HIGH SPEED HEALTH
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Book
  • About
  • Contact
  • Hire Me

Office Productivity - 3 Reasons Not to Eat Lunch at Your Desk

1/19/2015

0 Comments

 
The CoopAn amazing burger from my favorite food truck in VA Beach, The Coop.
Did you eat lunch at your desk today?  

If so, you may have gotten an extra 30 to 60 minutes of work done.  

However, was it quality work that you got done?  

More importantly, what was the quality of your work the entire afternoon?  

Would it have been higher quality if you took an hour to do these 3 things?

1. Get away from your desk

The physical aspect speaks for itself.  Any of my readers will tell you that sitting in a position for more than 1 hour (much less 4 hours) is incredibly destructive to your body.  It doesn't matter if you're sitting with good posture, bad posture, even standing for more than an hour.  Repetitive strain doesn't discriminate.  It will cause pain and injury in any position....good posture or bad.

2. Disconnect mentally from your work

We're only allotted a certain amount of mental energy per day.  If we're dehydrated and also eating a poor, nutrition-less diet, we get even less mental energy.  But that's a whole other story for another day.  

The fact is that we need to rest from mental work just as we need to rest from physical work.  You wouldn't work in the yard for 8 hours straight.  You'd take a break to eat.  You wouldn't eat while you're pushing the lawnmower.  The same should go for working at a computer desk.  

Plus, you may have read articles about super successful people, such as Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs, who decrease their mental energy output everyday by wearing the same outfit each morning.  They don't wear the EXACT same shirt and pants.  But, Zuckerberg will always wear a neutral color t-shirt and/or hoodie.  He's comfortable in it, not to mention he just throws it on in the morning, compared to stressing or expending mental energy trying to figure out what to wear.

3. Focus on enjoying your food

When you eat food in front of your computer, you're not 100 percent focused on eating.  You're swallowing the food without chewing it.  If you don't chew your food up completely before you swallow it, it makes your digestive system work harder to break the food down.  This takes even more of your body's energy.  That is why juicing vegetables and fruits is such an incredibly effective method for getting energy.  The ingredients are liquified, so the vitamins and minerals take much less time and energy to get into your system compared to if you had to eat all those fruits and vegetables.


Another thing, the longer food is in your mouth, the more satisfying the meal is.  If you're not chewing the food completely, you're not enjoying the meal.  You're hungry an hour later.  Your taste buds are in your mouth.  Once food passes into your throat, you can't taste the meal any more.

To read more reasons why not to eat at your desk, there's a great article in my local paper written by Phillip Walzer.  It's titled "Thinking About Skipping Your Lunch Break? Don't." 

Phil quoted me in the article a couple times.  (;

He's got a cool perspective on routines and efficiency.  He also quotes a couple other people who really know their stuff.  You can read it HERE.  


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.


    Writer: Todd Bowen

    Former desk jockey, 
    making the rat race 

    a better place.
    CLICK HERE TO 

    READ MORE

    Todd Bowen
    Heal Sitting Pain


    "Todd Bowen does a great job spreading a message that is so needed in our ever 'growing', nutritionally starved, and complacent society."
               

             -Andrew Odom
             tinyrevolution.us

    “My favorite parts about HIGH SPEED HEALTH are the simple, real-life anecdotes it provides.  They implement quick fixes that lead to massive results over time."

        -Shane Danaher
    IRONMAN Triathlete

    "I'm 100% confident that my book will make the world a healthier, happier, and better place."

             -Todd Bowen
         High Speed Health

    RSS Feed


    Categories

    All


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.