Managing Diets

This post is cross-posted at Routeam.com.

The Federal Government traditionally does not concern itself with the health and diets of its employees. This is changing here and there, but it is still not a part of the work culture in the way that it is in many leading private companies. I think that needs to change.

When your employees are not healthy, they’re not productive. So, I make it a point to provide tips and resources to my employees that will promote healthy eating. I don’t force the issue and don’t recommend forcing anything on your employees, but I am very clear in drawing the link between things like skipping breakfast, or eating wheat or grains for lunch, or drinking sugary drinks, and lower productivity.

This happened recently during a 4:00 p.m. meeting I had with a young employee. She started the meeting by complaining.

“I’m so tired,” she said.

“Really?” I asked, feeling very energetic myself. “What did you eat for breakfast?” I asked.

“I didn’t eat breakfast,” she said.

“What did you have for lunch?” I asked.

“A sandwhich [with bread] and a Mountain Dew,” she replied.

“You’re tired because of what you ate, and what you didn’t eat,” I stated bluntly. “You did that to yourself, so don’t complain to me about being tired.”

Once I fixed my diet by going Paleo, I no longer have any energy problems at work. It’s amazing and I love it beyond words. Naturally, I recommended it to my employee. If you’re having energy problems, I recommend it to you as well.

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