Do not fight stress by overloading your body with unhealthy foods and alcohol. Learn to fight the impulse of overeating, smoking, and drinking excessively which can bring more health problems. Learn to make healthy choices to help you overcome stress in the workplace without adding fats around your waistline.
Make smarter choices to keep the stress at bay by understanding how your personal eating habits affect not only your body image but also your work performance.
Here are some of the healthy things you can do:
Eat a healthy breakfast. Remember the popular saying to “eat like a king in breakfast, a prince during lunch and a pauper in dinner.” There is wisdom in this statement because eating properly in the morning will help you prevent carbonated drinks and eating foods with high amount of calories during mid-morning break.
Eating the right foods in the morning would help your body produce hormones that regulate adrenaline, insulin and cortisol. A good breakfast improves your performance by supplying energy to your body. It improves your strength and endurance power. It improves your memory and focus.
Eating breakfast restores the normal level of glucose in your body which fuels the brain to function well. It improves your mood and helps in stress reduction. When you are in good mood, you stress less at work.
Avoid fatty and junk foods that contain high calories. Cut down unwanted calories from the appetizers, toppings and processed drinks like juices and sodas.
Refrain from using artificial sweeteners. Cut down sugar, sodium and calories by reducing consumption of pizza, burgers, white bread, pasta, pastries, chips, waffles, bagels, rice, sports drink, vitamin water, soft drinks, alcohol, beer and coffee.
Do not skip meals. It will put your body in a catabolic state that conserve fat and slow down metabolism. Skipping meals affects your mental focus which can affect your decision-making. It can also reduce your capacity to handle stressful situations. An empty stomach can reduce your creativity and productivity level at work.
To combat your stressors effectively, you need to be supply your body with nutritious foods throughout the day. Eat small meals. It is recommended to eat light meals 3-5 times a day instead of 3 heavy meals. You will be able to lose fat and build muscles if you eat every 3 hours. When you have a good body image, you feel more confident and ready to handle the demands of your work.
Eat before going to meeting, presentation or doing an important task. You need energy to perform and complete them so be sure to eat foods that are rich with proteins, healthy fats and carbohydrates. When you feel energetic, you can be able to perform excellently. You can also handle pressures by knowing how to stress less at work.
Have a diet journal to help you keep track of what you eat and how much you eat. Remember that you have to burn 500 calories a day if you want to burn fat. Keep in mind that eating smart will keep unwanted calories away.