Healthy Eating Behaviors at Work: How to Promote and Practice

Some days at work are too productive, while on some days, you can barely feel like sitting in front of the desktop. Office productivity is a graph that goes up and down several times a day, let alone a month. But what if you could find a secret to keeping yourself active and energetic daily? As the famous old saying goes, "you are what you eat," so why do we tend to ignore the importance of our eating behaviors and their impact on our work efficiency?

That question might make most of us ponder upon the last time we had a proper meal during a busy work day. Well, your triple patty burger and fries don't count as a proper meal but a meal full of nutritious value and covering all food groups needed for proper human functioning. While we all agree that our eating habits greatly impact our work efficiency, there must be a proper guide on promoting healthy food habits in the workplace. This article will cover how to manage your food to promote healthy eating in the workplace.

Identify the Current Habits

Your employees are already eating healthy. Thus the reason your workforce isn't their best self is something else. Before you go all excited and invest in a proper healthy eating behavior program, it is better to take a look and identify the current eating habits of your workforce. There are many benefits of assessment before action.

You can identify the loopholes in not only employees’ eating behavior but also find it lacking in the company's policy due to which employees don't have time to focus properly on their diets. This way, you can also monitor productivity improvements by changing the workplace.

Ergonomic Workplace

You might have heard the term ergonomics more than countable times ever since the pandemic took a halt. Even though the concept of workplace ergonomics has been there for decades, it has grown even more as the importance of wellness in the workplace has increased. Making healthy ergonomic changes on a physical level can substantially improve employee morale, wellness, and health because of the numerous benefits. Especially when you are trying to promote healthy meals in a workplace, many employees might be skeptical as they would worry about eating and sitting, thus becoming obese. In such cases, the health benefits of a standing desk can help fight calorie retention and utilize energy most productively.

Educate Your Employees

You can launch a wellness movement by creating a network of wellness champions. You can then advance your action plan by providing ongoing training for your staff. Initially, implement verbal lectures and physical modifications in the workplace as part of personal health and wellness programs.

To further the agenda, you can introduce a healthy breakfast or lunch several times a month. Encourage employees to take their lunch breaks or practice any method to keep them from working during lunch hours. Start a healthy eating contest or distribute healthy lifestyle gifts such as a fitness watch, a pamphlet, a fruit basket, or anything meaningful for their new journey.

Encourage Healthy Eating Habits

Some workers may perceive eating healthfully as a hassle. It might even completely ruin the fun of eating! However, things don't have to be this way. By incorporating health into your work culture and adding some enjoyable activities at work, you may assist workers in making the transition to a more nutrient-dense diet. Your initial move?

Establish a committee for employee health and wellbeing to assist in the planning. Employees would be more eager to join when their teammates lead such a cause. Encourage healthy eating habits at work one by one while minimizing the unhealthy habits and reducing them to zero later on.

Offer Healthy Options

The recent inflation hasn't been kind to all of us. Some people are working two to three shifts to make ends meet. They don't have to plan, let alone prepare a healthy lunch for the next day. Hence all you can do is take care of your employees beyond work. To adapt and encourage a healthy eating program at a core level, offer healthy snacks in your workplace. You can also introduce various food subscription programs that cook and provide employees with healthy meals daily.

Give Clear Instructions

Everyone in your team needs to be able to understand and implement your healthy eating behavior and approach easily. The last thing you want is for some of your employees to fail to reap the rewards of healthy eating because they found the program too challenging or unclear to follow.

Many people may be unfamiliar with healthy eating behavior, but it may also be enlightening. Your campaign should convince people that eating healthily is simple and worthwhile. Lay out exactly what has to be done for your staff to participate in the program, and ensure they understand the benefits of a healthy diet.

Offer Achievement Awards

It's human nature to become more motivated when there is an award at the end. Achievement awards are undoubtedly the greatest way to encourage any change in the workplace. Gift cards, new training equipment, and even paid cooking classes to make excellent incentives for people to sign up for your new health program. When employees achieve individual or group objectives or exhibit outstanding leadership in eating healthy at work, award them these awards. Due to these prizes, more people may engage in and adopt healthier eating practices at work.

Eat Together

Do you know people who take lunch breaks at work properly are 7% more productive than those who don't? While you might be planning to become the employee of the month by working 8 hours straight, in a few days, you will find it a challenge even to complete basic tasks. Thus, a simple solution is to encourage eating together. Even though it can be challenging to accommodate communal mealtimes into our busy schedules, the effort is worthwhile.

Adults who eat meals together typically consume more fruits and vegetables, less soda and fast food, and have lower BMIs. Starting minor modifications can help to encourage healthy eating in the workplace. Keep food off of employees' workstations! Change your policy on staff lunch breaks instead, and set aside a cozy space for them to eat.