, energy drinks and fruit-flavoured punches from the vending machine, which are often full of dehydrating artificial sweeteners. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, dizziness, headaches and irritability. Try drinking water instead, which will keep you hydrated, curb your food cravings, and detox your body. If you need a shot of flavour, add lemon or lime slices.
Eating well at the office will not only increase your productivity at work, it will also decrease your risk of heart disease. It takes a lot of self-discipline to maintain a healthy diet; Extreme Pita is here to make it easier on you.
For more information about Extreme Pita’s guilt-free catering or to place an order from their freshly made-to-order, health-inspired menu, visit extremepita.com. Also, if you print this blog post and bring it to your local Extreme Pita, you’ll get $10 off your next catering order of $50 or more. Restrictions apply. See restaurant for details.
But fitting nutritious eating into your busy workday isn’t as hard as it seems, and can do wonders to boost your productivity and mood. Check out these tips to help you stay healthy at the office.
Start with a good breakfast
Eating a hearty breakfast is the basis for establishing a healthy diet. Start your day off right with a nutritious meal that will keep you energized and alert for hours. Foods high in protein and low in fat will keep you full longer and allow you to avoid a mid-morning crash. Try oatmeal, whole grain toast with peanut butter, or a hard-boiled egg with fruit. Having a nutritious breakfast will not only make you feel energized, it will help you concentrate and perform better.
Order in healthy catering
Packing a lunch every day is difficult for people with busy schedules, which is why many of us turn to greasy fast food for a quick bite on the go. A great alternative is ordering in. Restaurants like Extreme Pita offer catering, which provides a wide variety of healthy choices for a range of budgets and tastes. Extreme Pita’s catering menu features 25 pitas with less than 450 calories, and all of their fresh fillings are grilled in water instead of oil. Opt for hearty wraps made with whole-grain bread (Canada’s Food Guide recommends 6-8 servings of grains per day), filled with fresh veggies and lean meats. Choose salads, pita chips and fresh veggies as your sides. Extreme Pita lets you choose between personal lunch boxes, boardroom meeting combos, and pita platters for a customized catering experience. Get $10 off your next catering order by printing out this blog post. (See below for details.)
Take a lunch break
Make time in your schedule to take a break from work and focus on your meal. Instead of mindlessly munching away while staring at your computer screen, concentrating on your meal will keep you aware of how much you’re eating and allow you to better detect when you’re full. Stepping away from your desk will also help you feel refreshed and rejuvenated, whether you’re bringing your meal to a nearby park or walking up some stairs to use the lunch room on another floor. If you need more motivation to step away during lunch, keep this in mind: numerous studies indicate the average work desk is teeming with bacteria.
Keep healthy snacks on hand
Snacking between meals will give you fuel for the rest of the day and prevent you from overeating at dinner. Canada’s Food Guide suggests eating at least one dark green and one orange vegetable every day, so trying bringing in baby carrots and edamame to have at your desk. Other great snacks to keep on hand include trail-mix, whole-wheat crackers, dried fruit, and nuts. If there’s a fridge in your office, leave some vegetables, fruit, berries, hummus, and non-fat Greek yogurt in there.
Stay hydrated with water
Cut back on your coffee and tea intake, since caffeine is a diuretic and can make your body lose water. Not only will skipping your morning latte save you money, it’ll also save you empty calories. In the afternoon, avoid those sugary sodas, energy drinks and fruit-flavoured punches from the vending machine, which are often full of dehydrating artificial sweeteners. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, dizziness, headaches and irritability. Try drinking water instead, which will keep you hydrated, curb your food cravings, and detox your body. If you need a shot of flavour, add lemon or lime slices.
Eating well at the office will not only increase your productivity at work, it will also decrease your risk of heart disease. It takes a lot of self-discipline to maintain a healthy diet; Extreme Pita is here to make it easier on you.
For more information about Extreme Pita’s guilt-free catering or to place an order from their freshly made-to-order, health-inspired menu, visit extremepita.com. Also, if you print this blog post and bring it to your local Extreme Pita, you’ll get $10 off your next catering order of $50 or more. Restrictions apply. See restaurant for details.