Healthy Eating at Work: How Do You Get Fit Through the Day?

A healthy diet in the workplace is particularly important. After all, you usually spend at least a third of a day at work five days a week. Light, vitamin-rich and filling meals help you to get fit through the day. However, the reality is often different: In the stressful everyday working life, some people tend to forget to eat, while others mainly eat high-fat or sugary foods. Both have a negative effect in professional life: the well-known “midday slump”, tiredness and exhaustion, concentration problems and ravenous hunger attacks threaten.

Therefore, rely on light foods that fill you up for a long time and provide you with all the important nutrients. If you eat in the canteen, make sure you get enough vitamins, carbohydrates, and protein. Opt for rather lean meat such as poultry, fish, or vegetarian dishes. Noodles, rice (the whole grain version is best), potatoes, and, of course, salad are particularly suitable as a side dish. A useful orientation can be the mix plate, which can even be used in the canteen. Heavy, high-fat, and hearty dishes should remain the exception, such as the canteen classic par excellence, the currywurst with French fries. Such foods put too much strain on the organism because they stay in the stomach for a long time and digestion requires a lot of energy.

Always eat lots of vegetables and fruit. Many canteens offer the opportunity to put together a balanced alternative meal at a salad bar from lettuce, vegetables and other light ingredients. A few slices of wholemeal bread are a good filling side dish. You should avoid meat and rich salad dressings or eat them in moderation. Better opt for an oil and vinegar based dressing. Also, drink enough and regularly, preferably water, herbal or fruit teas or juice spritzers.

Bringing your own food to work is a great way to ensure a healthy and balanced diet. Because you choose the ingredients yourself, you are no longer dependent on the menu in the canteen. Of course, this means additional time that you have to spend in hectic everyday life. However, if you plan wisely, it is entirely doable to cook for yourself. It is best to prepare food for several days at once: a large stew or casserole can be stored in the refrigerator and provides several lunch meals at the same time. It is also worth pre-cooking side dishes in larger quantities. Potatoes, rice, or pasta can be combined with new, fresh ingredients over several days and you have very little work overall.

In order to be mentally fit, concentrated, and efficient, you need a constant blood sugar level throughout the day. You can do this by eating three to five meals throughout the day. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus one small morning and one mid-afternoon snack, if you like. Unfortunately, this is often difficult in hectic professional life. In this case, however, there should be at least three meals a day, evenly distributed throughout the day. Fruit, vegetable sticks, nuts and dairy products such as quark or yoghurt as well as dried fruit are suitable as snacks for in between meals, best combined as a mixed-plate snack. Coffee can be stimulating, but should only be drunk in moderate amounts.