Inspiring Healthy Lifestyles Around The World… Starting At The Cubic
Dephion is the health and wellbeing group—which means we have super healthy habits ourselves, right? Well, we’re also human. Most of us anyway. Sorry, Cara.
A physician walks into The Cubic. Do the screens everywhere displaying showtime slides catch her attention? Sure. Do the smells coming from the kitchens make her stomach rumble for some food? Of course. But her training allows her to see something else most of us do not: how well we care for ourselves.
“I’m a physician with a specialization in internal medicine.” That would be our colleague Louise. Her medical background is a well-known fact around the office, but let’s go through it here anyway for those who don’t know her yet. “At the beginning of my career, I worked as a family doctor and was responsible for overseeing the health of 3,000 people. Later, I decided to do a residency in internal medicine. Therefore, I have quite some experience dealing with chronic diseases that a lot of people handle daily, such as diabetes or hypertension. I also have experience with acute and more serious cases of the same diseases, such as stroke and heart attacks. Seeing all the phases and faces of those epidemic illnesses, made me more and more interested in lifestyle medicine.”
So, even though she doesn’t walk around the office wearing a white coat and a stethoscope around her neck, let there be no doubt that she knows her stuff… and our stuff.
Exactly. Get ready for a truth bomb. You might want to sit down before reading this.
“Looking at the office I would say that the number one mistake is probably being sedentary.”
Actually, stand up to keep reading this. “If you walk around, you will see almost everyone sitting the whole day. In addition, most of us are either gamers or programmers. Between hobbies and work, we get a lot of screen time and more hours sitting at home or on holidays.”
What a punch to the gut. But, it’s not our fault! We have office jobs!
“We all have desks allowing us to work in front of a computer while standing, but you won’t see people using them.”
Rats! She’s got a point there.
“Some good role models, where people use this feature more and more, could normalize their use.”
Any volunteers? Come on, stand up. Perhaps we should set up a timer. Maybe we should all get smartwatches that remind us to stand up every hour… no? It was worth a try.
Louise recognizes that Dephioneers often engage in activities like yoga, soccer, basketball, and others. The positive impact on our health from these initiatives should not be underestimated (plus, they are so much fun). Besides, that’s the only thing we need to work on, surely…
“Look, I’m not the food police. I think that as long there is balance, there is nothing wrong with having some sweets or a hamburger occasionally…”
Phew!
“...but we celebrate almost every birthday with sweets… these are too many sweets—without even mentioning the candies that are there every day.”
Okay, now she’s gone too far! Raise your torches and pitchforks! Are we expected to celebrate special occasions with… with… fruit?!
Fine! That looks delicious! Still, that remains the personal choice of the birthday person.
“Maybe a good way to keep the Limburg tradition of having vlaai would be to bring it into the office just once per month.”
Could we survive like that? Technically, we’re likely to survive longer by heeding her advice. And to anyone thinking, “but that’s no way to live!”, don’t be a drama queen. Bring down the torches and the pitchforks, everyone.
“I’m not proud of my diet, but I have the feeling that I’m not so out of balance. Although I do eat sweets and fast food, I am dedicated the ensure my one-year-old has a diverse and healthy diet. In turn, mine has also improved. In other words, I eat the same food that she eats. Being a good role model for my daughter has motivated me to improve my own habits.”
That’s something that a lot of us can relate to.
In the end, Louise isn’t here to chide us. “It’s way easier to say what one should do than to do it yourself,” she admits. We asked her to tell us what she saw at The Cubic and she did. What we are doing right, like activities and having standing desks, and what we need to work on… like actually using the desks and going easy on the sweets when we have healthier options available. The truth is that we’re no different from the people we are trying to help with our work. And, we can definitely learn from our own app and from our colleagues how to take better care of our health and wellbeing. So, thank you, and please give Louise a standing ovation.
