The successful executive within you is already aware of the benefits of healthy eating habits. It cannot just help you to avoid diseases and stay fit. Healthy eating habits can also improve your energy, focus, and productivity. On the other hand, improper eating habits can only lead to weight gain and make you feel tired all the time. This can reduce your productivity and even affect the way you respond to stress at the workplace or at home.
With the new year already here, why not spend a few minutes thinking about your diet and health and make some interesting New Year´s Resolutions to change your eating habits? If you are ready for this change, read on to find some interesting New Year´s Resolution ideas for busy executives like you.
Executive Summary:
1. Don’t Blow Off Your Breakfast. Or Lunch! Or Dinner!!!
When you are too busy and have to rush through your morning hours, the most common thing is to sacrifice your breakfast. However, skipping your breakfast, or for that matter, any meal, is the most common mistake executives do.
These eating habits are surely going to backfire. When you skip a meal, you set yourself up for a poor eating pattern for the day ahead.
According to a study conducted by the Front Public Health, skipping breakfasts can cause a net energy deficit of approximately 400 kcal a day. This calorie deficit can make you feel lethargic and affect your focus, concentration, and productivity.
Also, these eating habits can cause your blood sugar levels to drop and this will result in you feeling hungrier later on. Hence, this time, make a new year’s resolution to not skip your meals.
2. Prepare Yourself Mentally
Before getting started with changes in your diet, it’s important to prepare yourself mentally. Take time to think through the changes you are going to make in your diet.
Read books on how healthy eating habits can change your focus, and concentration. When you read about the benefits of your new eating habits, you will be motivated to stick to them for longer.
Also, educate yourself about the herbs and spices that you can include in your diet to prevent diseases.
You can also practice yoga and meditation to gain better control over your mind and senses. This will enable you to counter the food cravings so that you can stick to your healthy eating habits for years after years.
Remember this: adopting healthy eating habits is like a marathon and not a sprint!
Before you implement your new year’s resolutions, you need to plan and prepare yourself mentally for the changes you are making! If you’re not ready, the healthy eating habits will not be sustainable.
3. Learn Healthy Cooking Methods
If you are a proud owner of a deep-fryer, it’s time to give it a premature retirement because it will add to the fat content in your food. And as you may already know, it can increase your risk of heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke.
Research conducted in 2013 to evaluate the safety of cooking methods such as deep-frying showed that it could also increase the risk of certain forms of cancer. Hence, it’s best to avoid fried foods. Instead, choose traditional cooking methods like roasting and baking, which limit the fat content while adding flavor. These are also the best ways to drain away the fats.
With this new year´s resolution, you will be able to stay fit and contribute better to your professional commitments.
4. Don’t Go Overboard
You’re more likely to stick to your new year’s resolution if you start with small and short steps at a time, even if you are desperate to lose weight. Avoid going overboard with your new diet and eating habits all at once.
According to the Obesity Action Coalition, extreme dieting habits such as a crash diet can have dangerous consequences.
Commit to not more than two new changes per week and build on them rather than going overboard with a sudden drastic change. Start with skipping your after-dinner treats. You surely wouldn’t want to be a rabbit and begin with a bang only to lose the race to a tortoise in the end!
5. Sub-Size Portions
If you are overweight, it’s likely that you are accustomed to large portions of foods. This is something that cannot be emphasized enough.
Instead of eating for filling, make it a habit to start with a smaller portion and eat only until you feel satisfied, not stuffed. The best way to do this is to take a small bowl or plate for your meals. This will ensure the quantity is less even though it seems to be full.
Even when you have a team lunch or outing, make sure you hang out with those who are health conscious so that you are not tempted into eating more of the unhealthy foods.
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” – Hippocrates
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, said this centuries ago. Perhaps, he knew that humans, over time, would be overdependent on medication. That is why he gave us a solution in the form of healthy eating habits.
Your eating habits decide what you eat, when you eat and how much you eat.
Even though most of your eating habits were established during your childhood, it doesn’t mean you cannot change them now. If you want to stay fit or lose weight in a healthy way, you must first change your diet.
Make a note of these interesting New Year´s Resolutions and begin the next year with greater determination and dedication towards your health and fitness.
If you have better new year’s resolutions ideas to improve your eating habits, please leave a comment to share them with us.
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Diet & mental health are the most important health factors for stressed managers in my experience. You can’t outrun your fork is the saying that exercise can never trump diet for losing weight. Exercise is important for benefits other than weight loss, and does affect mental health.
Latest research shows that low-fat, high-carb diets have been proven wrong for health. Instead you want low-carb, medium-protein and healthy fats. Dietary fat and cholesterol have been shown not to affect your blood cholesterol or make you fat! Carbs are the current enemy.
Thanks!
Hi Don, thank you for your comments. I agree with everything you have written but the last sentence. I would not say that the carbs are the enemy. It is simple sugars that we should avoid. Many complex carbs are the source of dietary fiber and most of us eat too little fiber. On average in the US people eat daily only 12g whereas they should 38g (men) and 25g (women). Here I copy the table with the best fiber sources: https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-13/