Is healthy eating in the home office particularly easy or particularly difficult? In my opinion: particularly easy. Find out why I think so in this episode.
Among other things, I talk about

• what are the stumbling blocks to healthy eating when working from home
• what general principles there are if you want to eat a gut-friendly diet
• what tips I have for healthy eating in the home office
• Specific recipe ideas

You can listen to the episode here:

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Gut-healthy nutrition explained from the perspective of nutrition in the home office

Today I would like to talk about nutrition again. And specifically about healthy eating in the home office.I'm always amazed when podcast listeners ask me what I recommend in terms of nutrition, because I have the feeling that I've talked about this many times before and it should actually be clear to everyone. But apparently not!

That's why I would like to use the example of "home office" to explain the basics of the Gut Happiness Formula, or rather the Gut Happiness nutrition philosophy.

Nutrition is just one of the 5 steps within the Gut Happiness Formula, if you want to hear more about the whole formula, I recommend listening to podcast episode 36:

https://arktisbiopharma.ch/darmglueck-folge-036/

A few months ago, I was interviewed by the online magazine Digestio about healthy eating in everyday life. I was asked a question that I honestly hadn't thought about before. And that was the question: In recent months, many people have had to work from home. What opportunities and risks do you see in this development for health?

[caption id="attachment_11979" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Graphic by Julia Gruber (@juliagruberart on Instagram), inspired by Cube W3 (@cube.w3)[/caption]

Challenges regarding "healthy eating in the home office"

For me, working from home has been completely normal for a few years now and I love it. It suits me perfectly. But after thinking for a while about what working from home can mean in terms of nutrition, I've become aware of the potential stumbling blocks:

• The distance to the kitchen is very small and so you might snack more often in between
• You're tempted to turn on the TV when you're eating
• You are so engrossed in your work that you forgets to eat
• You eat in front of the computer because you don't want to waste time
• You don't want to take the time to cook and would rather throw a frozen pizza in the oven

Apart from food, there are of course other problems, such as not going out, not being able to talk to others and feeling lonely, being easily distracted by Facebook and YouTube etc. etc.
Look at the good side of things. If you do the math correctly, I assume that you can easily save 1 hour a day because you don't have to drive anywhere (i.e. there and back added together) You can put this extra hour to good use for your health by cooking healthy meals or perhaps doing a little stretching during your lunch break or meditating at the end of the day.
I think the fact that you can cook for yourself and don't have to rely on canteen food or take-away is a big plus. This means you can take good care of your body yourself and eat healthily every day.
I also think it's positive that you can create a healthy working environment and have control over whether you have any sweets, snacks or sweet drinks around. Many people find it particularly difficult to eat healthily when colleagues live out their unhealthy habits and you don't want to be the only one swimming against the tide. At home, you can do your thing without being teased or even asked to make an exception.

It depends on the "why"

The basic prerequisite for eating healthily at home, in your home office, is that you want to do it in the first place and know why it is important to you. That would be step one of the Gut Happiness Formula.
You'll find lots of episodes here on the podcast about why gut health is important, what it means if you're constantly spiking your sugar levels and why gut health is so important if you want to be fit and productive.
I would recommend episode 27 of my podcast, for example, which is called Why Gut Health and Nutrition Are So Important in the First Place
https://arktisbiopharma.ch/darmglueck-folge-027/

So, now that you know why nutrition is important, or rather, if you've decided that you want to eat healthily in your home office, let's finally get to the specific tips I want to give you in this episode!

Recommendations for a gut-healthy diet

My recommendation for a gut-healthy diet is, as you may already know:
Eat natural foods, i.e. no industrial food, eat only three times a day if possible because the body and especially the digestive organs need breaks between meals, lots of vegetables, preferably cooked for the sake of the gut! Eat little sugar, not too much fruit and above all not too many fast carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, rice, etc. And drink enough water. That's actually it.
If you If you have had intestinal problems for a long time, I recommend that you give up cereals, cow's milk products and sugar completely; with the recipes that I will give you later, this will work without any problems.
Now, if you want to implement this in your home office, I recommend you:

1. Make a weekly plan of what you want to eat and when. The plan is not set in stone, but you don't have to think about what to eat every day, it makes shopping easier and allows you to cook twice as much, thus minimizing the effort. What's more, you're much less likely to spontaneously reach for fast food or convenience food if you had something else planned.
2. Make it as simple as possible. You don't have to choose 5 different types of vegetables, exotic spices or elaborate preparation methods if you want to cook healthily. I deliberately use only a few ingredients per meal, but you can still make the dish interesting and tasty with herbs or spices. You'll have cooked so much faster and do your digestion some good if you keep it as simple as possible. I'll give you a few specific meal ideas later.
3. Don't leave snacks lying around. Decorate your home in a "healthy" way by putting up a bowl of apples, for example, or hanging up a picture that reflects your health.
4. Find stress compensation methods that you can use if you've just been annoyed by an email, don't know how to solve a problem or have just missed an important assignment. Eat
5. Build breaks into your day, maybe arrange with someone who also works from home for you to take a break together and talk on Zoom or the phone. But don't forget to go outside, get some fresh air and get some exercise.
6. Drink enough water. The rule of thumb is: 30-35ml per kilogram of body weight. So if you weigh 60 kilos, for example, that's 1.8 to 2 liters. And that really should be water. You can also include unsweetened tea and black coffee, but that doesn't count as water.

