As I was riding the elevator down from my apartment this morning, a girl got on carrying her lunch with her. While this is pretty mundane, what wasn’t so normal about it were the contents: Two cans of lite Red Bull and a Lean Cuisine. I can honestly say that this is the first time that I’ve ever seen this combination, and it got me to thinking about an interesting workplace subject: How we seemingly work against ourselves on a daily basis.

This is a perfect example: While the Lean Cuisine suggests that she wants to eat healthier, the two cans of Red Bull indicate that because of her work schedule she needs that extra kick to keep her going. It’s a fact that long hours lead to less sleep, which is pretty unhealthy for you. Not to mention the fact that loading yourself up with caffeine drains your body quickly after the high wears off. In the end she’s probably just breaking even.

Another example could be working out on your lunch break, and then hitting up McDonalds to take back to your desk. What’s the point of working out if you’re just going to negate it immediately afterward? We do these things all the time at work and don’t even realize it.

The point is to take a minute and examine what your daily routines are. Are there places like the above example where you could shift the balance from break even to win? For example, maybe instead of McDonalds you pack a healthy lunch. There are going to be times when you just can’t help these kind of things, however if you have the opportunity to change your situation do it. There are enough factors working against us on a regular basis, you don’t need one of them to be yourself.

*Note: This is now the Red Bull and Lean Cuisine work corollary.