We're Celebrating National Employee Wellness Month in Saratoga County
We're Celebrating National Employee Wellness Month in Saratoga County
Tips to avoid the Afternoon Slump
Courtesy of MVP Health Care, a sponsor of the Healthy Saratoga MovementHead outside and sit in the daylight for 10 minutes.
Better still, have your lunch outside and divide your break between eating and a walk. It will help reset your chronological clock, keep down the amount of melatonin (the sleep hormone) your body produces during the day, and give you a valuable boost of beneficial vitamin D, which has the added benefit of reducing your risk of osteoporosis as well as various cancers.
Choose energizing protein, not energy-sapping carbs.
For lunch, a tuna salad without the bread is a better choice than a tuna sandwich. A green salad sprinkled with low-fat cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and some sliced turkey wins over a pasta salad. This change can really make a difference when it comes to not craving that 3 pm nap.
Clean your desk and clear out your email inbox.
Both are relatively mindless tasks that don’t require great amounts of concentration or clear thinking, and both will leave you feeling more energized because you’ll have accomplished something visible, as well as having reduced energy-sapping clutter.
Make an “I was thinking of you” phone call.
Take a break to reach out to a loved one, a friend, or a retired colleague. A five-minute keep-in-touch phone call (as opposed to a five-second text) will lift your spirits for hours and reinvigorate you to get your work done.
Put a drop of peppermint oil in your hand.
Briskly rub your hands together, then rub them over your face (avoid your eyes). Peppermint is a known energy-enhancing scent.
Loosen up your shoulders.
Roll your shoulders forward, then backward, timing each roll with a deep breath in and out. Repeat for two minutes. Stretching is always a good idea.
Consider a morsel of dark chocolate.
This is not a license to overindulge, but dark chocolate does have some unique advantages. Unlike milk chocolate, it is truly a healthy food, closer to the category of nuts than sweets, given the high levels of healthy fat and antioxidants it contains. Plus, it has abundant fiber and magnesium, and provides a little caffeine, as well as a satisfyingly decadent feeling.
Plan group activities for midday.
If you often work on your own, try to organize work involving others at the time of day when your concentration might otherwise be waning. We are social animals, and interactions always rev us up. But make sure it’s an interesting, interactive activity. Sitting in a room listening to someone else drone on and on will just send you snoozing.
Take 10 minutes for isometric exercises.
Isometric exercises involve nothing more than tensing a muscle and holding it. For instance, with your arm held out, tense your biceps and triceps at the same time and hold for 5 to 10 seconds. You can do this with your calf muscles, thigh muscles (front and back), chest, abdomen, buttocks, shoulders, and back.
Keep a rosemary plant in your office.
Not only will sharing your space with a live, growing thing provide its own mood boost, but studies find the scent of rosemary to be energizing. Whenever you need a boost, just rub a sprig between your fingers to release the fragrance into the air. Or, if you’re really wiped out, rub a sprig on your hands, face, and neck.
