The desktop diet
Most young professionals lead fast-paced sedentary lives, packing in too many things in a day. With little time to cook and eat right, office drawers are stocked with junk food as we steadily replace our daily meals with processed takeaways and easy-to-cook meals. This high fat, salt and sugar diet leads to high rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. Here is a list of the most common bad food habits and how to remedy them, for a fresh start to the year.
SNACKING It may help you keep your energy levels up, but in a sedentary environment, snacking also aids your body in storing unnecessary fat. Salt content in snacks leads to hypertension and water retention.
FIX IT:Don’t turn your locker into a mini-pantry. Don’t carry the whole bag of chips to your desk. Bring limited snacks from home or buy small packets that help you with portion control. Mark a post-it each time you snack, to help you stick to five meals a day.
TOO MUCH TEA/COFFEE Your daily fix of tea or coffee every two hours is a difficult habit to break. But excessive tea or coffee leaves you feeling jittery, irritable, dehydrated, and even interrupts your sleep pattern. If taken with your meals, tea and coffee inhibit the absorption of iron.
FIX IT: If you cannot reduce the number of cups, cut down on their size. Then, try alternating tea and coffee with healthier options such as green tea, warm lemon water, freshly squeezed juices, etc.
NOT ENOUGH WATER Most corporate offices are airconditioned, making it impossible for people to sweat. This means we don’t feel adequately thirsty. As the body gets used to drinking water below its requirement, it learns to adapt. When you do start drinking a little more water, your body treats it as excess. In the long run, not drinking enough water can cause constipation, indigestion, gas, increased hunger pangs, dehydration and make your skin look dull too. FIX IT: Keep a litre bottle of water at your table and finish it before the end of the day. It may take you 2-3 days to adapt to an increased dose.
HEAVY MEALS After a day’s work, it is tempting to head for a late night meal. Late night hunger is also the body’s way of letting you know that it’s exhausted and needs sleep, not food. A large meal, heavy on carbohydrates, is difficult for the body to digest before bedtime and the body invariably stores it as fuel for later. Additionally, if the body has met its calorific requirement for the day, it’ll add unnecessary calories to your diet. FIX IT: Eat light, a combination of veggies and lean protein before bed. High fibre vegetables and lean meat and proteins will make you feel full and cater to your limited calorie requirements. Lentils and vegetables without rice or bread will suffice.
WEEKEND BINGING You’ve been good all week, but give yourself a whole weekend of guilt-free eating as a reward. It may motivate your diet, but it plays havoc with your routine.
FIX IT: Find other ways of rewarding your diet. Try relaxing massages, a good book, a trek, anything that feels gratifying and enjoyable. Try and reward yourself more often than only weekends.
DRINKING ALCOHOL ON AN EMPTY STOMACH After a long work week, you head out to the cheapest watering hole with colleagues to whine it away. If the first thing you consume is alcohol, on an empty stomach, it is immediately stored into the body as fat. Even a few drinks are packed with harmful calories, and snacking along with drinks is the easiest way to overeat.
FIX IT: Eat a little before you head out to drink. Even a small salad or sandwich will do. If you don’t have access to food, a glass of milk or a cup of yogurt will do. Proteins help slow down the absorption of alcohol.
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