As clichéd as the oft-used quote ‘Health is wealth’ might sound, there is more truth to it today than before. With spiraling healthcare costs, falling sick only means one thing – expenditure. Which means, we are left to our own devices when it comes to something as precious as health.
But often in the haze of our modern lives we hardly have any time to tend to our general well-being. We mostly choose to ignore little nagging pains, till they escalate and that’s when we start running helter skelter – one doctor to another, one hospital to another trying out different medications, that often end up causing side-effects.
While there’s no foolproof way of not catching a cold or falling ill, a general change in attitude when it comes to understanding your own health can help you go a long way. This post looks at what the roadblocks are when it comes to taking care of yourself and what you could do to improve it.
The root cause for most of our health problems is the lack of time.
Our schedules often pour into the next day, giving us no time to rest, let alone exercise. Sitting at the desk all day, with no physical activity leaves us lethargic, which in turn reduces our productivity at work. Add to this, our poor posture and all we are left with is twitches and pain in different parts of our body.
While slaving it away at work, our diet goes for a toss as well. Ready to eat quick meals and highly processed foods are what populate our kitchen shelves. Greens and especially fruits disappear. While their instantness and cost is what lures us, there’s nothing healthy about these ready to eat meals. What we forget to notice is that these processed foods have harmful additives and chemicals, which in the long run can cause cancer and other diseases. What you eat at work can also affect your workplace productivity. If lunch is going to be a heavy and greasy meal, say hello to grogginess through the second half of the day.
At the other end of the spectrum are fad diets. While they might show results instantly, they are potentially harmful in the long run. They are just that – ‘fads’ that fade away with time. Moreover, you end up binge eating at a later time when you are on such diets.
To begin with, it is very important to understand that there is nothing better than staying healthy. Your health comes first. This doesn’t mean that you resort to extreme measures. The approach towards it needs to be focused and balanced, taking one step at a time. It begins with making small changes in the diet. Eating right needs to be complimented with some form of physical exercise.
These days everything is either a phone call or a click away. Offload some of the daily tasks like buying groceries, cleaning etc through these readily available services. It helps you save time. Use these little pockets of time to play a sport or to go for quick run or to do something that relaxes you.
3 small ways in which you could make yourself more productive at work
If you aren’t able to exercise and lack of time is a problem, start your day a little early and do some basic exercise for 10 minutes.
If your work confines you to a desk, taking a five-minute break every half an hour and stretching relaxes your body and increases your productivity.
Instead of carrying unhealthy snacks to work, carry fruits. Fruits are not only good for the body, but they keep your mind agile as well. Your lunch should give you a boost to sail along for the rest of the day and not put you to sleep. So eat light.
(Ruchir Dorwani works with Care24. He has a passion for reading and loves to keep track with the latest technological innovations in the medical field. You can reach out to him on his Facebook profile here.)