Chapter 7
Being a Legend in Your Own Lunch Time
In This Chapter
Taking a break to refresh yourself
Working out at lunch time
Taking your break in the office
Eating yummy food
The days of hour-long lunch breaks where everyone drops what they’re doing and walks out of the office at the same time are long gone. However, experts are finding that all workers need to get away from their keyboards at lunch time in order to feel refreshed and more productive in the afternoons.
This chapter shows you how to start taking your lunch break (and regular, smaller breaks) without feeling guilty or that you’re letting down the workers who don’t stop for a break. I include useful ideas on activities you may like to try during your lunch time, after you eat and before you return to your desk.
Lunch breaks can also be used to do personal chores to save valuable time after work or at the weekends. This chapter has tips on how to shop for clothes, do your banking and stock up on groceries in your lunch hour.
Dinner time is time for a break. Dinner is time to spend with your loved ones, especially when you take the trouble to sit around the family table and discuss the day’s events.
In this chapter, I discuss why having dinner as a family is important and how you can make dinner time the best and most interesting time of the day.
Breaking the ‘No Lunch Break’ Trap
The levels of obesity among Australian adults and children are on the increase. However, that knowledge is usually not enough to motivate people to get out and exercise. You have genuine motives for wanting to exercise — to improve your health, increase your energy levels, keep your weight down, be part of a team or just because it makes you feel good — but the time factor prevents you from doing much about your exercise goals.
The need to exercise is one very powerful reason why you need to claw back your lunch time. If you’re like me, you have full-on work and home commitments that you struggle to juggle. Therefore, you may decide to sacrifice your lunch break to fit more into your day. You may also be telling yourself that if you spend lunch time at your desk, you won’t have to work back, and maybe — just maybe — you can even leave a bit earlier than usual.
What actually happens is that inhaling an unhealthy takeaway over your computer, while continuing to work, doesn’t give you much more time and can actually reduce your productivity and disturb your work/life balance. Many experts agree that most people aren’t able to be fully productive in the office for eight hours straight. Our eyes, brains, hands and bodies need rest stops and an occasional change of scenery in order to work at their best. Ask yourself these questions: Will you be more productive if you take five minutes to bolt down a sandwich and continue working on the report until you have a blinding headache? Or should you get up, do a few good stretches, go for a walk in the sun, have lunch in the fresh air and come back to the report with a clear head and a refreshed body?
Instead of working through your lunch break, see the break as your own special chunk of time — to rest and do what you feel like doing, not what you think you have to do.
Escaping your office
If you find that you rarely get any ‘alone time’ at work, then definitely reclaim your lunch break. You have a right to step away from your work, eat your midday meal and refresh yourself. Make an appointment with yourself — no job, home or family responsibilities for the next 30 to 60 minutes.
Leaving your workplace during your lunch break gives you a genuine escape as well as opportunities for exercise, errands, fresh air, stretching, thinking and reading. Bring a simple and healthy lunch from home so that you don’t have to waste precious time in line at a takeaway shop or cafe.
Exploring your surroundings
Get out of your office. You heard me: Get Out! I mean it in the nicest possible way. When the time comes for your lunch, collect a good book and your walking shoes and head outdoors. Find a spot on a secluded patch of lawn, under a shady tree or bags a park bench and treat yourself to a chapter of a novel you’ve been wanting to read. Or don’t sit down at all. Spend your break exploring your surroundings and getting some quick and easy exercise. If you work near a residential area, take a walk through the neighbourhood and collect ideas for your own house and garden.
Time-saving tasks
One aspect of working full time that irritates me is having to spend either one weeknight or wasting the best part of Saturday doing the grocery shopping. I see hundreds of other tired and stressed working parents with shopping lists and unhappy kids in tow trying to find that dream parking spot just outside the door of a shop that sells everything you need.
Lunch time at work can be the perfect time to carry out minor chores that would otherwise eat into your valuable weekend time. I usually ride my bike or take the bus to work and have fairly thoroughly explored the area surrounding my office to find out what services and shops are available. Whether you’re based in the city, in the outer suburbs or in the country, you can try these shops and services to visit in your lunch break:
Bank: Legend has it that people queue in banks at lunch time but this isn’t often the case. Many people today bank online or via the ATM so if you need to visit the bank, you won’t find the lines of customers who used to do their banking at lunch time.
