How to Maintain Energy in the Workplace
& How Office Catering Help and h
Would you go to bed at 4 in the morning when you have to start work at 9? How about downing six pints at lunchtime when you have to work all afternoon? Probably not, right? Not consistently anyway!
Yet so many of us undermine our own productivity when it comes to our dietary intake. We miss breakfast, snack on junk, skip lunch breaks, and so on. It’s easy to forget that your energy is what you bring to the workplace; it’s what you’re paid for. And it’s essential for advancing your career.
Here are some areas for improvement.
Breakfast
We won’t recycle the old cliche, but breakfast is pretty important. It’s basically your metabolism’s on switch, rousing your body out of sleep mode. It also replenishes blood sugar to optimise your bodily functions.
And, depending on what you eat, it’s a chance to get a headstart on your daily nutritional intake. Even just a bowl of oats contains a huge swathe of essential nutrients, including B vitamins, iron, and zinc.
Miss out breakfast and you’ll crave junk food later on—which brings us to the topic of…
Snacks
There are myriad problems with snacking on junk, from obesity to heart attack risk. But these issues build up gradually over time and many of us tend not to think about them. There is, however, a more immediate impact: low energy.
Especially when you skip breakfast, your body’s craving for blood sugar will drown out your other dietary needs. And it’ll be all too tempting to snack on cakes and crisps instead of something healthy. Sure, you might promise yourself a salad to make up for it after, but having satisfied your appetite on junk you’re unlikely to eat anything else.
Contrary to popular belief, snacking can actually be a good thing—as long as it’s healthy food. Healthy snacking helps to:
- Maintain blood sugar and energy levels
- Resist the urge to overeat
- Provide extra opportunities to fill up on the nutrients you need
Office Lunch
There’s nothing arbitrary about “three square meals a day.” Without a sufficiently fuelling lunch, you’ll slump in the afternoon. Of course, an overly filling lunch full of bad fats and sugars can have the same effect.
What you want is a healthy, balanced meal to replenish spent energy and used-up nutrients. You want a lunch packed with healthy fats and proteins to ensure optimal concentration and performance throughout the afternoon.
It’s no good eating at your desk, though. You need to take…
Lunch Breaks
It should come as news to absolutely no-one that our brain needs breaks to function. Staring at a screen does nothing to restore productivity. You need to get away from your desk.
Yet it’s surprisingly common to skip lunch breaks. And, ironically, it’s often to appear more productive to our employers and co-workers. Bizarrely, this perspective is reinforced by employers who still subscribe to an outdated, unscientific work ethic.
Instead of appearing more productive, you can actually be more productive by taking a break for a healthy lunch.
How can office catering services help?
Employees’ energy levels aren’t just the employees’ responsibility. They’re also the manager’s job to manage. But as a manager you probably don’t want to impose healthy eating habits—or, worse, distribute patronising lifestyle leaflets to your adult staff.
Hiring a catering company to promote healthy eating is a great alternative. Not only will a good office catering ensure employees get productivity-boosting nutrients by packing them into irresistible meals; they’ll also encourage breaks to enjoy them.
Office caterers can:
- Plan healthy, balanced breakfasts and office lunches
- Make creative, appetising use of interesting ingredients
- Ensure those with special dietary requirements are getting sufficient equivalent intake
Office catering is intimately tied to productivity in the workplace. A lot of what we do is geared toward getting the most out of your employees. So make use of us! And do it with as much urgency as you’d want to tackle sleep deprivation or any other productivity- (and money-) draining habits.