Falling Asleep at Your Contracting Business? Here’s How Mealtime Can Help

A person cutting a piece of toast on a plate of food while holding a contractor license.

Does it feel like the workday drags on? Do you wish you could have energy that didn’t make you feel jittery or make it harder to focus? What you eat may make a difference. Although your diet isn’t the only way that you can reset your ability to work, it may affect your energy level in ways that you did not expect. Here are a few meal tips to consider for your construction workday.

Don’t Skip Breakfast
If you’re the kind of person who absolutely dreads waking up in the morning, it’s really easy to skip breakfast in favor of an extra 15 or 20 minutes of rest. While breakfast isn’t a suitable replacement for adequate sleep, a little extra sleep may not give you the benefits of breakfast. Your body needs nutrients in order to function, and you’ll have a hard time doing that if you haven’t eaten in 12 hours. Start your day by eating breakfast, even if it’s a small one. Protein and carbohydrates can help provide the energy you need to get to lunchtime without feeling like you need to eat everything.

Avoid Heavy Meals
If you’ve ever tried to build muscle, you know that the actions you take can affect the way your body rebuilds. Eating a heavy meal can create a similar situation. It’s not hard to imagine. The idea of people nodding off on the couch after eating a big Thanksgiving dinner is a part of pop culture. Eating food causes certain systems in your body to take control in order to metabolize it. The more you eat, the more your body has to work. That’s why experts recommend that you eat a filling meal but not so much food that you feel stuffed.

Balance Nutrients
The problem with a lot of trendy diets is that they emphasize one type of nutrient over another:

If you’re old enough, you can probably remember when everybody said that eating fat was harmful. Then there was a period where carbohydrates were considered bad. In fact, you need a balance of nutrients in order to keep going. Fat is a necessary part of a human diet for brain function. Carbohydrates help to provide energy. Protein helps you build and maintain muscle. With each meal and snack that you eat, try to get a balance of fat, carbs, and protein.

Remember to Hydrate
When you exercise, it’s common to drink about a cup of water every 15 to 20 minutes. Hydration is important for maintaining energy levels and minimizing injury. Since construction work tends to require a lot of hard, manual labor, you may want to treat it much like you would your workout routine. Be sure to drink water regularly, and consider adding drinks that help replace electrolytes if you’re working in the heat. It may make you feel full at first, so make sure to alternate it with meals instead of skipping them. Over time, you’ll notice your body getting used to it.

Follow a Routine
Human bodies like to have routines that they can follow. Your digestive system is no different. Just like you will be healthier if you can go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, your body will run better if you keep a predictable meal schedule. This means that if you want to change your habits, you may need to change them for every day, and not just for workdays. The good news is that a routine isn’t difficult to build if you commit to it. Three weeks of reasonable meals and snacks might be enough to make it feel like you’ve always done it this way.

 

Sticking to a reasonable diet may not seem like part of running a contracting business, but it is a great way to help ensure that you are ready to work each day. Like many aspects of construction, you just need practice. For more information about building your contracting career, contact CSLS today!