Working in a office either at home or away from home involves rather many hours sitting on your butt per day and makes weight loss difficult. Many resort to cutting calories, believing that this strategy is their only option but not so. Office work requires a great deal more mental energy than physical energy and insufficient calories and/or nutrients to feed the busy brain soon results in you feeling tired and becoming ineffective. The most important brain-friendly foods are fats. Fats provide high octane fuel and enhance communication between brain cells, keeping us sharp. As soon as you are aware of your mind starting to wander or find you have to read a paragraph two or three times before it computes, heed the message and hit the fat. Where a great deal of confusion lies is that many still believe that fats make us fat. Wrong! Sugar and starch make us fat.
a few diet secrets
Limit Starch. Carbohydrates should always feature in a healthy meal or snack but the starchy ones (bread, pasta, rice and other grains) need to be carefully monitored as they can all too quickly upset blood glucose levels, prompting weight gain when we are sedentary for many hours. Get the bulk of your carbohydrates from vegetables and limit your starches to one or two meals or snacks per day.
Plan Ahead. Not always possible dependent on how busy your day is but a lunchbox filled to the max with delicious and nourishing goodies beats the sandwich and crisps option from the local fast food outlet hands down, keeps hunger at bay for hours and greatly reduces the chance of a mid afternoon energy dip.
Avoid Cravings. It’s all too easy to reach for a sugary snack when you are at the desk and need a little something to keep you focused and energised for a while but the resulting surge of sugar in the bloodstream merely encourages a greater need for more all too soon. Make your snacks protein-rich (a couple of rye crackers with nut butter, a piece of fruit with a handful of almonds or a small carton of natural yoghurt with berries and seeds) and keep the sugar monster at bay. You may also wish to consider a supplement that helps to blunt cravings.