Working from home during the coronavirus pandemic would mean one thing. No distraction from water coolers and small talks. However, one of the major flaws that remain in this period of social distancing is the refrigerator filled with countless food.
You could be having a deadline. Well, that would be great. First you would need to check on the last night’s leftovers. Just for a quick bite. Might be that you are going to start a project. In that case, you would need some food for the brain. Of course, you have already eaten your breakfast or lunch.
Eating Causes an Unhealthy Work Environment
No doubt, food can be the remote worker’s worst enemy. Sometimes the efficiency of working from home would make people straight-up forget about eating at all. Here under eating and overeating are not sustainable habits. You do have to follow some healthy diet and activities when you are working from home.
Sticking to A Schedule
Nowadays, most of the people working at home swear by routines. Washing face, putting on real clothes, placing Smartphone boundaries, and these need to be extended to eating too. Many health experts feel that snacking is the biggest mistake that remote workers make.
It is better if you set up your day just like any other regular working day. That would be filled with lunch breaks, a few smaller breaks, and the focus on the most necessary meal of the day, which is the breakfast. It is best if you eat your breakfast from your desk just before you begin your work.
You can think of having something like warm oats with fruit and nut butter or even avocado. Also, some egg on toast. Here a protein-based breakfast would make you feel full and can keep your sugar level balanced. That would help you to avoid snacking for some hours.
When You Can, Just Eat Away from Your Desk
Nowadays, it would be easy to think eating breakfast and lunch at your desk. That would help you end the day early. The work-from-home veterans understand it would rarely work that way.
There would be always something more to do. Your focus would have to be somewhere that does not have any dedicated breaks. Most health experts suggest in eating meals just away from your desk.
You must put up a no-tech at the dinner or lunch time rule. You might be a parent and with kids around the corner, that would be a tough task. Here parenting while working from home is just about being flexible. A total break from the work would clear the mind, but when your kids are sleeping or out, then having lunch at your desk would be somewhat no issue.
Of course, there would be certain temptation for keeping the working and getting as much to be done as possible. Sometimes having kids to keep one busy for the day would be a healthy aspect.
Avoiding Sugar-Heavy Drinks. Replace Them with Flavoured, Seltzer Water and Tea
One of the major rules that most doctors and health professionals state is to avoid sugary drinks at home. You must make a rule to avoid buying these highly sugar-coated carbonated drinks. Even the same with bottled drinks with added white sugar.
You even need to avoid packet juices. If you are going for fruit juices, just avoid the juice from concentrate. Try to go for all-day drinks like tea. Make sure that you do not add any milk or white sugar. Also, for a good flavour, you can add some honey. Of course, it does provide sweetness, but is healthier compared to sugar. Now for all other drinking, think of water as the best and healthiest choice.
If You Want to Limit Snacking When You Work from Home, Do Meal Prep
Well meal prep as it is called is the best way to set up meals. Hence, that they are just within your control and is not haphazard. You make up these meals just because you are short on time or ingredients.
If you want to plan out the meals in the controlled way, especially for your workdays, then try to set aside the time on Sunday nights. Just begin your meal prep the night before or the day before you would be back at your work in the home office.
Count Calories to Make Sure You Are Not Overeating When You Work from Home
Working from home would make it possible for your pantry and fridge to be closer to your office. Whenever your home office is just within feet away from the fridge or cabinet, it would be difficult to open both. You must make sure that they are still full.
No doubt, every individual would like to investigate their fridge just to see what is in it. Sometimes you would want to count calories, and there is no shame in that as that can easily teach you tons about your diet. At times you can consult your dietician or doctor. Even you can take assistance of the latest fitness apps.
Try to Only Eat When You Are Hungry and Not Because You Need A Break
Well, taking a break from your work, while working at home will not just mean that you need to have a sweet drink or snack or treat. You could take a break to do things like cleaning the dishes or other chores. Sometimes you could take the break for stretching rather than eating.
Try to Substitute Any Type of Perishable Snack for Fresh Food
Now as most couples are working from home, they would try to load their pantry with non-perishable food items. These can be used in meals and snacks that are fresh. Also, some couples try to reserve the non-perishable food stuffs for mealtime or days when they do not have the time to shop. Rather they try to consume what is there in the refrigerator or the fruit bowl.
