Meetings may be productive time for your business team (or maybe not so much in some cases,) but they probably aren’t doing your health any favors. Instead of sitting for an hour chowing down on conference room donuts, bring these simple changes to your meetings to boost energy and brain power, foster teamwork and accountability, reduce aches and pains, jumpstart your metabolism, and enjoy many other health benefits.
1. Take a walk.
For smaller groups in areas with safe walking areas or paths, hit the pavement for a fat-burning, brain-feuling stroll. For improved focus on the agenda, keep your smartphones in your pockets and have a designated notetaker record important information and decisions on a notepad or voice recorder. Bonus benefit: While walking and sitting in meetings may separately feel like dull, time-slowing tasks, doing the two together will help the time go by faster. Just don’t forget comfortable walking shoes!
2. Ditch the sweets for nutrient-dense snacks.
Treat your body right with simple snack substitutes: fruit, yogurt, granola bars, popcorn, chips with fresh salsa, or nuts. Lunch meeting? Choose healthy restaurants (and get bonus points for walking there!) or select healthy catered meals full of vegetables, lean proteins and whole grains. Have an office kitchen with a blender? Try smoothies with low-fat frozen yogurt and fruit.
For more extensive healthy meeting food and activity ideas, check out American Cancer Society Workplace Solutions Meeting Well Guidebook.
3. Swap the soda for smarter beverages.
Don’t stock the fridge with soda, energy drinks or bottled coffees. Instead, opt for water, tea, 100% fruit and vegetable juices, or fresh-brewed coffee with skim milk. Bonus tip: Encourage every meeting attendee to drink at least 8 oz. of water before the meeting is over. Proper hydration and swapping artificially-sweetened sodas for better options can make a world of difference with how your body functions and feels throughout the day.
4. Mix up break time with group activity.
Break up longer meetings with re-energizing 10-minute activity sessions. Walk up and down several flights of stairs, take a lap or two around your building, hand-deliver a piece of interoffice mail, change locations between agenda items, anything that keeps you moving instead of sitting and staring at your smartphone. You could even get active together as a group right in your conference room with BMI’s 5 Office Exercises to Prevent Aches and Pains!
5. Boost brainpower by banning screens.
Studies show smartphones, laptops and other mobile devices can be distracting during meetings and cause eye strain over long periods of time. Going screen-free during your meetings may help improve focus, increase participation and ease eye strain. Take it one step further and try occasionally going without presentation screens; Try paper or chalk presentation boards or even Pictionary-type games to help practice your verbal and visual presenting and interaction skills without digital aids.
By working together and maximizing your meeting times, you and your coworkers can see personal health benefits accelerated by teamwork and accountability. Try one of these tips at your next meeting!
Body Mechanix, Inc. specializes in ergonomics, injury prevention and physical therapy. BMI provides on-site ergonomics analyses, workplace injury prevention programs, and other services to companies across the US.