The food you eat provides the energy you need to make it through the day.
Some foods make you feel tired and lagging, while others give you a pep in your step to fly through your to-do list.
Many people wonder, what foods can I eat to promote work efficiency?
By eating green, you will feel a difference in your work performance.
At The Growth Shark, we promote healthy eating and cheer each other on as we make better choices for improved work performance and mental clarity.
How Do I Gain Mental Clarity?
Healthy practices like prioritizing sleep, exercising, and eating green can increase work efficiency by reducing brain fog.
Have you ever been in the middle of a meeting, and your mind wanders to mundane things?
What about the dreaded afternoon slump where you cannot seem to keep your eyes open?
Believe it or not, you can increase your work efficiency during these times through healthy eating and finding mental clarity.
Dr. Gomez-Pinilla stated, "Diet, exercise, and sleep have the potential to alter our brain health and mental function. This raises the exciting possibility that changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage, and counteracting the effects of aging."
Brain Fog Symptoms
You are not the only one who experiences brain fog when trying to figure out a solution to a problem, delegate a task, or write an email.
It can feel like you're easily distracted or can't hit your groove and finish the task.
Sometimes brain fog shows up as forgetting a word or losing track of what you were saying in a meeting.
This is the opposite of peak performance and elongates a task that should take only a few minutes.
Does Coffee Cause Brain Fog?
Coffee can cause brain fog. Consider what kind of coffee you are taking in and for what purpose.
If you choose low-quality coffee beans combined with sugar additives, you may experience a sugar high followed by a crash.
But if you are moderate in your intake of high-quality coffee and support fresh and sustainable sources, you can use coffee to your benefit.
Build healthy eating habits that include coffee to improve your work efficiency. It's true – eating green can consist of drinking coffee each morning.
What Foods Help Clear Your Mind?
For improved work performance, choose foods that will promote mental clarity. Here are some examples of healthy eating for peak performance:
- Healthy Fats: Foods like avocados, coconut oil, and nuts will implement healthy fats into your diet, increasing work efficiency.
- Fish: Salmon, halibut, and tuna all contain fish oil that is also great for your mental clarity.
- Leafy Greens: spinach, kale, and leafy greens can be implemented into your diet through smoothies, salads, and pasta dishes
What Is the Best Diet for Mental Clarity?
When you practice eating green, you will see changes in your energy and work efficiency that are worth acknowledging and continuing.
What Is Meant by the Term “Eating Green?”
Eating green refers to choosing whole foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean meats.
For example, instead of eating mac and cheese and French fries every day, you may choose a fresh veggie wrap or a seasonal soup.
Science Daily summarizes a recent study, "Adopting green practices isn't just good for the environment," Delmas said.
"It's good for your employees, and it's good for your bottom line. Employees in such green firms are more motivated, receive more training, and benefit from better interpersonal relationships. The employees at green companies are therefore more productive than employees in more conventional firms."
We’re all about promoting green eating and choosing sustainable food sources. In addition, we encourage the use of renewable resources and reducing your carbon footprint.
These habits create a teamwork mentality that goes beyond work efficiency. We love to partner with companies that also practice sustainability.
What Diet is Best for Anti-Inflammatory?
Inflammation occurs when you eat fried foods, red meats, and soda.
An article by Harvard explains, "Your immune system becomes activated when your body recognizes anything that is foreign—such as an invading microbe, plant pollen, or chemical. This often triggers a process called inflammation."
Inflammation is triggered by the food you are eating. Unaddressed, it will become extremely harmful and chronic inflammation can be detrimental to your health.
Going Green in Your Diet
When you cut out unhealthy foods, you can reduce inflammation and avoid specific diseases and conditions that are challenging to maintain.
Choose healthy alternatives like fruits, tomatoes, leafy greens, and fatty fish to fight inflammation.
What Is the Green Mediterranean Diet?
The Mediterranean Diet is proven beneficial to your overall health, focusing on greens, nuts, fruits, vegetables, fish, and legumes.
Green eating is similar to the Mediterranean diet, but even better for you with the addition of lean meats and whole grains.
Is Eating Green Good for You?
You can always work toward improving your diet and increasing your work efficiency. Fuel your body with high-quality and nutritious food by eating green.
Our team has learned the benefits of eating green and making healthy lifestyle choices.
Take advantage of our work efficiency by learning about our digital advertising services and how we can improve your business.
How Food Affects Your Work Performance
When you think of your body as a machine needing high-quality fuel to perform tasks to the greatest ability, you can understand why healthy eating is so important.
The food that you eat will affect your performance. If you want to be able to focus and reduce the time wasted at work, start by making good food choices.
3 Cognitive Benefits of Eating Healthy
Understand how your brain can function on levels you didn't even know possible when you eat healthily.
- Stabilizes Your Mood: When your gut is balanced with good and bad bacteria, your brain can better balance your happy feelings and decrease the times you feel sad.
