We spend most of our waking hours at work, and there’s no doubt that our work environment can have a huge influence on our health, both for the better and for the worse.

If you want your workplace to work for your health, you need to decide what health habits work FOR YOU.

Think about it this way – In an ideal world, how would your workday play out if you were prioritising health and wellbeing.

  • What would you do before work?
  • What time would you start?
  • What would you do while you’re working to feel better?
  • What food would you have to eat in the morning, or at lunch, or in the afternoon? (Not sure? Have a chat to one of our team members!)
  • When would you have breaks and for how long?
  • What would you do in your breaks?
  • When would you finish work?
  • What would you do after work?

Once you’ve decided on these elements of your workday, highlight the ones that are the most important or are likely to have the biggest impact on how you feel day-to-day.

This is where you want to start. It might not mean that you’re able to completely restructure your work, but we can always start to nudge towards that health habit.

Set boundaries

In a work environment, many of us find it difficult to stick to good habits because we are trying to meet the expectations of our colleagues and our employers. But sometimes these expectations haven’t been clearly communicated. We can often presume that something is an expectation, without asking and without attempting to prioritise our own goals.

If you want to take your lunch break between 1 – 2pm and your colleague asks to run a meeting at 1pm, it’s easy to presume that they expect you to work through your lunch, or change your lunch break, so you do. In that situation, you haven’t articulated your boundaries around lunch or set their expectations.

Most people are pretty good at adapting to the boundaries we create, as long as you set clear expectations for them. If you want to make sure that you have a lunch break you will need to set that expectation. So, when someone wants to meet at 1 o’clock, you need to say: “I’ll be at lunch at that time, can we make it 1:30pm or another time.”

Some boundaries which can be helpful for health:

  • Taking a lunch break
  • Eating snacks and lunch away from your desk
  • Having a limit on the number of coffees/treats/meals you buy in a week
  • Taking time to exercise before/after work
  • Managing how much time you spend sitting.

I’m not saying you should refuse to do anything that doesn’t fit your exact plans. In a workplace you often have to be flexible. However, articulating your boundaries sets expectations for others to work with and you may be surprised with how quickly they adapt.

Similarly, if someone articulates their boundary to you, respect it. If they say “No, thank you” to a TimTam, trust that they are making the right decision for them and move on.

If you manage a team, setting and negotiating clear boundaries can help your whole team keep their health goals and create a positive culture of health within your team. Here are some things you can implement:

  • Giving staff a set time for their lunch break.
  • Set an example of not working through the lunch break.
  • Make it a policy not to have meetings within the lunch time frame.
  • Set expectations for start and finish times and clearly communicate when those expectations need to change.
  • Ask your team members what they’d like their boundaries to be. Be honest about how that will affect the team and if it won’t work, try to negotiate an alternative.
  • Be open about your own boundaries.

Take a microbreak

I’m a big believer in the accumulation of marginal gains.

Small actions done on a consistent basis can be just as, if not more, effective than a big effort on occasion.

If you walk to a toilet in a different area of your building, that might mean 400 steps instead of 100. While 300 steps won’t mean much on one occasion, if you take a microbreak every hour to walk these 400 steps that’s an extra 2400 steps over an 8-hour day. That’s 12,000 more steps in your work week. That’s a whole day’s worth of steps!!

Depending on your age, gender, weight and muscle mass this could mean you’re burning an extra 500 calories a week. That’s 26,000 calories a year. If you kept your food intake the stable, that would mean losing 3-4kgs of body fat. Just by using a different toilet.

Taking a micro break can refresh your brain and make you more productive. So, you’re doing your colleagues a favour by stepping away from your desk for 5 minutes.

Here are some other great microbreaks that can take less than 2 minutes:

  • Go outside (even for 30 seconds)
  • Stand up and look out the window
  • Walk down the stairs and back up again
  • Do 10 star jumps
  • Drop a nice note to someone on another floor
  • Have a serve of vegetables – try our Vegetable snack ideas 

Out of sight, out of mind

One of the biggest drivers of our food choices is opportunity. If a food is readily available, we are far more likely to eat it.

