Are you familiar with the feeling of staring at your computer, unable to get any work done? Where you know what you should do but you just can’t focus? Not strictly lethargy or procrastination, but a lack of mental clarity that makes it difficult to get in the zone and be productive?
That feeling is widespread. And while it’s normal for everyone to have moments where they’re less inspired, frequent bouts of brain fog are an indication that something in your body needs to change.
It requires a lot of energy to be mentally productive, so sitting in one place for hours on end can be very draining.
Unfortunately, this creates a vicious circle: we sit at our desks for hours and become tired, so we make a cup of coffee or buy a chocolate bar from the office vending machine to give us a boost, then sit back down at our desk to finish the day’s work. We get home thoroughly exhausted and opt for a quick dinner option because we’re too tired to think of anything else. This behavior has become normalized because it’s so widespread: it’s endemic in almost every office.
This creates a confirmation bias – everyone around us is feeling the same way, so we rationalize that it’s normal. But it’s not normal, and this confirmation bias is a factor in why heart disease is such an enormous problem in the Western world.
Workplace health: the key to longevity
The typical American workplace is not designed to be a healthy environment. Sitting down under artificial lights for eight or more hours a day is not how humans are supposed to live. Deprived of the sun’s UV rays for adequate levels of vitamin D, hunched over a desk and eating the various cakes and pastries in celebration of someone’s birthday all add up quickly.
Before you know it, we’ve developed poor posture and tightness throughout our body, put on weight, and become lethargic as a result of the food choices and inactivity.
Worst of all, it’s easy to feel powerless about it. After all, it’s not like you can demand a standing desk or work outside to get fresh air and sunlight, and you may attract some uncomfortable questions if you started doing corrective exercises on the office floor.
But the good news is you’re not powerless. There are a number of things that you can do to promote workplace health, including heart health training:
Have walking meetings
The late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was an advocate of walking meetings, and for good reason. Walking is a powerful form of exercise and incorporating it throughout the day will help to prevent your body getting stiff and achey, it’ll get the blood flowing, and brush off any mental cobwebs from sitting in the office for hours. As an added benefit, walking has been shown to be beneficial for creativity, making it an ideal activity for business meetings.
Meal preparation
To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail, as the saying goes. This is never truer than with what we eat. We give in to cravings when we are tired or hungry, so we can avoid most bad choices simply by being prepared. Choosing high-protein foods will keep you feeling satisfied, so when the office donuts make an appearance you won’t be tempted to indulge. Likewise, if you’ve already prepared your food in advance, you won’t reach for the takeout menus if you feel too tired to cook.
Workplace health can begin at home. Twice a week, set aside some time to prepare food for the next few days, and you’ll know exactly what you’re eating every single day. This is a popular activity in fitness circles and there are a lot of resources for inspiration – the Instagram hashtag #mealprepideas has almost 750,000 posts at the time of writing.
Food is the number one factor for promoting heart health, so if you want to stay off my operating table then I really recommend spending a little time each week prepping your meals in advance.
Make exercise a routine
Success comes from habits and routines, rather than relying on motivation. Conversely, failure often comes because we fell back onto existing habits.
Think about your existing habits and routines. Do you, for example, rely on motivation to brush your teeth each morning?
Exercise is most effective when it’s incorporated into our day. Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking instead of driving, having walking meetings instead of sitting in a conference room are three examples of incorporating movement into your day without feeling like you need the motivation to exercise.
Think about your typical day and consider how you can create an exercise routine. Perhaps you can get to the gym before work, in which case your routine might include packing your gym bag the night before, waking up 45 minutes early, and the rest of your day being unaffected except for enjoying the extra energy that comes from working out.
Or perhaps you’d prefer to workout after leaving the office, which helps some people to detach from work and enjoy mental clarity for the evening ahead.
The timing doesn’t matter. What matters is your ability to make a routine of it, which means choosing a time of day that you can stick to it consistently. Over time, this will become a part of your day like brushing your teeth and going to bed, and you won’t need to rely on motivation to get into your training clothes.
Metabolic health coaching
Taking control of your health has incredible knock-on benefits to every aspect of your life. Regular exercise and eating healthy foods lead to more energy, mental clarity, and enthusiasm, all of which can help you make improvements – within yourself, at work, and at home. It also promotes heart health, which should be high up on everyone’s list of priorities.
Getting started is simple and my blog has plenty of tips for what changes to make, but if you want to accelerate your progress and become as metabolically healthy as possible, take a look at my group coaching for employees.