Many people are working from home for the first time due to the current COVID pandemic. Working from your house instead of an office comes with many challenges: difficulty focusing, an off-kilter work-life balance, and new eating habits.
Perhaps you’ve been so caught up in your work that you find yourself reaching for premade junk food, or forgetting to eat meals entirely. Or now that you’re in close proximity to your fridge all day, you may find yourself snacking more than ever before. Working from home makes maintaining healthy eating patterns difficult. The following are a few strategies for sticking to healthy eating, even when you’re stuck at home.
Plan Ahead for Meals and Snacks
Chances are, you’ve already created a schedule for yourself. This may include when you get up, work out, or attend meetings. Why not incorporate meals and snack breaks into this schedule? If you have set times for breaks, you’ll be less likely to graze all day long. Think about what it was like in the office. You likely had a set time for a lunch break and didn’t snack all day long.
Applying this mentality will also keep you from accidentally skipping meals altogether. Your body needs you to eat regularly. Eating will help you stay focused on the tasks at hand and feel less tired.
Prepare Lunches Ahead of Time
If you had a meal prep strategy when you went into the office, utilize the same process when working from home. Although you may think it will be easy to cook yourself lunch every day since you’re already close to your kitchen, chances are you won’t feel as motivated by the time noon rolls around.
Your lunches don’t have to be fancy. They could be leftovers or even a pre purchased salad mix with some extra protein. By having a premade lunch, you’ll be less tempted to order unhealthy takeout.
If you do want to cook something, chop everything up and lay out the ingredients ahead of time.
Stay Hydrated
If you regularly fill up a water bottle at work, do the same thing when working from home! You can limit breaks to get more water by having a glass or bottle on your desk at all times. You’ll also be more likely to stay hydrated when you have water within reach. Dehydration will lead to a loss of focus, headaches, and feeling tired.
Stay away from sugary beverages and excessive amounts of coffee, too. These may cause you to crash partway through the day or feel overly jittery.
This article was originally published at NatureCity.info.