Tips to Ensure You Aren’t Skipping Lunch at Work

Tips to Ensure You Aren’t Skipping Lunch at Work

It’s noon, the hour-long meeting is done, and it’s lunch time – but why aren’t you eating?

Breaking for lunch sometime during the work day is important to productivity: it reduces stress, increases concentration, sustains energy, and breaks up the work day into manageable segments.

Having a mindful and healthy lunch at work, surprisingly, takes practice. It means avoiding emotional food decisions at meal time. Eating mindlessly can lead to eating problems as bad as skipping lunch all together.

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Don’t allow emotions, stress, or deadlines to throw you off your healthy eating habits at work, even on the busiest of days. Practice being present, savor every bite, and come back in the afternoon recharged!

Tips for a Mindful and Healthy Lunch at Work

  1. Drink a large glass of water before you leave for lunch. Research suggests that drinking about 16 ounces of water before a meal can help you curb temptations. Plus, thirst and hunger triggers come from the same part of your brain, meaning that while you may feel hungry, you could just be thirsty. Drinking water before eating can help distinguish cravings and discourage overeating.
  2. Pack a lunch the night before. Your work day is busy enough. Avoid a hectic morning and pack something the night before when you’re relaxed and can be mindful of your food choices.
  3. When eating with others, remember to savor! It’s easy to get distracted by office chatter and deadlines and what needs to get done after lunch. Eating becomes so automatic that you’ll look down at your plate and notice nothing’s left. Savor each bite – lunch time is your time!

Photo Credit: Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com; Daxiao Productions/Shutterstock.com

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