Dentist’s surgery and medical centre: Working sometimes means you can’t get to your doctor when you need a doctor. One-stop medical centres are a boon to working parents when you can get a minor but irritating condition treated at lunch time near the office and tell your own doctor about it when next you visit.
Hairdresser and beautician: I don’t consider myself a ‘high maintenance’ person so a simple haircut fits well into my lunch break. This again saves time because haircuts on busy Saturdays always take longer than during the week — and you have to juggle them with taking the kids to sport and doing the washing.
Mechanic/car servicing outlet: If you have a reasonable car service station near your office, then book your car in while you’re working. Most open from 8 am and offer same-day service. Nothing is worse than losing your car at the weekend when you need it for the sports run, and so on.
Newsagency: Not only a place for magazines and papers, newsagents also sell greeting cards, cheap ‘how to’ books and novels, stickers and stationery. I find many presents for my daughter’s friends’ birthday parties when I call in at lunch time to buy my bus passes.
Pharmacy: Drop off prescriptions on the way to work so the filled order is ready for collection at lunch time. This avoids prescription queues on Saturday mornings.
Post office: Post offices are no longer just for stamps. As well as paying bills over the counter, you can buy watch batteries, stationery, gifts for overseas friends, jewellery, children’s presents and books.
Supermarket/deli: If you have only a small shop nearby that’s a bit pricier than the larger stores, then buy just what you need that day. If you have a larger shop, then buy only what you can fit into your shopping bag or backpack. These degrees of shopping during the week don’t cost too much more money and cut the weekend shopping back.
Furthering friendships
Sometimes, more time to spend with others is your goal. When your day is crammed with work, family and home, your lunch break can be used to catch up with friends, and for a little romance — sounds better than a soggy dim sim at your desk, doesn’t it?
Use your lunch break as an opportunity to get to know your work mates. By asking a new colleague or someone you fancy knowing better to join you for lunch in the park, you can increase morale and make a stronger contact in the office. You may even discover you share similar hobbies, sense of humour or interests that can lead to a friendship outside of work. Try developing your chats into a regular power-walking session.
Use lunch breaks too to catch up with longstanding friends you don’t see often enough. Find out if any of your friends live or work close to your workplace and arrange to meet them for lunch. You offer to bring the sandwiches and they can bring the coffees or juices. If your parents or other relatives are close by, take your homemade lunch and make a quick visit. Making this a monthly routine can ensure you don’t lose touch.
Sometimes, the people you spend the least amount of time with are those you live with and see every day. You love each other dearly, but time at home can get too busy for you to talk about the subjects you need to discuss. If you work near each other, get together for lunch. Take a quick walk in a park, or meet for a cup of the best coffee in the area. Decide to talk about matters related to chores, kids or housework. Or decide to talk just about yourselves. Live on the edge and try holding hands across the table, looking into each other’s eyes as you talk. Hopefully you can re-ignite a tiny spark that may still be flickering after the kids are in bed.
If your partner or best friend works too far away to meet up with you in person, make lunch time a chance to pick up the phone. Eat your lunch and then head to a pleasant spot with your mobile phone to find out what’s going on in your partner’s day. If mobile phone bills scare you, use the office phone, if your employer doesn’t mind you making personal calls in your lunch break. You can also send emails to your family and friends, updating your family’s news.
Getting Physical
Many people believe that you have to train like a marathon runner to get any real benefit from exercise. Not true. In fact, many studies show that moderate physical activity helps protect you against a wide range of diseases such as diabetes, stroke, colon cancer and breast cancer. Medical experts have also found that moderate physical exercise reduces the risk of osteoporosis and can help in the treatment of depression.
This raises the question: What does moderately vigorous activity actually mean? Nothing too scary. Any activity that causes you to start breathing a little bit harder than usual and causes your heart to start beating faster than usual is moderate exercise. For example, if you can still talk normally (just), but you can’t sing, you’re exercising at about the right level of intensity.
Exerting yourself easily
Examples of suitable activities you can do at lunch time include
Bike riding: Get out in the fresh air or inquire whether your employer has a deal at the local gym.
Swimming: Great for people who are overweight (or not) and who have a swimming pool near their place of work.
Walking: Very easy to do and good for nearly everyone because you’re doing a ‘weight-bearing’ exercise, walking helps protect against osteoporosis in the legs, hips and back.
Working out at the local gym: Many gyms run lunch-time classes for busy workers. The classes last 30 minutes so you have time to shower, dress and eat lunch afterwards.
