5 Ways to Eat Healthier At Work

Diet plays an essential role in health and wellness. If you eat the wrong foods, you may experience fatigue, insomnia, increased frequency of cold infections and other ailments. The right foods, however, will give you the energy needed to make it through the day while reducing your risk of infection in the process. Unfortunately, many people choose convenience over nutrition, opting for fast food and packaged snacks when working. If this sounds familiar, you should follow these tips to eat healthier at work.

#1) Eat Breakfast

According to the Huffington Post, 33 million Americans skip breakfast each day. While skipping breakfast may seem harmless enough, it can take a toll on your health. Whether you work in retail, food service, manufacturing, B2B or any other industry, you need energy to make it through the day. A healthy, nutritious breakfast will supply your body with this energy.

#2) Drink Water

Avoid soda, sports drinks, sweetened tea and other sugary beverages at work. With a typical soda packing nearly 40 grams of sugar in a 12-ounce serving, they will overload your bloodstream with glucose. Initially, this will give you a boost of energy. Like caffeine, though, this is typically followed by a crash in which your energy levels sudden drop and you become fatigued. So, avoid sugary beverages and stick with water at work instead.

#3) Avoid Vending Machines

The allure of pressing a button to receive an instant snack may sound enticing, but you should avoid using the vending machine at work. Unless it contains healthy choices, such as fruits, vegetables or yogurt, it's best to bring your own snacks from home. Most vending machines contain little more than candy bars and potato chips, neither of which is a healthy choice.

#4) Choose Healthy Restaurants

If you're going to eat out during your lunch break, choose a healthy restaurant. Fast food restaurants are the worst, as they offer few or no healthy eating options. However, certain slow, "sit-down" restaurants offer a plethora of healthy options. You can expect to pay more at a healthy restaurant than a fast food establishment, but you have to think of the positive impact it has on your health.

#5) Eat Regularly

Don't wait until your shift ends to eat. Assuming you work eight hours, you should snack at least two times to keep your glucose levels up -- but not too high -- and to stabilize your metabolism. A bag of homemade trail mix is the perfect midday snack. You can include foods such as nuts, dried fruit and pretzels, for example. Another snack idea is a cup of yogurt topped with fresh fruit or whole grain oats.