Since bad habits are made to be broken, here are a few very helpful tips on how to break bad eating habits at work. There are quite a few tricks you can learn that will help you eat better and healthier every day. According to a study released by Career Builder, in 2012, over 40 percent of American employees gained weight. Most of those employees didn’t gain weight due to a lack of food; they reported gaining weight due to inactivity, stress or workplace celebrations. Here are a few very helpful tips on how to break bad eating habits at work:
One of the first things you should do if you want to learn how to break bad eating habits, especially when you’re at work, is to understand social behavior spread. Behaviors, both physical and mental, are socially contagious, which means that they spread from one person to the next. People have an innate tendency to imitate others, so while you’re at work, try not to mimic the bad food habits of your co-workers.
This tendency to imitate doesn't stay in the workplace. Try not to take those bad eating habits home from work and don’t let them affect your entire diet. People can easily be influenced to eat poorly, so try to not to let yourself be influenced by all those commercials or even other people’s opinions.
If you want to eat healthy while at work, a thing that might help you achieve this goal is having a best friend with the same objective. A lot of studies have shown that apparently, close friends who adopt healthy habits together are more likely to maintain them than those who don’t have support.
A lot of studies have shown that a company’s culture can have a lot of influence on your eating habits, so try to aim for a healthy work culture. If the company you work for offers wellness benefits, take advantage of them to support your diet. Also, your participation can encourage your co-workers to join.
In order to get rid of those bad eating habits at work, try to practice mindful eating. For example, if you are offered a donut, before accepting it, try to ask yourself if you really need it, if you are hungry or if you really want to eat it. If it’s too tempting, try to fight this urge and use other techniques like distraction or relaxation as tools to control eating.
If you want to break those bad eating habits that you acquired from work, try to establish some new healthier ones. For example, instead of eating a donut at work, you could agree to eat only half of it. This way, you will eat less and also, you will start a new habit of self-control.
One of the most important things you should do if you want to break bad eating habits at work is to eliminate cues you associate with appetite. Most cravings are situational so they don’t always follow you everywhere you go. Just hunt for the cues that spark your unwanted eating and establish some new and healthier eating habits.
There are plenty of ways to learn mindful eating while at work but one of the most important ways to eat healthier is to build new behaviors with food. Do you know any other tips on how to break bad eating habits at work? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section!
Sources:
wikihow.com
realsimple.com