Regaining strength through resistance
As well as doing 30 minutes of moderately vigorous activity on most days of the week, taking on some resistance activity and flexibility training (for example, stretching) is important. Resistance training helps to maintain your strength and muscular endurance, which is even more important for older people because their muscles lose strength with ageing. Resistance exercise is the only form of activity that slows down the rate of loss of strength. Exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups and chin-ups are good examples and they’re free.
Organised and non-competitive exercise classes can be good for people who struggle to find the time and/or motivation to exercise. Examples include aquarobics (a good start for the unfit, the elderly or beginners); karate; spinning (on bikes, not at wheels with wool in your hands); aerobics and circuit training. Pump and step classes can also be an effective way to extend your social networks by organising a few of your work mates to attend a class with you.
In addition to your daily 30 minutes of exercise, you can boost your activity by heading back to your place of work using one of the following:
Ride a bike if you have access to a safe route
Use the stairs instead of the lift
Walk short distances rather than drive
Successfully Staying Inside
Don’t let a rainy day or a heatwave stop you from having a lunch break. You have many opportunities to eat your lunch and then escape into the online world instead.
Close your office door or stick a note on your cubicle saying, Out to Lunch. Now you have a chance to catch up with your favourite bloggers or Web sites (making sure that they’re ‘work-friendly’, according to your employer’s policies). Do a little blogging yourself (refer to Chapter 5 for more details on how and why blogging is good for you). If that’s not an option at your work, bring a book or magazine in (not work related) and venture off somewhere quiet to read.
Stretching your productivity
Taking regular breaks from sitting at your desk, especially if you’re working on a computer, is very important. As someone who struggles with long hours of sitting and tapping on a keyboard, I’ve adopted these desk exercises developed for SafeWork SA (see Figure 7-1).
Some workplaces are recognising the importance of stretching exercises and have software that pops up on screen to remind the user to take a break. For people who don’t have access to such reminders, I suggest you try setting an alarm to go off every 20 minutes, stand up and do the SafeWork or other appropriate exercises. The break from work is refreshing and the exercises keep niggling shoulder pains away.
Saving time in cyberspace
The Internet has been a wonderful invention for people who work at a computer and have little time. In the past ten years, I have embraced the Internet and I was proud to note that the Christmas presents I bought last year were all purchased via the World Wide Web, and wrapped and ready early.
Online shopping, banking, entertainment and travel is a very easy way to do a variety of chores without having to waste time travelling, browsing or queuing for service.
Getting your groceries online
The good old Internet has lifted a huge load from my shoulders because I no longer have to waste Saturday mornings at the supermarket. I can order groceries online in my lunch break or at home in the evenings. I also find that the fresh fruit and vegetables my online grocer selects for me are far fresher and better in quality than fruit and vegetables that have been fondled by at least 20 other frazzled shoppers before my hands get to them.
Most large retailers and supermarkets run online sites that enable you to view their products and place the items you want in a virtual ‘shopping cart’, where they’re kept until you enter the virtual ‘checkout’. At the ‘checkout’, you’re asked to check your order and add or delete items as needed. The site then calculates the cost of your order — including GST and delivery charges — and asks you for your delivery address and credit card details.
Figure 7-1: SafeWork SA has developed a series of exercises for desk workers.
Whenever someone says, ‘Oh I don’t know how you do it; sending your credit card number to a Web site’, I explain that the payment sections on good shopping sites are encrypted so that my personal information and payment details are secure. You’re able to see a little padlock icon at the bottom of your browser window. Paying this way is far safer than emailing your credit card details to a vendor. Emails can be intercepted.
If you would like more information on the do’s and don’ts of shopping online, visit the government Web site at www.community.gov.au.
Banking in the boardroom
Most Australian banks allow you to avoid paperwork and lunch-time queues by offering a wide range of electronic banking services, including credit card payments, bill payments (telephone, gas, electricity and council rates), cash withdrawals, account balances, account transfers, loan applications and information on current interest rates.
A lot of busy workers have leapt into online banking with enthusiasm because you can do your banking when it suits you and you will get immediate access to information about your accounts. To encourage the use of online banking, some financial institutions are offering cheaper interest rates or no-fee services if you bank electronically. If you are ‘techno savvy’ like my husband (and unlike me) you may even be able to plan a budget by downloading information directly into a spreadsheet or financial planner.
Getting access to online banking is easy — most banks allow you to set up your access via their Web site, or you can visit the bank in person to find out about the range of online services offered and fees charged. You’re also given a password and, for greater security, you may need to use an on-screen keyboard to enter your password.
