Healthy Tips For Your Lunch Break
When you find yourself working a full-time job, time management can be tough. Eating right, lowering stress, and maintaining any type of regular schedule can seem impossible. Squeezing in time for yourself is never easy, but is important for your overall health. Lunch breaks offer the opportunity you need to do just that. You can easily use this time to incorporate healthy habits into your daily routine. Check out these ideas.
Take A Walk
Walking for a half hour to an hour a day provides an abundance of health benefits and is a great strategy for keeping your weight in check. Not only does it burn calories, but it helps your body function more efficiently as a whole. On top of all that, it reduces the likelihood of gaining certain health issues, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart issues.
If spending a solid hour walking does not coincide well with your schedule, you can easily break this up in a few small walks per day. Walking for twenty minutes on your lunch break will do your body good and will give you a chance to get out of the office for a bit, thus improving your overall mood.
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Enjoy Your Food
Be sure to actually take time to eat on your lunch break and focus on the food in front of you. Often times, people find themselves so swamped that they quickly scarf down something at their desk or just skip a meal altogether. This leaves you feeling unsatisfied and your body is given no opportunity to re-energize.
By allowing yourself time to relax and enjoy a healthy lunch, you are giving your body a well-deserved break and fueling up for the rest of the day. Taking that break can allow you time to regroup, improving your focus for the afternoon ahead and increasing overall productivity.
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Reach Out To Someone
Your lunch break can be a great opportunity to reconnect with a long-lost friend or reach out to a loved one. By taking ten or twenty minutes to call someone up, you are allowing yourself the opportunity to focus on something other than work, while catching up on the latest developments in other’s lives.
Even connecting with someone you see frequently is a good idea. Text your best friend, shoot your significant other a cute e-mail, or call your mom. It provides a good reminder that work is not your entire life and that the end of the day is near, granting you freedom to go home and relax with those you care about.
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Take A Nap
If you can, try to get a 20 – 30 minute nap in during your lunch break. Often times, break rooms have couches or comfortable chairs that would be fairly easy to snooze in. Otherwise, your car or office can work well for a nap, as well.
By getting in some shuteye midday, you are giving your body the chance to recharge. These power naps are known to make you more alert, improving your performance and productivity throughout the rest of the work day. On top of that, a nap so short will not interfere with your regular sleep schedule or leave you feel extra fatigued for the next few hours.
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Catch Up On Reading
If you have a resolution to read more, then your lunch break offers the perfect opportunity for getting in a chapter or two. Reading is relaxing and helps to open up your mind to new thoughts and ideas. Whether it is a novel, text book, or even a magazine, reading offers insight into new worlds and encourages new learning opportunities.
Another advantage to reading on your break is the time spent away from electronics. Many office workers find themselves face-to-face with a computer all day, only to watch television or surf the Internet on their breaks. Step away from the screens and give your eyes the break they deserve.
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Catch Up On Your To-Do List
If you have got errands to run, appointments to schedule, or anything home-related that needs to be taken care of, your lunch break is a great time to play catch up. While not every day should be spent this way, using your break now and then to accomplish non-work related things can erase some stress and clear up time in your schedule that you can now devote to something else.
Often times, after work errands leave you coming home a lot later than planned, reducing time spent relaxing or being with loved ones. This time is limited, so soak it up while you can, and leave your to-do list tasks for lunchtime.
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De-Clutter Everything
Sometimes, piles of work gets so built up that focusing on anything is impossible. Due to lack of time, we throw papers here and there and jam notes and receipts wherever they fit, planning to deal with them at a later date.
Your lunch break is a great time to get these things organized. By stopping work and devoting ten minutes to picking up your desk, cleaning out your purse, and getting all that garbage out of your car, you will be ready for a fresh start when your break over. You will feel more control over your life and will spend the day being extra productive.
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Work On Your Hobby
Work can often consume our lives. Between meetings, paperwork, and following a constant stream of e-mails, it is easy to get caught up and forget about doing things we actually enjoy. Do not become a slave to your job, but rather take your hobby to work.
Whether it is knitting, making knick knacks, taking photos, or something else, spend some time devoting yourself to what you love to do. It helps remind you of who you are outside of work and keeps your overall outlook in check. There are tons of things in life to live for and work should never make up your entire identity.
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Play A Game
Work is stressful for everyone. If you or your co-workers are having a bad day, suggest a quick game over your lunch break. Playing something fun is a good distraction and will help to ease stress put on by a heavy workload.
Whether you whip out a board game, play some cards, or even shoot hoops, a half hour spent laughing and relaxing with others will put the entire office at ease and will help to increase morale and productivity for the upcoming afternoon. Send out an e-mail asking what people’s favorite activities are and try to organize something fun a couple times throughout the week.
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Reflect On Life
Whether you re-examine your morning, look back on your week, or evaluate your year, taking time to reflect on your life is always important. Think of where you want to be in five years or think back to a precious memory that helped to shape you as a person.
Work can often take up a lot of space in a person’s brain, so it is important to take time to remember what is most important in your life. Do not let yourself stress and remind yourself of things that make you happy. Look at what you have accomplished and get your mind thinking positively to help stay motivated for the rest of the work day.