Do these things sound familiar? The social club chocolates, the shared biscuit tin or lolly jar, your section’s ‘Snack Shack’…

Passing these tempting items when you’re tired and struggling with motivation, is a small form of torture.

The more hurdles you have to overcome to buy and eat something that you’ll ultimately regret later, the better.

  • Use a tin or container that isn’t see through (transparent).
  • Put paper or contact around the outside of the jar.
  • Pack the morning tea leftovers up into containers and put them in the fridge.
  • Suggest keeping the charity chocolates in a draw or cupboard.
  • If social club soft drinks are in the shared fridge, put them in a non-transparent container.
  • Have a joke jar instead of a lolly jar. For example, a jar full of funny quotes or dad jokes that people can use as a morale booster. I love the Short Story Happiness Pills (google it).
  • Leave cash at home so you’re less tempted to buy food that might be available around you.
  • Turn off your phone’s ability to PayWave.

Have a Plan B

You know those days when you forget your lunch, or you have to work back and there’s nothing close by at work to purchase? We all have those days. But rather than thinking that it won’t happen to you, be kind to your future frustrated and tired self and ALWAYS have a plan B stocked at work or read to fall back on.

Here are some great fallback meals and snacks to keep stocked in your drawer:

  • Flavoured tins of tuna and cups of instant rice
  • Sachets or cans of tuna and beans
  • Cans of soup
  • Packets of roasted Favva Beans
  • Wholegrain muesli bar
  • Individual packets of trail mix
  • Shelf stable meals (butter chicken/massaman/satay)
  • Boxes of nuts
  • Cheese and crackers (for the fridge, label it with your name!)
  • Packets of rice crackers
  • Packets of popcorn

It might feel weird to have a mini pantry in your desk drawer, but trust me, you’ll thank yourself later.

Order something healthy  

The age of online food ordering means that you can get a vegetable rich meal delivered straight to you.

  • Burrito bowl
  • Sushi
  • Thai beef salad
  • Rice paper rolls

Give yourself a buffer

At work, you’re a decision-making machine! It’s no wonder our brain puts a few functions on auto pilot so that you can get through the day. One of those functions is food choice. This means you can walk away from a food situation and have no idea what you chose and why you chose it. Or, you end up regretting the choice.

The best thing you can do to switch off the autopilot is to give your brain a break before a food decision. To do this:

  • Go to the bathroom before joining the work morning tea
  • Take a walk before you buy your lunch
  • Walk the long way to avoid the snack station
  • Take 2-3 Deep breaths before eating your packed lunch

This can give you enough time to decompress a little and set an intention for what decision you’re going to make in the next situation.

Never complain, never explain

Eating in social situations if fraught with discussions about our food choice. While it’s great to connect with our colleagues over shared food, I find that it can be a minefield of options and pressure.

So, I have taken a page out of Her Majesty’s playbook and recommend ditching the desire to tell people why you are making your choice (healthy or ‘unhealthy’).

“Never complain. Never explain.”

YOU are doing YOU.

You’re not trying to wage a crusade against unhealthy eating. That’s Jamie Oliver’s job. You don’t owe anyone an explanation as to why you’re saying ‘No, thank you’ to the platter of TimTams.

Say: ‘No, Thank you’.

Avoid following it up with ‘I’m trying to be good’ or ‘I don’t like TimTams’. Not just because that’s a lie, but because that invites further conversation about the food. Then the focus is all on food and it can start to feel like pressure to say ‘yes’ to something you had already decided you don’t want.

‘I’m trying to be good’ can be countered with ‘You don’t need to worry’, or ‘One won’t hurt’, or ‘That’s no fun’ or you will get someone else’s justification for why they’re saying yes.

‘I don’t like TimTams’ can get countered with ‘WHAT? Are you crazy?’ Or ‘Would you like a cupcake instead?’

Be pleasant, smile and say ‘No, thank you.’  That’s all.

Some people might press a little more and ask, ‘Are you sure?’ Or ‘Why not?’ To this I would recommend KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON not explaining.

You could say, ‘I’m sure. Thank you so much for offering’ or ‘I’m just not feeling like it today. Thanks anyway’. But ultimately, you have set your boundary and they should accept it.

We can offer your team a wide range of health and wellbeing services, contact us for a quote! 

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