Make your Workplace Heart Healthy

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Make your Workplace Heart Healthy
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• In our fast, busy lives, we often end up spending
  more time at our workplace than at home.
  Naturally, our lifestyle in the workplace has a
  lot of direct impact on our health. Heart, being
  a very important component of health, also gets
  affected by our lifestyle choices at our
  workplace.
• Let us see then, how we can make our workplace a
  little friendlier towards our heart.

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• One thing that needs to be cleared at the onset-
  why is it important to have a heart healthy
  workplace? Employees are the resources of the
  company. Statistics show that poor diet, lack of
  exercise and other major risk factors for heart
  disease and stroke are responsible for at least
  25 percent of companies healthcare costs.
  Besides, a physically unfit employee cannot be an
  asset to the company. In order to be efficient at
  your work, you need to first be healthy. And
  heart health is extremely important to stay
  healthy overall.

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So what needs to be done?

• Firstly, it is extremely important to eat healthy
  at your workplace. While at work, we eat out more
  often. We gorge on unhealthy munchies. We get
  stressed and binge on calories. Now none of this
  is actually helping you in the long run. Eating
  out for more than half a day, every day,
  basically sums down to eating three meals that
  are not home cooked. You do not know what oil and
  how much oil these foods are being cooked in and
  how hygienic they are. You do not know whether
  the ingredients are fresh or not. You also do not
  know how much sugar and salt goes into these
  foods. Under these circumstances, it is not
  advisable to eat out so much. Firstly, you need
  to start eating more of home cooked food. Don't
  go into elaborate meal making- a few simple
  cucumber sandwiches will do. But make it a point
  to get food from home. Plan ahead, shop ahead,
  recycle last night's dinner- but get your own
  lunch.

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• If your office has a canteen that provides food,
  talk to the people responsible for the canteen
  and urge them to make healthier food. Also, try
  snacking healthy. Carry high protein healthy
  snacks with you. Home-made oats bar, fruits,
  mixed seeds and nuts are all excellent snacking
  options.

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• Secondly, being inactive is one of the worst
  things that you can do to your health. Most desk
  jobs require you to sit for eight hours a day.
  Now that is a health blunder. An extra hour of
  standing burns 600kj. And you burn twice as many
  calories when you are standing as compared to
  when you are sitting. So get moving. Do not sit
  for a stretch of more than 20 minutes. Stand up,
  loosen your legs, walk around the office a bit-
  it will not take more than two to three minutes.

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• Thirdly, over consumption of caffeine, alcohol
  and cigarettes as means to combat stress,
  sleeplessness, anxiety etc. is killing you
  slowly. We don't need to go into details here as
  to how harmful these things are for your heart,
  and your overall health. Stress at work is
  common. Try dealing with it in healthier ways.
  For example, if you are too stressed about work,
  just take a break, go out, take a walk. You will
  definitely feel better. Also meditation is
  extremely helpful in dealing with stress and
  anxiety. Practice meditation for fifteen minutes
  every day, and you will definitely see the
  difference.

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Employer's Role

• As an employer, CEO, owner of a company, it is
  your duty to take care of your employees. Because
  unhealthy employees are your loss. You can do the
  following to ensure good heart health of your
  employees.
• Policy Bring into action heart healthy policies
  like a no smoking policy or an annual health
  checkup policy in the workplace.
• Activities Take initiatives to encourage more
  physical activities among its employees. Organise
  a sports day once a month, or amarathon-
  anything that would ensure fitness of your
  employees.

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• Facilities Supply kitchen facilities in the
  office. You don't need to have a fully functional
  kitchen- invest in a microwave oven and
  refrigerator so that your employees can eat
  fresh/ warm food always.
• Educate Organise talks by medical professionals
  to educate your employees about various health
  issues.

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• Help each other strive towards a heart healthy
  life at the workplace. A healthy employee is the
  biggest asset of a company.