WHY YOU NEED TO ‘EAT SMART’ IN THE WORKPLACE

I had a ‘moment of clarity’ in the office place the other day. Actually, I came back to my desk in a rather frustrated state. I could see through the ‘crap’ and it was plainly obvious that things were amiss…

Set the scene of the typical modern office in London and it is littered with commercially produced chocolates, donuts, cookies and sweets of all varieties. On the way to work, I walk past the Krispy Kremes outlet at Liverpool St and see people loading up with donuts for the day. I think to myself, what ARE you doing to yourself and your colleagues? There’s only one thing for sure that’s been added to the bottom line…

Sugar. The foundation, it seems, for every ‘nutritious’ fix in the modern office place. Even ‘high powered’ meetings of global executives gathered in a room for one week to discuss a variety of important topics are not immune to the ‘sugar rush’.

It struck me this very week when one such senior executive ‘kindly’ offered to us some of the left-over snacks from a meeting. I gently inspected what was on offer, wishfully hoping something nutritious might be there. To my disappointment, all I could find was some Pret ‘chocolate chip’ cookies. There was one banana though…

Such scenes are common across the City. When the stress levels are high, we naturally reach for the sweet or salty stuff. Our bodies start craving it. However the very effect of consuming such products means that we are not performing at our optimal level.

In an age where meetings are known to go on for 2 to 3 hours or more, how can we expect people to be performing at their best when their blood sugar levels oscillate like the British weather. You can’t.

Post financial crisis, where margins are tight and there is pressure to perform, every decision counts. How can we be that sure you are making the right decisions?

To this extent, we need to start thinking differently and put an end to the culture of indulging on commercially mass-produced, sugar-laden products.

We need to be smarter how about we feed our top executives, and of course everyone else who implements their decisions. Nuts, whole grains, foods rich in complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats, things that release steady energy and result in stable blood sugar levels. That’s where the fine line is.

The brain is the organ in the body that consumes the most energy. Why not feed it with the right fuel it needs to perform? Think about it.

You don’t get elite athletes like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic performing at their best week in, week out without careful nutritional advice. Why should our top executives be any different?

YB

What’s your favourite office fix or is your office adopting a smarter approach to nutrition?

Scott

To learn more about how yoga & meditation can transform your busy personal and professional life, please get in touch with me or email me at Scott@yogibanker.com