If You Don’t Feel Good, You Won’t Work Good! – The Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle for Work

As we begin to see the sun rise a little earlier and set a little late, we’re getting to a time when we start to see more and more pairs on legs running on the pathway or upon bicycles, as the ‘fitness freaks’ start to go out on their evening run. Bravo to all of you, we say!

There’s more than enough people spouting the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle – more energy, smaller clothes sizes, stronger muscles – the list goes on and on. There is less said about the success people find in their working life by making sure they look after their self.

That new lease of life you get from going to the gym a few times a week, the increased confidence you feel by fitting into those smaller pair of jeans, the higher concentration levels you find from having a decent night’s sleep. It’s all going to add up, not only to a better lifestyle, but to a better career.

A medical study released last year has said that, as the pace of the working world starts to catch up with us, living a healthy lifestyle can significantly reduce the risk of stress-related heart issues.

Researchers examined data from more than 102,000 men and women, aged 17 to 70, in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland. Their lifestyles were rated in one of three categories — healthy, moderately unhealthy or unhealthy — based on smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise/inactivity and obesity.

Nearly 16 percent of the participants reported job stress, but when lifestyle and work were factored together, the heart disease rate was 31.2 per 1,000 for people with job stress and an unhealthy lifestyle and about 15 per 1,000 for those with job stress and a healthy lifestyle.

So as we approach Le Grande Depart in July, maybe it’s time we start to get on our bike a bit more often instead of watching someone else doing it on TV!