PTCL Holds a Session on Healthier Lifestyle for Office Workers

A healthier lifestyle is a must in today’s exceedingly hectic and busy way of life. Usually, the first thing we compromise is health when we make food choices during the day. Sometimes it may be due to lack of knowledge or sheer laziness, other times it can just be the convenience of junk food, instead of healthier options.

To kick start the New Year on a healthy note, PTCL organized a session on ‘The Importance of Nutrients for a healthier and happier life’, which was largely attended by employees and was broadcasted live through Facebook@Work.

 

Dr. Nosheen Abbas, who is a certified nutritionist and an expert consultant, gave a talk on the importance of eating healthier, physical & mental health, workplace obesity and stress eating. The idea behind the session was to create awareness on what is a healthy lifestyle and how to identify unhealthy eating habits. The best way to start being healthy is to control portions that you eat by taking a smaller plate, next you need to cut down on coffee, tea & fizzy drinks, complemented by physical activity like brisk walking, etc.

The nutritionist emphasized on a healthy work environment that includes taking mini breaks after every 2 hours, avoiding eating lunch at work desk, encouraging group lunches where teams can bring home cooked food, managing work stress, availability of healthy snacks at vending machines at work, listening to your body demands and most importantly, eating on set timings for a healthier lifestyle.

Ahmed Jalal, EVP, HR Operations, PTCL, shared his experience of starting a healthy lifestyle that enabled him to control high cholesterol level through increased physical activity, eating healthy and avoiding fatty foods. He also highlighted the need to have a stress free work environment and how PTCL is taking steps like arranging this session to ensure a healthy and happy workplace for its employees.

Another significant learning from the session was that nutrient is not ‘One size fits all’ as everybody has unique nutritional needs. If you want to lose weight, random diet plan downloaded from the internet or advised by a friend is not the right way to go about losing your weight.

An estimated 40 million people in Pakistan suffer from High Blood Pressure, 32 million from heart-related diseases, 24 million from obesity, 18 million from High Cholesterol, and 8 million from diabetes and about 50 million from Mental Disorder.

Alarming as it is, every disease in one way or another is associated with our eating habits. Any fat diet can take its toll on the body leading to multiple health issues if a proper diet plan is not being followed. To achieve a healthier lifestyle and learn how our mind and body are connected to our eating habits, one must develop a healthy diet plan in consultation with a health professional, who can advise on the nutrient value and provide a diet plan that is suited to an individual’s lifestyle.

At the end of the ceremony, there was an interactive Q&A, where most of the questions were answered pertaining to eating healthy, increase in water intake, workplace stress management and the advantages of physical activity.  A stall was also set up for PTCL employees for checking Body Mass Index (BMI), followed by consultancy and sharing of customized diet plans.