When changing to electronic banking, be sure to follow these security safeguards:
Change your password regularly and use passwords that aren’t easily identifiable.
Check what security measures are used by your financial institution and read any conditions of use.
Don’t forget to log off from the Internet when you complete a transaction.
Contact your bank immediately if something goes wrong.
Keep a record of all transactions by printing transactions, receipt numbers or verification emails and take notes of your telephone calls to the bank.
Keep your personal identification number (PIN), passwords or access codes in a safe place or memorise them.
Never disclose your PIN, password or access code to anyone.
Finding Fabulous Foods
Perhaps health experts now need to emphasise the importance of eating healthily at work. Everyone knows the importance of cooking and eating good quality, fresh foods at home. But finding time to make a healthy lunch to take to work can seem impossible.
Last-minute lunches from the vending machine, the cafeteria or the deli down the street can seem your easiest option. Unfortunately, this usually means you’re consuming foods — even in light or low-fat meal options — that lack vital nutrients and are often loaded with sugar. As a result, your energy levels and weight levels suffer the consequences.
Cutting your lunch
Making your lunch to take to work puts you in control so you’re not limited to eating the leftover muffins from the breakfast meeting when you get hungry. Preparing your own lunch means finding five to ten minutes to put something healthy and edible together.
Try starting a new habit you can stick to. If you’re not a morning person, pack your lunch before going to bed, or while you’re making dinner. And if you’re worried about leaving all that good food in the fridge in the morning rush, put your car keys inside your lunchbox — now you won’t forget it.
Yummy lunching
Easy and nutritious lunch ideas you can consider are:
Bring along breakfast for lunch: If I’m too busy to whip up something decent for breakfast, I’ll grab fruit and yoghurt and ensure that I have my missed-out meal for lunch. I often have a bowl of low-fat, high-fibre muesli or can heat up porridge in the microwave. It may seem unusual but these foods are filling, nutritious and stop me from being naughty in the afternoons.
Choose wholegrain over white: This goes for rice as well as bread. When cooking rice for your evening meal, cook extra to take in for lunch the following day. Add chopped cooked vegies (again, cook extra to put in your lunch rice) or salad ingredients for a filling lunch that can be eaten cold or heated up.
Lovable leftovers: The nicest lunches are always the delicious smelling and tasting curries, pastas, casseroles and burgers, heated up from the night before. Just get into the habit of cooking extra to take to work for lunch, or to freeze for lunches later on.
Sandwiches: Even famous chefs swear by the humble sandwich as the easiest way to make a satisfying meal. Don’t feel limited to ham or cheese. Try taking a bread roll to work and add a small tin of flavoured tuna (lemon, ginger, and so on) with freshly sliced avocado. Take along some interesting cheese and salad ingredients and add them at the time of eating to avoid your roll getting soggy.
Satisfying salads: Salad on its own is not likely to stop you feeling hungry for long. Bulk up your salad with nuts, low-fat cheese (goat’s cheese is particularly good for flavour), capers, boiled egg, dried toast cut into pieces (for a low-fat version of croutons), chicken, smoked salmon or tinned tuna.
Start up a lunch club: Talk to your work mates, would they be interested in organising healthy lunches to share? You can set up a kitty (like a coffee club) and decide what healthy meals and ingredients to buy, or bring along something to share. Being good is easier if everyone around you is being good too.
Try tins of soup: A can of healthy soup can make a great emergency back-up lunch when you’re frantically busy. Look for low-salt, vegetable-based soups made with chicken, beans or lentils for protein. Many healthy brands are low in fat and are loaded with vitamins and fibre. In addition, try good old baked beans — a cheap and easy source of fibre and vitamins.
Refer to Chapter 4 for information on super foods to give you more ideas on what to bring in to work.
Sensible snacking
I know, I know. You take to work fresh fruit, dried fruit and nuts and then they sit in your desk drawers getting mouldy while you push them aside and go for the chocolate bars instead. As my husband said to me once, ‘Just don’t buy the bad things. That way they won’t be there to tempt you.’
Not walking down the confectionery aisle takes willpower. Amuse yourself instead at the deli counter and tell yourself that those snacks are much better for your health.
