The Importance of Lunch

Food is one of the best things that happened to man. It is both a necessity, a source of highly needed nutrition for our bodies, and a form of leisure. Lunch was placed in between work hours for a reason so we can get an hour to tend to our gastronomic needs and break away from tedious work. But some of the hard working people decide to consume their food in front of their desks, maybe to get more work done, or just enjoy a funny video while eating their home made sandwiches. The reason for these people to eat where they work can vary, but there are detrimental effects of eating at your desk.

Here are some of the pointers that prove the importance of lunch, and how you can make your place of work a lunch friendly location.

It’s a Break, so Break Away

Our whole body consumes energy. Even if we’re sitting down and doing nothing, our whole body is still chipping away at our energy pool. There is energy reserved for our muscles, bones, tendons, and ligaments, that keeps us moving, we can call this physical energy. Our brain uses psychological energy, which is utilized whenever we work or whenever we use our mind. When our body and our brain, expends our limited energy stores, it needs to rest for us to do more work. Lunch is important because it’s an optimal time for us to recover what we’ve used.

The question is, why not eat at your desk?

You see, your place of work, specially your desk is not really a relaxing space. And when we say break, really, break away and go outside. Take a short walk to a nice bench at the park, or find a quiet spot where you can eat your food in peace.  Detach yourself from a place that drains your energy and take that well deserved “me time”. After your relaxing meal, take the walk back and enjoy the light exercise, which also makes you happier because of the release of endorphins.

Be More Efficient

You might think that you’re getting more work done when you eat in front of your computer, but the truth is, the quality of your work suffers. We’ve already established that our brain needs to recharge, so if you still continue to work without replenishing your used up energy, most likely you’ll be less concentrated and sleepy. This is where you make mistakes and miss important details of whatever you are working on. Take that leisurely lunch break and come back more energized; your boss will thank you for it.

To end this article, here are some of ways on how to be more lunch break minded. Lunch meetings should be avoided. Don’t make a connection between food and business (unless you’re in the food business). Our minds have evolved to be reminded of things that are done at the same time, so it’s either you’ll get hungry while you work or despise eating food because it reminds you of work. And encourage your co-workers and your boss to take a full hour for lunch. Explain to them the benefits that you’ve read just now and how it will boost work output.