Is Your Office Making You...eat unhealthy foods? Part 2

Continuing our series on overcoming obstacles to healthy eating at the office, we turn attention to the issues of meetings & the 3pm energy crash.

 Issue #3 = Meetings

Meetings can hinder our healthy eating efforts in a couple of ways:

Meetings with no food!
Our aim is to eat regularly throughout the day & not to go for long periods of time without eating.  Meetings, however, may be scheduled during the time you would normally be eating your lunch or they may start earlier but run over time.  We need the energy from food to keep us alert & fuel our brain & you want to be able to focus on the issues discussed at the meeting rather than wondering when you'll next be able to eat!

Solution
A nutritious breakfast & a healthy snack!  Including protein & whole grains in your breakfast will slow digestion & keep you feeling full longer.  Omelet with 100% whole grain bread, oatmeal plus a yogurt, low fat grilled cheese on wholegrain English muffin are good examples.  Add some fruit to these and you've got a great start to the day.
Plan a healthy mid-morning snack. When the boss calls that last minute meeting you'll be glad you packed that all important healthy snack or kept something such as trail mix or cereal bar in your desk drawer!

Meetings with food!
Ahhh the temptation of the pastry platter or the pizza or other catering option sent to tempt you!
Again, a good breakfast and healthy mid-morning snack will help you here as with those foods already under your belt (so to speak!) you'll be less likely to over-indulge. 
Walk the length of the buffet table to see what's on offer & plan what you'll choose rather than starting to fill your plate at one end and working your way down.  If salad and fruit are available make sure you choose these - remember the recommendation is for half your plate to be fruit & vegetables. 
If meetings form a regular part of your work it may be worth speaking to your colleague who's responsible for ordering the lunch about providing healthy options. A local sandwich shop, for example, may be willing to offer discounted prices for repeat company business.

Issue #4 = 3pm energy crash

The dreaded 3pm energy crash! That time of day where the vending machine is calling your name & you start clock watching & dreaming of dinner!

Solution 

There's not actually a magic food that can help once the dreaded 3pm energy crash strikes.  We all know a candy bar from the vending machine is going to give us an initial burst of energy but we're going to crash again before 5pm. 

What we need to do instead is look back over the day at what we did or did not eat & drink earlier.  Did you skip breakfast or lunch?  Have you drunk any water today? It's kind of like a car running out of gas - we have to fill the tank before we run out! Even if you're just sitting at a desk your body is busy working and using up energy and if you deprive it of food & water throughout the day, by 3pm it's simply running out of energy!

Next post: Office celebrations & Inactivity....