How to Sabotage Your Diet and Home Office Productivity, And Tips How Not To!
Working through your lunch break (a pitfall in the home office) contributes to weight gain and poor home office productivity.
Eating at your desk contributes to weight gain and poor home office productivity.
In a recent article in Scientific American MIND a study was cited where the subjects had less intense taste experiences (food tasted bland) eating food when they were working on a more focused cognitive task (or multi-tasking) than when the task was simpler. This means that when you are thinking hard you can’t really taste your food: Mindless eating. It gets worse: “In all experiments, participants under the heavy cognitive load …ate more of the sweet and salty substances.”
Add the fact that when food does not satisfy taste expectations, your body’s satiety response (feeling satisfied) is never triggered. Therefore you tend to eat more.
Plus, when you eat lunch at your desk, you are not getting up and moving around.
And, it is proven that taking breaks from a task allows your brain to physiologically rest and refresh itself. Then when you go back to that project you’re more productive and creative.
If you eat while working, your brain and body wants to eat more. You eat more and gain weight.
If you eat while taking a break, your brain and body will be more satisfied with what you eat, and will not have the desire to eat more. Thus you maintain or lose weight.
Try a simple experiment:
- Eat a classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich while you are working at your desk. Did you just inhale it and surprised yourself when it was gone? Did you still feel hungry and want more food?
- Eat a PB & J while doing nothing else. Did you experience the full peanut-iness of your favorite peanut butter? Were you more satisfied and didn’t need to eat more?
Tips: Set-Up Your Home Office for Refreshing Breaks
- Eat your meals or take breaks in your home office easy chair
- Set up your kitchen or dining room table for lunch before your workday starts
- Never do household chores during your break. If you need to do them, then assign time for chores separate from your lunch break.
- Get out of your office and go for a walk, bike ride or gym session.
Eat your home office lunch more mindfully and eat less.
For more about how to set-up your home office to you can work smarter, not harder get
The Smarter Home Office: 8 Simple Steps to Increase Your Income, Inspiration and Comfort
