successful home working
Posts tagged diet
Lunchtime for home workers
125 months ago
Make sure you have regular breaks and stop at lunchtime – the received wisdom for all home workers wanting a balanced lifestyle. San Sharma, the community manager of Bitsy, tweets every day just before 1 pm to remind home workers to take a break. And I always tell people exactly that in my talks and workshops…but do I obey my own advice?
No, of course not! It’s tempting to think you can be more productive if you just keep on working, and maybe in the short term you can. If you’re working to an urgent deadline, for example. But it’s not so good when it becomes a habit. I find that if I’m on a roll with work I keep putting off a break, sometimes for so long that I end up starving and resort to biscuits etc because I can’t wait to make something healthy.
Until recently I’d got into the habit of eating at my computer while reading (and sometimes bolting my food in order to wipe my fingers and get back to the keyboard). And then I was told by a nutritionist that I’d absorb the vitamins and minerals in my food better if I relax while eating – and that means leaving my desk.
Then there’s the question of what to eat. Since my consultation I’ve been eating much more healthily – less wheat, dairy and sugar, even – the home worker’s greatest dread, surely – less caffeine. But it takes time to plan and shop to make sure there are always healthy snacks in the house. So much easier to grab a sandwich, and graze on biscuits, crisps and cake in between.
In an ideal world working at home should enable you to eat better. But what happens in practice? Is your home working day one long graze at your desk, or do you make a point of stopping to eat and drink?
January home office detox
151 year ago
After Christmas and New Year most people are in the mood for less food and drink, less socialising and less activity in January. We look ahead over a new, blank year and plan how to cultivate better habits and fulfill our dreams. Why not spend a little time at the start of the year slimming down your home office too? These activities will clear out the rubbish and put you in good shape for the home working year ahead:
* Go through your filing cabinet and drawers and clear out files and paperwork. How many years’ accounts are you hanging on to? Check with your accountant or the tax authorities how many you are legally obliged to keep and shred the rest. It might sound tedious, but once you’ve started, you’ll find it wonderfully freeing!
*Check all that potentially useful information you’ve accumulated – cuttings from newspapers and magazines, scribbled notes, brochures, business cards etc. Do you even remember why you kept it? How much of it is already outdated or will be before you ever need to use it? Most can probably be recycled – just about everything you could ever want to know is available online anyway.
*Buy a year planner and spend a few happy hours imagining your ideal year. Put in holidays and breaks first, followed by the business activities that bring you the most value. When are the high profile events and conferences in your industry? Put them in so you can attend, or even better, is there a chance you might be invited to speak?
*Every year I look forward to going through my diary and making a list of all the significant events of last year and the interesting people I’ve encountered. Try it and I guarantee the list will be longer than you anticipate! On a day-to-day basis it’s easy to overlook how much progress you’re making and once the year has ended it’s a good time to take stock.
*Decide who you’d like to get to know this year and make a note in your new diary to call them, attend an event they are likely to be at, or ask someone for an introduction.
Flushing out the home working toxins you accumulated last year and introducing an intake of new, fresh people and ideas in January is a great way to start the new year feeling positive and excited about the possibilities ahead.
This post was first published on www.workshifting.com, the site for people who work out of coffee shops, hotels, airports and their homes every bit as much as the office.
Home cooking for hungry home workers
161 year ago
Hardworking home workers and their families need sustenance, but often we lack the time or inclination to think much about food or take long to prepare it. A is the chef in this household, and enjoys combining just the right ingredients for the right textures and flavours.
I love eating the results, but I’m no cook. If he’s not here for supper then my default is baked beans or baked potatoes. Or if I’m feeling reckless, maybe even baked beans with baked potatoes.
No doubt proper cooks would be horrified, but I only like to cook when I have something else to think about, a piece of writing maybe, or the best way to structure a workshop. Giving my unconscious mind permission to concentrate on something down-to-earth, like chopping onions, allows my imagination to come up with new ideas that never materialise if I stay at my desk.
