How Your Career Could Be Harming Your Health
We do everything to boost our careers, especially when we're just starting out. We have a tendency to work huge hours so we get noticed, so we can go above and beyond or make sure that we don't let anyone down. But our work-ethic might be seriously sabotaging our health.
Job Related Problem
People who work over 40 hours are about eight per cent more likely to be obese, reveals research by the Centres for Disease Control. Meanwhile, if you travel extensively for business ( more than 20 nights a month away), your odds of being obese are 92 per cent higher than if you hit the road 1-6 times a month.
Strategies
Pretend you're paying, even if you have a corporate credit card.
In fact, especially if you have a corporate card, "People give themselves permission to be bad - an extra drink, a big stea dinner - because it's with a client," says Dr Andrew Rundle, an obesity researcher at Columbus University, If you know you'll be feasting on company tonight, have salad or tuna for lunch
Keep moving
Stand up at your desk or during tele-conferences, schedule walking meetings and find time to exercise during your workday. Stuck in a hotel room? Do a no-equipment workout: go to menshealth.com.au to find one.
Meditate
Working extreme overtime can make you so hangry that you're tempted to eat when you're not hungry. Meditation can help. In a Journal of Consumer Research study, people who practised mindfulness tended to have less weight fluctuation. Check out Patricia Bloom's Mindfulness Practice album on Itunes.
RELATED: 8 Weird Signs Your Way Too Stressed Out
Jobless-Related Problem: You Got Fired
Strategies
Sleep well and consistently.
The stress of a sudden job loss can lead to sleepless nights and insomnia, say researchers at Pennsylvania State University. So promote better sleep through exercise. In a study published in the journal Sleep Medicine, sedentary people who committed to a six-month exercise program fell asleep more quickly at night, felt more rested in the morning and had better-quality sleep than they did before the program. Their anxiety and depression levels fall too.
Form healthy habits.
Keep water handy while you polish your resume'. People in a university of Illinois study who drank more water than other beverages consumed fewer total kilojoules. Raise your heart rate and burn energy with two minutes of squats every 30 minutes.
Make your lunch.
Prepare a healthy lunch at night, just like you did when you had a job, says dietitian Susan McQuillan. Be sure to include protein-rich snacks such as nuts, hard-boiled eggs and jerky. Keep junk food out of the house.
