What busy professionals worry about and what to do about it.
Working with busy professionals, the one issue we encounter often, is ‘worry’. Worry means the state of being anxious and troubled over actual or potential problems.
Why this is an area of concern for busy professionals is that they regularly ‘worry’ about a variety of nutrition-related concerns and often find themselves caught feeling defeated, helpless, hopeless, overwhelmed, and physically stressed. These feelings can very easily impact many other areas of your life, particularly career and family life.
If you’re not sure if this is you yet, read on.
Here are some common nutrition concerns and areas of worry, that I typically encounter when working with busy professionals:
Long workdays and lack of structure in the day leads to worry about lack of time to prepare healthy meals at home and may rely on convenience foods that may be high in calories, sugar, and saturated fats.
Unpredictable schedules lead to worry about not being able to stick to a consistent meal schedule due to unpredictable work schedules, meetings, and travel.
Stress and emotional eating lead to using food as a tool to cope with stress and emotions related to work or personal life.
Excessive work travel leads to limited access to healthy food options depending on location, client meetings and in transit.
Lack of rest or sleep lead to making poor food choices based on instant gratification high sugar, high salt foods and/or convenience foods.
All of the above lead to lack of energy and focus, causing busy professionals to lead to worry about not having enough energy or focus to perform well at work.
Does this resonate?
In 2018, this study was conducted to better understand how the subjective perception of ‘busyness’ (which is referred to as a busy mindset in the current research), impacts consumers’ decision-making, by examining if and how, a busy mindset is predicted to facilitate people’s ability to exert self-control.
Interestingly, the results indicated that busyness coupled with time constraints can lead to stress and anxiety. This may be because if you have a lot to do but not a lot of time to do it in, it can result in impulsive decisions that may ultimately negatively impact your health goals. With your nutrition practice, these decisions may be based on:
Distractions and time restraints causing you to not eating mindfully.
Eating less nutritious food due convenience and lack of meal prep.
Doing less physical activity because you’re distracted, stressed by the lack of time and you don’t prioritize exercise because you may not have a specific training goal that you can follow.
What you can do today to relieve some of the worry around getting healthier.
Firstly, take it slowly! Start ONE practice and do that consistently. For example, it may be to have a protein shake every morning for breakfast or go for a short walk every lunch break, or to prep for two meals in the week. Then build on from this and add structure and consistency to your schedule. Small steps daily lead to big achievements in the long run.
Next, decide what your priority really is. It may not be health-related, but you will find that it will have some link to your health and nutrition. Once you determine your priority, it is a little clearer on where to start taking action with your health and this reduced the overwhelm, and subsequent worry.
Simultaneously, practicing stress-reducing techniques to avoid emotional eating are of benefit for busy professionals who find that emotional eating is an area that is causing distress in their lives. Consulting with a registered nutritionist can support you to develop a personalised nutrition plan that fits your unique lifestyle and needs.
If you need further support, read the articles at the ExecFuel Blog or contact me directly for a free 20 min initial consult to help you decide if we’re a good fit to work together.
