Celebrate World Health Day with Billi UK

World Health Day: How Are You Encouraging Health in the Workplace?

Full-time workers often spend 8 hours or more in the office each day. So it makes sense to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the office as well as at home. There’s no point eating salad for dinner and glugging water when you’re home, and then eating dozens of biscuits and only consuming coffee in the office. Health is all about balance; a balanced diet, a balanced amount of exercise and relaxation, and a balanced work/life balance.

World Health Day is a global health awareness day, sponsored by the World Health Organisation, or WHO. The aim of the day is to raise awareness about those who do not have access to quality health services. It focuses on universal health coverage, which is all about ensuring ‘all people and communities have access to quality health services where and when they need them’.

In celebration of World Health Day, we’re here to tell you how to maintain a healthy lifestyle, in work as well as at home.

A Healthy Diet

Eating and maintaining a healthy diet can go a long way towards your general health and wellbeing. By consuming a balanced diet, you are ensuring your body has the things it needs to operate effectively. Vitamins, nutrients and minerals are all consumed via food, so making sure you eat healthily will help you to feel your best.

According to the NHS, you should eat at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day and drink 5-8 glasses of water a day to stay healthy.

To try and meet these targets, why not try and incorporate fruit or veg into every meal. Here’s how we suggest breaking it down over the day.

Breakfast – For breakfast, try yoghurt, blueberries, and banana with granola. Have one cup of water when you wake up, and one cup of coffee when you get into the office. Use your Billi tap and make your coffee instantly, and start your day with a caffeine fix.

Snack – Have another glass of water and a handful of nuts as a morning snack. Keeping yourself hydrated is essential for your health. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, headaches and sluggishness.

Lunch – Rather than buying lunch when you’re out and about, attempt to prep your food the weekend or day before. This will save you money, and ensure you’re eating a healthy, balanced lunch. We love big greek salad boxes filled with tomatoes, olives, onion, salad leaves, feta, cucumber. This salad also includes 3 of your 5 a day! Have another glass of water with lunch.

Snack – For an afternoon snack, homemade protein/fruit/nut balls are great for slow releasing energy. If you feel a bit tired at this point in the afternoon, have a glass of squash with sparkling water from your Billi tap to perk you up.

Dinner – A healthy dinner should consist of a type of protein, a source of carbohydrates and vegetables. Try steamed salmon, and broccoli with a side of sweet potato mash accompanied by a glass of water.

Have another glass of water before bed, and without even realising, you’ve had all of your recommend fruit, veg and water for the entire day!

Hydration

Drinking enough water is essential for proper brain function and your overall health. The human body is made up of over 70% water – so if you become dehydrated (especially at work), your productivity will suffer. Migraines and headaches can both be a result of dehydration, which is why it’s so essential to have 5-8 glasses of water a day.

Having a Billi water system installed in your workplace will ensure that your team have access to fresh, filtered water whenever they need it. Encourage regular water breaks to ensure everybody is drinking enough water – go even further by providing each employee with a branded Billi glass water bottle to keep on their desk so they can monitor how much water they’ve drunk over the day.

Why not consider providing various types of squash, tea and coffee in your office kitchen to keep the choice of beverages varied. Nobody wants to drink 5 glasses of still water a day, so this keeps hydration tasty and interesting!

General Health & Wellbeing

Health goes far further than just diet and water though. This is just part of it. Mental health, fitness and wellbeing also contribute to general health.

The NHS suggests that everybody should undertake 30 minutes of exercise a day – which if you work in an office can be difficult to do. If you’re an office manager, why not think of ways to encourage movement in your workplace. A morning yoga class before everybody starts work could help promote mindfulness and wellbeing in the workplace, while also acting as a form of exercise for the day.

Lunchtime running clubs could also be introduced if you’re keen to keep people moving and get out from behind their desk.

These are just a handful of ways to promote health in the workplace. What are your top suggestions? We’d love to hear. Comment your suggestions below!