- Promotes Positive Outlook: Serotonin and dopamine are two chemical substances that travel to the brain to produce feelings of happiness and positivity. When you eat good foods, the pathway is clear to communicate these messages.
- Improves Ability to Focus: Eating healthy reduces feelings of tiredness or discomfort, allowing you to hone in on the work you need to complete in a day.
Take care of your body and your brain by making healthy food choices.
Nutrition and Brain Health
Keep your mind focused on making good decisions and following your intuition throughout the day when you are properly fueled.
Each time you sit down to take a break, think about how your snack will fuel your body and whether it is good for your brain health.
The Power of Food on Cognitive Performance
Consider the last time you led a meeting. If you were to have brain fog as a leader in a meeting, you could send the wrong impression to employees and potential clients.
Set yourself up for success by choosing foods that will bring mental clarity and focus to the task at hand. This may include a hardy breakfast with vegetables and eggs or a salmon salad for lunch.
On the other hand, if you are a new employee trying to set the right impression on your colleagues, you want to be on point during meetings and brainstorming sessions.
Fuel your body with food that will contribute to brain health.
Fight your afternoon fatigue and increase your cognitive performance by drinking water and eating chopped avocados and tomatoes.
How Is Stress Related to Work Performance
Sometimes stress can be a good thing, kicking your mind into gear to meet a deadline. But you can make matters worse when you handle stress by making poor food choices.
How Does Food Affect Stress?
Instead, choose foods that promote physical and mental performance.
For example, if you reach for nuts and fruit during a break at work while under a stressful deadline, the healthy fats and antioxidants will only work in your favor.
Use stress as a motivator and stay consistent on eating healthy and making sensible choices during a stressful work day.
How Do I Start Eating Green?
Conducting an entire pantry overhaul can feel unreachable. So how do you completely change your eating habits to start eating green?
It doesn't have to happen all at once. Instead, you can make small choices each day that will lead you toward a path of mental clarity and work efficiency.
Where to Start When Trying to be Healthy
Make your new eating regime as easy as possible.
For example, you might plan a few meals per week and have a healthy salad that you could grab on your way out the door each morning.
Or you can start by bringing healthy snacks to share at work. Promote eating green and better work efficiency for the whole office.
When you change the office culture of snacking, it will be easier to make better eating choices yourself.
Add More Healthy Eating Habits
Identify your weakness by eating green. For example, if you are a late-night snacker, begin by adding healthy choices.
For example, berries in your charcuterie board are a great addition.
According to Inc.com, "Antioxidant-rich foods, like berries, are excellent for increasing memory, both to improve memory function in the workplace and to prevent Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in the future. As a general rule of thumb, the darker the berry is, the higher antioxidant property it contains, which means it has more productivity-boosting ingredients."
Or you can replace a bowl of ice cream with Greek yogurt, honey, and berries.
How Long Does it Take to Build a Habit?
The best part about building a habit is that you do not have to be perfect around the clock.
But you do need to give yourself grace and return to making healthy choices.
It can take 21 days to build a habit, but eating healthy requires a series of choices to be better for the rest of your life.
Quotes for Eating Healthy
Learn from the experts why eating green is the way to go.
A LinkedIn article details, "The WHO (World Health Organization) reports that healthy food can raise your productivity levels by 20%, while numerous other peer-reviewed studies from around the globe have shown that eating unhealthy foods can cause up to a 66% loss in productivity in the workplace."
Everyday Power puts it simply, "Just like a car needs the right fuel to operate efficiently, your body needs the right foods to run smoothly too."
There is no doubt that healthy eating will benefit your mind and body. So what are you waiting for?
Additional Benefits of Healthy Eating
In addition to improving work efficiency, you will see overall health benefits when you choose better foods for your body.
These benefits may include the following:
- Better Sleep: When you stay away from sugar and fried foods, your body is relaxed and ready to fall asleep at a reasonable time.
- Improved Digestion: You will feel more comfortable throughout the day because your body processes whole foods more easily. Bloating, diarrhea, and constipation will decrease as you balance your gut by eating green.
- Decreased Chance of Chronic Illness: Eating foods that do not contribute to inflammation gives you a better chance of avoiding diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer's.
- Better Skin: Your skin will stay nourished and clear as you minimize sugar and fat in your diet.
- More Energy to Exercise: You will notice a surge of energy worthy of celebration. You can get out for your evening walk or practice yoga during a break without feeling depleted of energy.
The food you eat each day could change your life for the better. You deserve to treat yourself to a healthier, more fulfilled life.
Work Efficiency and Productivity Are Directly Tied to Your Diet
Take a look at how you feel during your work day and if you think your eating habits could improve.
When you choose to improve your diet by eating green, you will surely notice an increase in your work efficiency.
A healthy diet is a great start to improving your work life balance. Another key factor is beginning each day on the right foot. For that, check out The 5 AM Club: Transform Your Work-Life Balance.