PAlife HEALTH & WELLBEING


where their PA will come in. For some clients, says Bean, his company has made the decision to sit down with their PA and go through every step of an executive’s business itinerary to ensure their health is looked after properly while travelling. This involves timing fl ights to make sure they eat regularly; if they arrive at a hotel after 11pm, for instance, will there still be room service available? They have even phoned ahead to restaurants to ensure they could provide healthier eating options. The fi nal challenge, adds Bean, is telling the


PA they have to make space in their boss’s diary for regular exercise. By this point, the PA is often following all of these healthy eating rules themselves. Meanwhile, within the offi ce, there needs


to be a tailored approach to staff eating routines. Eating at your desk, for example, should be discouraged. Surveys highlight the social and integrative nature of eating as aiding communication between employees. Bringing eating into the spotlight will also increase peoples’ awareness of what they are consuming. A canteen in an offi ce can easily offer grilled


alternatives to high-fat fried foods, and other tasty but low-fat options in a ‘health by stealth’ policy. If your offi ce doesn’t have a canteen, it might be worth going down the route of introducing a healthy-eating initiative to your workplace.


EAT A HEALTHY DIET Kate Cook is a nutritionist who has been


involved in corporate wellness for 13 years, with clients such as EDF, the Bank of England, SKANSKA and Investec. She feels that nutrition is a neglected side of people’s wellness, pointing out that “even quite aware people get a lot of their information from the telly”. Ingrained attitudes she has come across include people who simply go on a


SHOULD A BEVOIDED


AT YOUR DESK


EATING


low-calorie diet to lose fat, and she stresses that eating properly will help maintain a healthy body weight more easily. She adds that healthy eating must be part of an attitude of not only taking time out to eat but planning time so that you can prepare and enjoy your food. Rather than reserving ‘being healthy’ for the


evening or your time at the gym, it has to be brought into work as a continuation of the whole. Her fi rst tip for nutrition is to eat a good


breakfast. A 2008 survey of offi ce workers for BaxterStorey found the estimated cost to the UK per year of skipping breakfast alone is £8.1 billion, or 46.5 million working days. Graham Monger of NewVita adds to this


FIVE WAYS TO EAT WELL Experts agree that teaching people the framework for good nutrition, rather than


telling them what to eat, motivates people to look after themselves far more. Here are our top tips for better eating.


1


Eat breakfast, preferably some protein.


2 Plan your meals. What people eat day


to day is largely an accident: they buy what they feel like eating. If you are planning your meals, you’ll know exactly what you want. Order an organic box of seasonal vegetables from a local supplier – there are lots across the


country – and plan your meals around what you get in the box.


3


Plan your time. Think of your meals as a skeleton supporting the rest of your day, and plan a breakfast, snack, lunch and dinner at specifi c points. You will be far less likely to deviate and grab the nearest fast food or chocolate bar simply to fi ll yourself up.


4


Cook more. There are a lot of books now focussed on making cooking simpler and less time-consuming, such as Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals (Michael Joseph, £26), while keeping it enjoyable. Using fresh ingredients that


you can keep track of also means saving money and generating less waste.


5 Don’t go shopping! Almost all


supermarkets deliver: this will reduce impulse-buying junk food.


For more information go to KateCook.biz


by saying that the typical English breakfast foods of toast or cereal are a bad idea: high carbohydrates will make you hyper for a few hours and then leave you in a slump well before lunchtime, meaning you’ll be more likely to reach for the biscuits by mid-morning. He recommends


MAKE YOU HYPER


HIGH CARBS WILL


eating protein such as salmon, meat and nuts as your fi rst meal of the day to help aid your memory and your


energy levels. It's all a question of re-educating your palate. NewVita’s approach is based on what


is known as the BioSignature Modulation. This involves measuring a person’s body fat in 12 key areas such as the stomach, arms and back. Each employee is assessed individually in this way to show which of their hormones are imbalanced. Monger says by far the most common is a


high level of cortisol, also known as the stress hormone. This is caused by the obvious – stress – and a clear sign of high cortisol is stomach fat or, in layman’s terms, a pot belly. To counter this he recommends Omega 3 capsules alongside protein naturally high in the oils, such as fi sh – just six grams a day can make a difference, he claims.


CUT OUT THE CARBS Taking supplements is only scratching the


surface. The next culprit on Monger’s list is the amount of sugar people consume. This is not necessarily processed sugar and sweets, but high carbohydrates, which are digested into a form of sugar, causing a similar rise and fall in energy. This is shown in people’s second most commonly imbalanced hormone, their insulin levels. But, adds Monger, his clients often aren’t


interested in the science as long as they see the results. The corporate programme is tailored to each individual and broken down into stages, which, he says, “people are very happy to go along with once they see the difference” – increased energy and often long-desired weight loss. Additional information from IpsosMori, Champneys (champneys.com) and NewVita (newvita.co.uk)


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MARCH 2013 • PALife


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