Snack Time
One of the best—and worst–things about working in a home office is that anytime you’re hungry, you can eat. Potato chips, ice cream, and that last slice of pie are to a home office worker what the Sirens’ songs were to Ulysses—simply irresistible. Binding yourself to your chair, the way Ulysses was bound to the mast, might work, but there’s a better way.
Margaret Dosland, a registered dietitian in Olympia, Washington, says the key is to have healthy food close at hand that is also satisfying. Dosland, who sometimes works from home, keeps a stash of unsalted almonds in her desk drawer and eats a small handful mid-morning. They are a great source of calcium, magnesium, Vitamin E and Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) and dietary fiber. A hard boiled egg or single-serving size pack of tuna have protein and can keep you going strong until lunch. Clementines, carrots, sweet potato sticks and blueberries are all snacks that pack a nutritional wallop.
And if you want to think, don’t forget to drink! “Dehydration reduces the volume of blood in the body, and that means less oxygen to your brain,” says Dosland.
Finally, are chips ever okay? Absolutely, she says–if you plan to take a nap.