Prep Your Snacks to Save Time While You Are Working
Sometimes you would be pressed for time in your workday. In that case, just soak and pre-cut your vegetable snacks. Here you can soak or cut the celery and carrots just ahead of the time. Hence, that would be easy to grab and will not need any kind of peeling each time you would want to eat them.
Make Sure Your Kitchen Is an Enjoyable Place
Of course, when you are making food, you do need to make sure that the kitchen is neat and organized. Well, the basic concept is simple. You need to have the desire to cool in the kitchen and enjoy making your own food.
If you do not, you would end up ordering from outside. That would make your health take a dip. Currently, most people are working from home, so you must make sure that you take some time to make your kitchen a wonderful place to be.
The best thing you could do is to keep the kitchen organized. Here you can take some time on the weekends to do the organizing procedures. Well, that way your week will not be so much stressful. Hare the low stress would help you to avoid any kind of burnouts while working from home.
Additionally, you must make sure that the spices are in the plain sight. You can easily use them just before you begin to salt your food. Here you can place your kitchen items that are commonly used in front of others.
Even you can place the things that you want to use like sharp knives often in the plainer sight compared to the things that you do not want to use. At times you might have cluttered kitchen, then put away the things that you do not use often like food processors and blenders.
Pre-Portion Dried Staples Like Rice and Pasta as Per the Serving Size
Well, this procedure ensures that you do not make too much. Frankly, it is easy to say that you would make an entire cup of rice of quinoa so that you can just put half of it away. However, if you are hungry, you can wind up eating the whole thing.
Try to Cook Meals and Save Half
Cook meals for lunch that you can consume half of and save the other half for dinner. This would be great if you are making more than you think you need. Sometimes you are the kind of person who wants to relax as soon as the workday is over. In that case, you should head right into your virtual happy hour with co-workers, to remain connected, and simply heat up the dinner that has already pre-made.
Always Keep Researching for Best Recipes
Well, it is great if you start to do some research on amazing recipes as a hobby. Here there would be something therapeutic regarding that. Some people love to cook, and they find cooking quite relaxing.
A quick online research would show you various beautiful cooking blogs out there. That can make your cooking well as the goal that you can work towards.
Save Ordering Food Only for Special Occasions, Rather Than Defaulting to It
Sometimes people would be traveling full-time. In such cases one would never set limits on ourselves. Some people would comprehend this issue by making cooking a huge priority. They would eat out at the local food if they went out for the day.
Here it is not that we are trying to avoid the local cuisine. Here it is more like one knows too much of anything good is not a great thing. That is especially when you are focusing on your health. As most people are working from home, they would be ordering in food and even sometimes going out for it.
Also, when socializing with buddies, or in the mood of date night, it is the same thing. Most of the time, people spend their date nights cooking together and eating together.
Avoid Buying Any Kind of Junk Food
Never stock your fridge and pantry like a vending machine. That would lead to eating just because you have the option. Try your level best to keep junk food out of your house. You must get rid of those foods you know can trigger a binge for you. Make sure that it is out of sight and out of mind.
Have Plenty of Water to Drink
Of course, dehydration would lead to headaches and fatigue. These are both not good for your productivity. Like how you fill up a water bottle at the office to keep at your desk, in the same way keep water next to your workstation at home too.
Here when you have water easily available, the chances are you are more likely to drink it. That would help you to reach your goal of at least 64 ounces per day. Most importantly, just stay away from sugar-loaded soda and juice, both of which can cause you to crash later.
Deploy Caffeine Boundaries and Increase Hydration
Some people would be new to the work-from-home type of lifestyles. They would be shocked to know how much coffee they drink. If you brew a pot, you do not want to waste any, and you end up drinking way more than you ever would at work.
Surprisingly, that will not be the worst thing you could do for your health. According to the FDA, around 400 milligrams which is equivalent to four to five cups of coffee is safe. That is based on the person. The important thing is timing.
Conclusion
Of course, you do have to follow a great regime to have a healthy diet when you are working from home. Many people have clearly state that work from home tends to make them increase their waist size and would even make them lazier.
Also, work from home could increase the chances of raiding your fridge, as you do have plenty of food at your disposal. Hence, when you are on the work from home duty, try to be cautious and follow a strict diet regime.