The better organized you are and the more you involve your whole environment, the easier it will be for you to eat healthily. Now I'd like to give you a few specific suggestions on what you can eat when working from home.

Specific tips and recipes for your home office diet

In the morning

Breakfast is probably almost the most difficult thing for many people to implement according to my tips, because breakfast traditionally includes dairy products, wheat and sugar.
A very simple thing, but admittedly not for everyone, is to eat leftovers from dinner the next morning.
Muesli gluten-free and sugar-free
You can prepare your own muesli mix with various nuts and coconut oil. Then simply add coconut yoghurt or, depending on your tolerance, sheep's milk, goat's milk or even Enjoy cow's milk yoghurt
Something with eggs. Scrambled eggs. Broth with egg. Egg muffins. You can find great recipes for this in Paleo books, for example, or on Paleo websites such aswww.paleo360.de

As a plant-based alternative:
Tofu scrambled eggs
I'm not a big soy fan, but I wanted to mention it for the sake of completeness.

Other ideas:

Gluten-free pancakes
Mandelade muesli

For lunch or dinner:

Bean dip or even hummus with veggies (I don't recommend legumes for everyone, but if you're healthy no problem): Vegetable sticks with bean dip

Scrambled eggswith vegetables inside. Super quick and filling. You can also experiment with different spices; egg tastes delicious with curry, for example.
Oven vegetables from the tray:The practical thing is that you can put them in the oven and continue working while they are cooking. You can also make a large quantity and eat some warm and some cold at another time.
Detox soup or chickpea soup or pumpkin soup, or or or or. Soups are great. You can also make a larger quantity of these, which is enough for several times. For satiety, it's important that there's a good portion of protein in it, e.g. pulses, or you can add an egg, some meat or fish or some cheese if you can tolerate it.
The homemade chicken stock recipe is also great.
Boiling the bones enriches the soup with collagen and glutamine, so it's also good if you have a permeable gut. Plus, it's something you can put on briefly once and then do something else in peace while it simmers. You can then use the broth for other soups, eat the meat separately or in the broth, just as you like.

My favorite kitchen gadgets

As I often have to cook quickly because, in addition to my full-time job, I also take the dog out three times a day and go to the gym three times a week, I got help in the form of food processors. They really make things a lot easier and I think that's a huge advantage of working from home. I can get some work done while they're cooking. My favorite appliances are:

1. The Thermomix Many people smile at it, but it's still one of my favorite appliances because it's so versatile and more or less does it all by itself. cooks. I particularly like to use it for soups or anything I want to cook in steam. Even fish or meatballs, for example. And recently we've also been using it to make yogurt. You may remember the last podcast episode with Paul from Fairment. After talking to him, I ordered starter cultures for yogurt. And the best thing is, they also have some for vegan yogurts. You can find the link to the Fairment store at www.gruber-ernaehrung.ch/paul

1. The Instant Pot is both a pressure cooker and a slow cooker. So far I've only tried slow cooker things, it's really brilliant for bone broth, chicken soup, pulled pork, goulash, all kinds of stews. And you can really put all the ingredients in there in the morning and by the time everyone gets home in the evening, the meal is ready.

1. And I recently got a hot-air fryer from my mother when I moved house. In my opinion, a deep fryer is a misleading name because it's more like a small oven. I was skeptical at first, but now I'm thrilled because things like oven vegetables are prepared much faster in it than in the oven, for example, because it doesn't need any time to preheat.

Finally, I would like to say: don't try to do everything perfectly. Listen to your body and don't use food to compensate for stress or frustration. Instead, nourish it well. And if you do that, then it doesn't matter if you don't eat perfectly healthy.
Normally: 3 meals a day, lots of vegetables, only real food and lots of water. However, especially around Christmas time, you might eat a few cookies, have a mandarin in between or enjoy a mulled wine with your partner in the evening. It's all ok!
Ah, one more thing: if you need a snack despite everything, then I like to reach for nuts. However, enjoy them consciously and slowly, don't snack on the side at the computer. Or now in winter, kale chips are also great, you can find the recipe for these on my blog. And you could certainly also prepare them in a hot air fryer: Kale chips

I hope I've been able to give you a better understanding of what I mean by a gut-friendly diet!
I wish you a Merry Christmas and look forward to hearing from you again in the old year. My plan for the last episode of 2020 is to summarize a few highlights from this year and give you a little outlook for the coming year.
See you then!