Developing healthy eating habits

Mangoes!

When we confuse ‘business’ with ‘busy-ness’, eating can easily become just another thing to be done. Yet it is one of the most pleasurable and life-sustaining acts. Soloists should make a point of developing healthy eating habits.

In previous jobs, I worked through my lunchbreaks, eating at my desk when necessary; but I always resented it. I knew the importance of having a break from work. Leaving my desk and sometimes the office for lunch seemed like a good way to nourish and refresh my body and my mind.

When I first started out as a soloist, I loved the idea of working to my own agenda. I thought that managing my own time would bring balance to my life. I imagined myself drinking my morning cup of coffee while watching the birds in my backyard. I’d take my lunch down to the river and eat by the water. These simple pleasures would be part of my daily existence.

Instead what happened was I fell into the trap of thinking that I was far too busy to stop to eat. In a home office this can easily spiral out of control. Rather than relaxing with coffee in my backyard, I got into a habit of starting up the computer ‘to see if any urgent emails had come through’ before eating breakfast.

We all know what this means.

The birds sang outside unnoticed as I gulped my morning coffee while checking emails. Sometimes it was nearly lunchtime before I ate anything, by which time I was so hungry I’d stand in the kitchen and munch whatever instant food was at hand. I was working longer and longer hours with few or no breaks. My eyes were dry and tired, my concentration and performance affected by poor food choices resulting in blood sugar swings and a serious caffeine addiction.

I wasn’t living my dream of better work/life balance – but I didn’t realise it.

And then I bought a tray of mangoes.

And I gorged on them. Cutting the two cheeks off and scoring them into little squares required my full attention. It was sticky and messy, so I sat outside and I couldn’t do anything else. At moments it was almost a form of meditation, as though time had slowed down and nothing else in the world existed except the mango and me.

An epiphany hit during one of these mango meditations. I thought that I should do this more often, eat something without doing something else at the same time. Then it dawned on me that since starting my own business, I rarely stopped and focused on what I was eating. Most of the time, when I was eating, I was working, reading, watching TV, even driving.

When we're busy, eating can easily become just another thing for the to-do list. Yet it is one of the most pleasurable, and life-sustaining, things we do every day. As soloists, we don’t have an office culture of going out for lunch with workmates or everyone gathering for morning tea birthday cakes. So we need to create some of this culture for ourselves.

Notice how you interact with food throughout your working day. Ask yourself if you are treating yourself with as much respect in regard to regular breaks as you would expect to receive from another boss.

Since my epiphany, I now encourage myself to develop healthy eating habits. I stop working for meal breaks and I try to regularly leave my office to eat. Because of this, my work time is more productive and I’m feeling much healthier, in body and in mind.

Sally Bruce is on a mission to teach people to reduce stress levels by slowing down and connecting with nature. She balances her working life between two of her passions - Aromatherapy and Acting.

5 comments | Add your own

Hi Sally - if you haven't dived into a mango and had it go everywhere, you haven't lived ! We live on the egde of bushland, and in the mornings, I sit outside and feed our 2 dogs and then feed me, enjoying the peace (depending on how much the birds chatter) and the pleasure of knowing that I'm about start working for me, whilst others sit in traffic. What better way to celebrate the gift of each new day, but by enjoying nature, fresh food and the independence of soloism ? Grant Hyman from Sydney | Read my articles
Hi Sally - just wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading your article. I could not agree with you more! As a soloist coach and dharma evocateur, i make it a point to drink my tea in order to drink my tea. Not gulping it down so I can go off and do something else. As Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh puts it so well: "Being peace right in the moment we are alive." Chris Kang from Brisbane, Australia
HI Sally
Just wanted to say how much I could relate to your article. I shift to a different computer to eat my lunch - so it feels like I am having a break! I think that all of us as soloists - at some time or other have been guilty of saying that we are TOO busy to stop for a break, only to then to burnout, because our business becomes our life. I will have to start buying mangoes!! Thanks for the great article. Sandy Childs from Windsor NSW
I find it is so hard to change, working in my town office, often it gets to 3 or 4 o'clock and I have not even thought about lunch, often left home in a rush with a 1/2 drank cup of tea left to chill on the bench. I am writing this so I am obviously aware, but how do you make that change? Lindsay Short from Echuca
Thanks for your feedback. Lindsay, some ideas to encourage you to stop for breaks include scheduling time for lunch in your diary and then setting reminders in Outlook, on your phone, whatever it takes for you to realise that you've been working for too long without a break. Another good tip is to organise to meet a friend for lunch. If you're worried about 'not having the time' then try to shift your focus to thinking that by taking a 20 min break now, your work will be more efficient. You'll probably save yourself a lot more than 20 mins in the rest of your day if you're nourished, refreshed and thinking clearly after a lunchbreak! I hope this helps and I'd love to hear how you go – good luck! Sally Bruce from Perth, Western Australia | Read my articles

5 comments | Add your own

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