How to Overcome the Barriers

Prepare

This was touched on briefly earlier, but if you’re prepared, and have a set plan in place, you’re far more likely to stick to your diet. Don’t just turn up to work each day hoping there’ll be a healthy option in the canteen, or that you should be able to get 15 minutes at lunch to run to the store and grab something.

 

 

There may not be a decent menu choice, and you might have to work through lunch. Even if you do get time to go out and get something, what’s to say you’ll choose the right thing? If you’re hungry, and craving food, you need cast iron willpower to get a chicken salad or lean beef wrap over a burger and fries or a fully loaded sandwich.

Prioritize

If you’re planning to go to the gym in your lunch hour, then write it down. Likewise if you want to get there straight after work, make sure you finish when you intend to. Obviously there will be occasions when it will be necessary to work late, but these should be the exception, not the rule. Write your gym times down, and you’re much more likely to get there and not skip workouts. Alternatively you could go before work, before the stresses of the day start.

 

Associate with Like Minded People

This goes back to the three types of workplace colleagues. By far the best people for you to associate with are those in the first category. If you spend more time with people with similar interests, goals, and passions, you’ll get where you want to be much faster. You can set each other challenges, meet for regular progress reports, and swap workout and diet ideas.

You can also join a workplace club, or set up a dieting group or exercise class. Employers are often concerned with improving employees’ health, so see if your company might be interested in funding a group instructor to come in once a week, or invest in some workplace exercise equipment.

Snack Attack

Fill your desk with healthy snacks.

This does a few things. Firstly, in case you forget your lunch, or aren’t able to find anything suitable to eat, you’ve got some stand-bys in place. Secondly, when all your coworkers are eating junk, you can pick foods from your own private stash to keep you feeling full and satisfied. Good non-perishable snack choices include –

- Tinned fish – tuna, salmon, mackerel etc.
- Unsalted, unroasted nuts such as almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, pistachios or macadamias.
- Dried figs, prunes and dates.
- Beef jerky
- Protein shakes
- Peanut or cashew nut butter