With lots of jobs now allowing us to work from home, some of us may find it hard to maintain a healthy diet with plenty of distractions around the home.
Being in close proximity to foods and drinks all day can definitely provide us with a challenge. Below are some of these along with great strategies to deal with them.
The challenges
- Increased stress – working from home can increase feelings of guilt. Taking breaks or making tea can seem cheekier than if these tasks were in the office. These natural feelings can increase stress levels, so having a bit of perspective of this will help.
- Boredom – browsing in the kitchen or looking in the fridge while waiting for the tea to brew can lead to us grazing in-between meals, making it easy to eat more than we usually would having breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Lack of routine – routines may have gone out of the window. Getting up late as there is no commute, reduced daily steps because of back to back video calls are a few examples of changes in routine.
- Takeaways – we know that lots of local shops have deals on and delivery apps make it easier to just pick up the phone to order in.
These things can definitely make it trickier to have a healthy balanced diet, and could lead to us eating more energy than usual. However this doesn’t have to be the case.
The strategies
- Do work in a room away from the kitchen. Always being in sight of the kitchen may tempt us.
- Try to keep to your normal eating routine with snacks (if you have them) and meal times. Try to think about whether you are hungry before eating any snacks to ensure you are not eating out of boredom.
- If you struggle to limit the amount of high calorie snacks you are eating, try to avoid having these in the house altogether. Instead, keep the kitchen filled with healthier snacks such as fruit or nuts.
- Drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Often we mistake thirst for hunger, and it can be easy to forget to keep topping up that water bottle while we are indoors.
- Limit takeaways to 1-2 times per week. Always keep some easy foods in the freezer for lazy evenings when cooking seems like a chore.
- Eat at the table where possible, and ensure wherever you are eating that there are no distractions such as the TV or games. Distractions can stop us recognising when we are full and so we may eat more than we need. .
- When cooking, make extra portions to make bulk amounts and put the rest in the fridge or freezer for those lazy meals.
- If you are struggling to manage your eating, keep a food diary of your eating habits so you can see an patterns in the foods you are eating, times of meals or portions
- Include exercise into your day as this will help burn energy, raise metabolism and boost mood!
Conclusion
Don’t be disheartened if had a few biscuits with your tea for lunch. The absolute key to maintaining good health is to do healthier things more often. For example, if you can incorporate a daily walk before you start work, or have a piece of fruit every day after breakfast, lunch and dinner.
