It has been said that the pandemic accelerated the advent of a brave new world in remote work, and it most definitely has.
Beyond the perks of ditching your commute, the freedom of remote work, and the comfort of home, there is a more insidious and potentially disruptive side for some remote workers: it throws eating plans right out of whack.
There are multiple dangers when the kitchen is just steps away, as it seems very easy to constantly raid your cupboards for snacks, or lose your concentration during meetings that run into lunchtime, and before you know it, you’ve overeaten to bursting or completely forgotten to eat anything at all.
The fact that this doesn’t require any stringent meal plans or crash dieting should reassure you – it merely needs small, deliberate practices to sustain your vitality, your focus and your overall health.
Why Should Remote Workers Prioritize Nutritious Foods?
Traditional brick-and-mortar office environments, where the day naturally follows a rhythm, tend to create structures around your meals. Daily coffee breaks, lunchtimes, and meetings all dictate when and what you eat.
At home, the walls between work and rest all disappear.
Remote workers can fall into a trap of many things when they don’t have a scheduled lifestyle, including:
- Excessive snacking.
- Missing meal times because of work.
- Using food to relieve stress
- Reduced physical activity
- Falling into afternoon energy crashes.
- Unable to manage weight effectively.
What you eat not only directly affects how productive you are but also influences your moods and well-being in the long term.
10 healthy eating habits for remote workers
1. Sticking to fixed mealtimes.
Your body likes nothing more than a schedule.
This isn’t about drastically altering your lifestyle in a few weeks but rather adopting a similar approach to what you had before when working at the office.
Aim to eat every four to five hours; this should reduce overeating and maintain a steady energy level.
A sample timetable might look something like:
Breakfast – 8 am
Lunch – 1 pm
Dinner – 7 pm
and 1 or 2 pre-planned snacks in between.
This helps reduce the urge to graze at any time.
2. A nutritious breakfast.
We’ve probably all felt the urge to jump out of bed and get to work, skipping your morning meal.
Most often, this leads to more intense cravings throughout the day.
A balanced breakfast, containing protein (Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, or tofu), fiber (wholegrains, fruit and veg), and healthy fat (nuts, seeds, or avocado), includes items like oatmeal with some fresh berries and yogurt, or a protein smoothie.
3. Avoiding working in the kitchen.
This may seem like an obvious tip; however, many people find themselves working right near the kitchen, and, unfortunately, many studies have shown that visual cues can lead us to crave food, even when we are not actually hungry.
work from another room.
- Turn your workspace away from your view of the kitchen,
- Keep all snacks in a visible location in a cabinet,
- Create some clear boundaries between your kitchen and workplace
If it feels just a few steps further, odds are you’ll resist.
4. Taking some mindful time during lunch.
How often do we actually sit down, relax, and EAT lunch during the workday?
Very frequently, lunch gets pushed aside to take care of pressing work and this is an incredibly bad idea for various reasons, most of which impact digestion.
It also causes us to either overeat due to poor brain activity (such as when working through lunch while typing).
Instead, put your desk aside and sit at the dining table to eat.
5. Stay hydrated.
Most of the time, cravings lead to eating when the underlying cause is actually just thirst.
Try to make sure you drink water between meals throughout the day.
Add flavor if it helps (lemon or cucumber is amazing).
6. Plan and prepare nutritious snacks.
In times of crisis, like a busy day, it’s a hell of a lot easier to reach for the less healthy, quick-to-grab snacks.
Making sure you have healthy options around you at all times removes that excuse completely.
These can include a yogurt, fruit, hummus and some veg, or some mixed nuts.
7. Making healthy lunches work.
If you’re skipping meals or eating out for lunch, it’s very difficult to get all your nutrients in the remaining one or two meals of the day.
Try preparing lunch in advance.
For example, a lean protein such as tofu, tempeh, or lentils, mixed with a few veggies and some carbs, will get you to the afternoon with fuel to spare.
8. Stop emotional eating.
Remote work brings its own challenges, often prompting us to prove our output, which can lead to extra pressure and increased emotional stress and anxiety.
As you reach for a tasty snack, ask yourself if you are really hungry or if you are stressed, bored, Procrastinating, or anxious?
9. Shop for staple ingredients.
It will be far easier to prepare healthy meals if you have the building blocks in your kitchen and ready to go, such as tofu, lentils, rice, whole-wheat pasta, frozen veggies, or fresh fruit.
10. Prep for your busy days ahead of time.
One of the big reasons as to why these good habits fail is because, well, we’re just too busy.
Allocate a small amount of your time to prepping food for the week ahead.
Plan your meals, hit the grocery store, do the shop, and make sure you have healthy bits ready to portion.
Even 30 mins of prep time per week saves so much hassle on the days you actually need them.
A simple recipe for shopping.
Here’s the 5-4-3-2-1-method:
Buy
- 5 different kinds of vegetables
- 4 fruits
- 3 kinds of protein sources
- 2 kinds of carbohydrate sources
- 1 enjoyable sweet treat
It means balanced, healthy foods that you don’t have to count.
Here’s What a Normal Day of healthy remote food intake should look like:
Sample Day
- Breakfast – Yogurt, Fruit and some Granola
- Morning Snack – an apple and a portion of almonds
- Lunch – Quinoa with some lean protein and vegetables
- Afternoon snack – Carrot and hummus
- Dinner – Brown rice with tofu and vegetables
If you have a schedule like this, it would really sustain you throughout the day.
Beware of the remote worker’s most common mistakes regarding eating;
- Not having a proper mealtime.
- Snacking too much during the day
- Skipping meals
- Drinking not enough water
- Eating lunch at your desk
- Overreliance on takeout.
The Bottom Line
It’s not difficult to fall into some of the patterns above; however, by implementing a structure, preparing your food in advance, and listening to your body, it’s not hard at all.
Start by implementing one of these ideas into your daily routine.
This blog is written by Dr. Ankit Nagpal, MBBS, a certified nutritionist.