Dietary Guidelines for Working Women and Men Executives

A sedentary job with long hours is dangerous from the health point of view. One cannot say, "there is no time for exercise in my life". I seem to be hearing it from most young people who are throwing themselves into their careers and offering to work up to 9-10 pm, both men and women. This can be very detrimental for your health. In the course of my work, most of those who are doing this show very low metabolic rates and are rapidly gaining weight.

During my counselling work, I have met many in their late 20s and early 30s who have developed heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc. and I believe the main factors contributory to this are long working hours, stress at work and unhealthy eating habits. In the olden days, people worked till 5 or 6 pm but today it is 9 or 10 pm and even midnight or 2 am in multinational companies. In those days, health problems arose in 50 or 60 year olds. Today it is in the 20 and 30 year olds. People have to choose between health and wealth.

Hope for those without time to spare

When you are thinking of weight control, you may see it as an hour of working out at a gym or aerobics class which will then cut off about 2 hrs. of your day to get there, then get back, shower and get to work. This is OK for those who have the time for it. Here's some good news. We are finding tremendous success from a system where you take a brisk walk for 25-30 minutes daily. ( all 7 days of the week) What we have found is that doing this very regularly can keep you fit and also give you a steady weight loss.

This can be done at any time of the day, either early morning, 10 or 11am and any time between 4 to 8pm. Only it must be done all 7 days of the week. What I would suggest is that if you are working till 9-10 pm then try to take a 25-30minutes break at 6 pm and get a brisk walk around your building or in the nearest park and get back to work. Please let me inform you that you can never lose weight without combining all the 3 of the following:-

• Walk -25-30 minutes
• Water- 2-3 liters
• Diet - Eat regular balanced meals, eat plenty of fiber & cut out fatty food.

Another dangerous habit is eating late at night and retiring to sleep soon after. There should be at least a gap of 2 hours between dinner and bedtime. In many cases where the husband comes home very late we see the wife waiting to eat with the husband. Here I would say that at least the women could eat earlier and prevent obesity. Men must make an effort to come home earlier and break this pattern of eating late as it heavily contributes to obesity. This habit combined with work pressure can lead to developing diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, raised cholesterol and triglyceride levels and finally, heart diseases.