I joined Cominos Family Lawyers in January 2017! It was the first time in my working career (although not a long one) where I immediately felt a sense of support and well-being.
Pamela Cominos my boss (really my mentor) – runs Australia’s first and only Healthy Divorce Practice.
What does that mean, I hear you ask?
Simply it means that she focuses on our mental, physical and emotional well-being at work. Working with Pamela has given me confidence not only in my mental strength but my physical strength too.
This article focuses of how I have gained physical awareness and strength.
Eat with Health in mind!
I had never taken to a fad diet, I instead believed in the “everything in variety” approach. Thankfully my metabolism could keep up with this varied diet. So it wasn’t until I started working at Cominos Family Lawyers, where healthy eating was encouraged did I see how beneficial regularly eating good foods was for my body and my performance at work.
From my very first day the work fridge was stocked with salads, vegetables, fruits, nuts, brown rice and fish. There were no biscuits, chocolates or sugary snacks to be found.
I mean Grilled Burgers and Guzman & Gomez were just across the road, but I was encouraged by Pamela to help myself to the food generously stocked in the kitchen – so I did. And like all humans who are creatures of habit, I helped myself to the fridge for the next year or so and still do to this day.
I mean it was great, free lunch every day at work, and I even could choose what we could put in the fridge – as long as it was “healthy”. So, I would buy all sorts of foods like figs, coleslaw, smoked salmon, yoghurt, oats and everything you would generally find in those so called healthy food books.
The food was good, no more fatty, sugary meals I would usually have at lunch or snack on during the day – and with all the information we receive about healthy eating I knew it was good for me!
What I found though, was that I began to only eat similar healthy foods when I was at home or out and about. It was as if eating such good food at work repeatedly, encouraged me, and got me in the habit of only wanting good and healthy foods.
I would then look at the so called “naughty” foods such as burgers, pizzas, chocolate and ice cream as treats and wouldn’t generally feel the need or want to have them every day as much as I used to.
Exercise with Health in mind!
In addition, Pamela promotes exercise on a regular basis- she has engaged a personal trainer and we train with her at least a minimum of once a week. We are also encouraged to participate in fun runs and walks throughout the year!
I haven’t been that much of a gym junkie or the athletic type, so the training was hard, but exercising with my colleagues and Pamela was a lot of fun, we would find ourselves laughing, encouraging each other and even taking out our frustrations on the day in the exercises.
I would always feel good after the workouts and found that like my eating I was getting in the habit of going outdoors and doing more exercise during the week.
I started to walk to work instead of catching the bus and asking my friends if we could go on adventure walks or go rock climbing or do more active things together on the weekend.
A year later and I was at the beach with my cousins who hadn’t seen me in a while and they mentioned that I looked really fit and toned. I couldn’t believe it – I mean I have always been slim, but no one has ever told me I looked fit – or even toned for that matter!
I may not have dedicated myself to a so-called fad diet and counted every single calorie or banned my favourite foods or spent hundreds on a gym membership, but I noticed that starting with the little things, like Pamela always providing great foods at work and the option to work out with her for free has enough to encourage and get me in the habit of eating well and exercising more.
Sure I still have my chocolate stashed away in my 3rd drawer at work and spend some nights watching Netflix but overall I do believe that it was implementing little habits at the beginning like eating a good lunch every day at work and going to work out with your colleagues once a week that has truly made a difference to my lifestyle and it is noticeable not just to me. With eating well and exercising I found my performance at work change and improve as well.
I find I am more alert, have more energy and am a lot less stressed
I would encourage anyone, to start doing the little things that promote a healthy lifestyle at work and see how the repetitive behaviour due to doing them at work Monday Friday and you will naturally start to prefer and do more healthy eating and activity.
Healthy doesn’t have to be pricey – if you don’t have Pamela as your boss or mentor you can instead buy fresh salads and fruits or ask your colleagues to do something fun and active you can do every now and then and see what happens.
Can’t wait for our next healthy approach to our work- Pamela is committed to meditation and yoga….