Healthy work snacks to try include
Fruit: Try buying a week’s worth of fruit on Monday and storing it in a fruit bowl. The aim is to make sure the bowl is empty by Friday. This approach gives you an opportunity to walk to your local greengrocer and buy what’s fresh and in season. Your work mates, too, can participate in the office fruit bowl experience. As long as you have a decent fruit knife available for coring and peeling, peeling fruit is as easy as opening a packet of chips.
Hummus and pita bread: Okay, you have to put the hummus in the fridge, but the pita bread can live in your drawer (if fresh) or slices can be kept in the freezer. You can buy many brands of low-fat hummus, tzatziki and other vegetable-based dips that taste great.
Milk: When was the last time you had a long glass of milk? Milk is very satisfying and can help keep the need to eat cakes and biscuits at bay. If milk doesn’t appeal, try buying 300 millilitres or 500 millilitres of low-fat flavoured milk for a sweet treat that isn’t too bad and goes a long way towards ensuring that you have your full calcium intake.
Peanut butter: Spread peanut butter on wholegrain rice crackers to keep your stomach from growling.
Seeds and nuts: You can buy sunflower and pumpkin seeds in bulk at supermarkets and health stores. Nuts of all kinds are a great source of energy. Eat only a palmful of different nuts if you’re watching your fat intake.
Vegemite: Spread Vegemite without butter on wholegrain toast, an English muffin or rice crackers. Simple and very Australian.
Yoghurt: Yoghurt has more flavours, varieties and sizes than I can list here. Find the flavour you enjoy and keep a supply in the office fridge (with your name on them).
Curbing caffeine
Apart from water, coffee is the world’s favourite drink and one that people turn to at work to keep them going. I also find that having a coffee is a social activity. The time taken to make a coffee in the work kitchen, hold a conversation with a work mate, wait a minute or two for the coffee to cool and drink it, contributes to you taking a mini break from the workload.
However coffee contains the C-word: Caffeine, which is also found in tea, cola drinks, energy drinks and chocolate. Health experts are asking you to use a bit of judgement in how much coffee or other caffeine-laden foods you take each day.
Caffeine’s advantages
Caffeine is believed to help prevent heart disease and some cancers. Caffeine also increases alertness and is considered to improve concentration. Caffeine is processed by the liver and then passes into the bloodstream, entering the brain. In the brain it connects with dopamine receptors (they make you feel good) and adenosine receptors. Adenosine slows down nerve cells, causing drowsiness. When caffeine connects to the receptors, these nerve cells speed up, leading to feelings of restlessness and alertness. It has been used in sports supplements to fight against fatigue and is banned in some sports. No wonder we reach for it when we hit a slump at work.
Caffeine’s disadvantages
Caffeine is not addictive but it is certainly habit-forming. Your body develops a tolerance towards the drug, which means more caffeine is needed to produce the same results. Excessive caffeine intake (more than four or five cups of strong tea or coffee a day) can cause tremors, an elevated heart rate, frequent urination, nervousness, anxiety, stomach upsets and insomnia. If you drink coffee before bed, you may find it harder to sleep. In addition, you may also only get deep sleep for shorter periods, making you feel less rested when you wake. Caffeine is also a diuretic, so it can increase your rate of dehydration if you’re not also drinking water.
Withdrawal symptoms occur after a day or so without caffeine. The brain becomes very sensitive to adenosine, causing blood pressure to drop dramatically. The most familiar withdrawal symptom is the caffeine headache. Other symptoms can include irritability, nausea and — ironically — drowsiness.
How much caffeine is safe?
To work out how much caffeine is safe for you to drink, it helps to establish how much caffeine is in an average serving (see Table 1).
|
Table 7-1 Common Sources of Caffeine |
|
|
One typical serving of . . . |
has this much caffeine. . . |
|
Chocolate (30 g) |
20–60 mg |
|
Black tea (150 mL) — depending on type of leaves and how long you brew |
30–100 mg |
|
Cola (375 mL) |
approx. 40 mg |
|
Instant coffee (150 mL) |
60–100 mg |
|
Energy drink (250 mL) |
80–100 mg |
|
Espresso-made coffee (150 mL) |
approx. 90 mg |
|
Drip-percolated coffee (150 mL) |
100–150 mg |
Health experts recommend that adults have less than 600 milligrams a day, which is about four cups of strong drip-percolated coffee, or five to six cups of tea. Ideally, you’re better drinking far less than that, and trying to avoid any coffee at all in the afternoons. Instead, train yourself to drink a green tea with less caffeine, which is a good source of water and full of those valuable little antioxidants. Or be even kinder to your body and stick to water.