I prefer one-pot meals so I don’t have to bother too much about timing – chilli, stew, soup, that kind of thing – and I make it for six so we have three meals worth. I love that smug feeling of knowing a healthy supper is in the fridge and only needs heating up.
Sometimes we give in to temptation and treat ourselves to a bargain M&S meal, picked up during our afternoon walk, which often seems to coincide with the time they are making reductions and sticking on those lovely yellow labels, all priced to the nearest 50p or pound. So easy to add up and the total so pleasantly small!
I’d love to hear about your tricks for quick, nutritious meals, your favourite home working recipes or whether, unlike me, you use cooking as a way to wind down from working.
A little of what you fancy
02 years ago
I’ve just been out for my daily walk to get away from the desk and do some little jobs, and it’s one of those dark, damp, cold winter days that seeps gloom and lethargy. Days like this always seem to make me hanker after a treat to eat. We have supper all planned, so a little something at teatime fits the bill. A little smackerel, I think Winnie the Pooh called it, but you have to be careful or after too many little smackerels you too will have a Pooh girth.
We are lucky in still having an M&S food store, always a good source of smackerels, so as well as the virtuous leek and cooking apple, my bag also contained an apricot pastry for A and a packet of chocolate rolls for moi. They cost the same, but the enjoyment in a pack of mini rolls can be strung out so much longer!
I have to buy my edible treats one by one, as anything stored in the cupboard simply cries out to be eaten. (Actually so did 2 bags of lovely German lebkuchen A had bought as gifts for friends. I promised to replace one I wanted to take along to a meeting with Louise Billington, my excellent coach. Rushing out slightly late, I forgot it, but then of course it was as good as mine and so I ate it later. And the other bag, because in for a penny…)
So to those people who worry that working from home will make them fat, I’d say that yes, you do have to be disciplined, but no more than you have to be working with other people who probably eat crisps, chocolate, biscuits and all that tempting stuff in front of you and ask you out for coffee and drinks. Just don’t stock up with your favourite indulgence at the supermarket – you might save pounds in one sense but you’ll gain them in another!
Finding out where the fat lurks
02 years ago
by Judy
in Working from home tips
Reading the F2 Diet book has been a revelation, as I’ve never given any thought to calories or what kinds of food might make me fat. Running my cleaning business meant putting on weight was never an issue, what with all the dashing around and the stress of trying to keep both cleaners and clients happy. Not to mention living in dread of the afternoon phone call – ‘I won’t be coming in tonight…’
So I entered my forties in the misguided belief I could eat whatever I liked, despite the growing evidence to the contrary. The F2 book has a section on the fat content of various foods and I can tell you it’s been an eye-opener. I have become one of those people who reads labels like a hawk. I mean, how come plain chocolate has more fat than milk, when everybody knows plain is (sort of) good for you? And you know those teacakes, the kind with marshmallow on a biscuit base covered in microscopically thin chocolate you can bash with a spoon and peel like a boiled egg? 16g of fat per 100g when I could have sworn I was eating mainly air. I can see that to get and stay slim I need to wisen up.
I’m fat because I haven’t been eating enough fondant fancies
42 years ago
by Judy
in Working from home tips
Perhaps the worst thing about spending lots of time at the computer is spreading bottom syndrome, and not just bottom, come to that. When I ran my cleaning business I stayed slim without any effort at all, due to the physical work and the stress of wondering which of my cleaners wouldn’t turn up for work that night. The weird thing is that at the time I never actually believed I was slim! When I was clearing the house ready to move last year, I came across a photo of me from the early 90s, wearing a sweatshirt tucked into my jeans and I still had a clearly defined waist! Couldn’t do it now.
So it’s time for some fatbusting and I have been reading The F2 Diet
The wonderful thing about it is that you never feel hungry, and start to feel lighter very quickly, as all that fibre makes its way through your system. That of course can be a bit of a social liability, but working from home makes it much easier! You are also allowed a number of fat units a day, so you can still have a bit of chocolate or something sweet. I was astonished to discover that a fondant fancy has only one fat unit, the same as a boring old digestive biscuit. I haven’t succumbed yet, but I found it pretty heartening.
