7 Healthy Habits For Working From Home

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Here we are focusing on 7 Healthy Habits for Working From Home to implement in conjunction with your healthy eating.

1. Routine

2. Plan

3. Environment

4. Activity

5. Mindfulness

6. Opportunity

7. Communication/Connection

*We tried to come up with a cool acronym and I got as far as ROPECAM.


Routine

Create a routine for yourself.

It will help you stay productive with your time.

Working from home sounds great in regards to flexibility, but too much flexibility has its pitfalls.

Try to create some structure around your day.

Set a morning routine.

A workout routine.

A nightly/pre-bed routine.

A series of steps that flow to help you build healthy habits and actually give yourself more free time and energy. 

Example

My morning routine is wake up, shower, stretch, kettle on, make the bed, make a coffee, journal, emails then get stuck into my first bit of work for the day. 

My evening routine is stretch, shower, tea (peppermint, decaf or chamomile - no I’m not a 92-year-old woman), read some fiction in bed, sleep playlist on Spotify, lights out (no screens for the last hour).

Plan Your Meals and Your Day

The more decisions you need to make in a day, the more draining it becomes.

This is known as decision fatigue.

Having a plan for your meals and for your day means you’re decisions are already made for you.

Saving you time and energy whilst staying aligned with your healthy eating goals.

Try to have some sort of a plan for what you’re going to do that day as well and slot your meals in there

Example: 

5am-6am Morning Routine

6am-8am Work

8-9am Breakfast: Eggs, Salmon, Veggies

9-11am Work

11am-12pm Walk and Listen to Podcast

12-1pm Lunch: Chicken, Salad and Potato

1-3pm Work

3pm Snack Yogurt, Berries, Fruit and Oats

330-430pm Exercise

430-530pm Work

530-630pm Dinner: Turkey Breast Mince, Veggies, Beans

630-730pm Household Chores and/or Netflix

730-9pm Evening Routine 

Environment

Set up your environment to be conducive to your goals.

If you struggle with temptation, try not to buy those foods and keep them in the house in the first place to remove the temptation.

Aim to keep foods that are aligned with your goals in your immediate environment and easy to prepare. 

Maintain a base of protein and plants in your fridge, cupboard, freezer and pantry.

Keep a variety of the ones you enjoy. 

If tempting foods are in the environment try to make them less visible and harder to obtain.

Remember if a food is in your environment, it is only a matter of time before you, someone you love or someone you mildly tolerate is going to eat it.

Try to do the same with your work and training environment.

Try to remove distractions so you remain focused and productive. Leave your phone in another room. Turn notification off on your phone for a while. Set a limit for social media apps.

Become a choice architect and make your life a little bit easier with how you design your environment.

Active

Even though you may not be able to go to the gym, you can still get something done to maintain your physical and mental health.

Remember something is better than nothing.

Think about “done, instead of perfection”. 

Set up a home gym.

You might not have any equipment except a towel - but lay it out where you will do your exercise.

Try the same routine as if you were going to the gym, have your coffee and/or pre-workout snack.

Play your favourite ‘pump up’ song.

Get your shoes and workout clothes on.

Get into the mentality that you are not just doing a few minutes of exercise but you are going to the gym, you are getting prepared and make each exercise count. 

Opportunity

You may find that you have more time.

Less travel to and from work or the gym.

You get things done quicker at home without colleagues distracting you.

Try to use this time wisely and productively.

For once, the excuse of having no time is no longer relevant.

Take it as an opportunity to get things done you normally don’t have the chance to do.

1. Spend more time in the kitchen, get creative with recipes and meal prep. 

2. Work on your mobility, get flexy with apps like RomWod or GoWod.

3. Study or learn something you’ve always wanted to learn like a new language.

4. Read a book(s) you’ve wanted to for a while, try a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.

Mindfulness

Be aware of how you feel, what you do, why you do things and even when you tend to do certain behaviours.

Journalling can be a great strategy to implement this.

Writing everything you do in a day, everything you eat and drink in a day - then do a little audit. 

Mindful eating is also a great habit to practice. Eat slowly, mindful, with purpose and intention. 

If you notice yourself getting stressed, take some time out for yourself.

Use the time to build a new positive behaviour that helps you de-stress and improve your mental health. 

Try some mindfulness apps like: 

• Waking Up

• Unplug

• Calm

• Smiling Mind

• Headspace

• Wim Hof
  
  

Communication/Connection

It’s important to stay connected to our friends, family and colleagues.

We may not be able to be physically connected but we can still text, call or Facetime not only 1 on 1 but in a group setting.

Try to keep in contact with those you regularly speak to or even someone you haven’t spoken to in a while.

Try a zoom with your colleagues where you all work as normal but get a bit of a vibe of an office environment, with the noise of others working and occasional conversation.

Try to keep deep connections where possible to maintain your social and emotional health.

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