When I told my friends, family, and colleagues that I would be contributing an article to this month’s monthly newsletter with the theme of Nutrition and the Workplace, most of them fell to the ground laughing.  When they dried the tears from their eyes, they realized that I wasn’t kidding.  Based on their reactions, I also realized that I am probably the worst person to be dolling out advice on nutrition.  So I am here really to fess up to my nutrition habits.   

 

Let’s start from the beginning.  Pre-children.  Being younger and working a zillion hours a week with other like-minded individuals, my diet consisted of fairly equalized parts fast food, healthy food, and alcohol.  Friday night drinks and nachos were a weekly part of bonding with my colleagues and letting off some steam.  Of course, there was time for exercise, which was also part of my social network.  Ah, the time to eat what I wanted, do what I wanted, and have the metabolism to get through it. 

 

Enter children.  Work is still a central part of my life, but so are my husband and child. Exit exercise and the time to eat properly.  I am like most who find several excuses as to why I can’t eat well or have the time to exercise. 

 

Someone once told me that people’s time can be split into a three-piece pie, meaning there is time for three major things in one’s life.  Work is most often one of them, and the other two can consist of exercise, family, relationships, self etc.  But how can we get them all to fit into the pie?  It is something that I struggle with everyday.  As women, we try to do it all.  There are a ton of coaches that go through how we need to stop trying to actually do it all.  I agree it can’t all be done.  There will always be choices and consequences to our choices.  Things ebb and flow; the trick is to be able to rise with the tides and fade back when we need to. 

 

What will make me change my habits?  Usually, for most it is some sort of drastic event.  For example, my computer crashed the other day and I saw all of my business contacts, calendar, and e-mail vanish before my eyes.  Did I have a back up?  I do now!  By some saving graces, I have been able to recover most of it.  But it took me less than one day to get myself set up with triple backups and a secure disaster recovery plan should it happen again. 

 

This event has caused me to pause and look at my life, especially my nutrition and exercise habits.  I know that I don’t eat as well as I should.  And I know that I should exercise more.   I also know that I shouldn’t have to wait for a drastic event to immediately change how I eat and work out.  The reality is we are all getting older, and with several years slipping by without feeding myself well and keeping myself fit, I can see the change.  I know it didn’t happen overnight.  But I can see the effects when I lack the energy to play consistently with my daughter.  I can see the effects when I huff and puff climbing a flight of stairs.  I can see the effects when my headaches increase in quantity and intensity.   

 

Will I change my habits?  I am certainly going to try.  But this is no easy task.  There’s the rub.  Good nutrition is a simple concept, but it is not easy to stick to (not for me anyways!).  Daily decisions will help the transformation.   By consistently not eating fast foods, drinking more water, taking the stairs, and eating breakfast I know I am heading in the right direction.   <