Worker Bee is Back!

Now that classes have started up again, the Worker Bee series is back!

Welcome to the series – a feature that highlights food bloggers who are also full-time working professionals.

There are many days where I feel like I can’t fit it in, so I look to other bloggers for inspiration and guidance. This series is a way to see what some of our favorite bloggers do for a living along with how they incorporate healthy living!

Special thanks to Meghan from Travel Eat Love, who is this week’s Bee. She sent her information to me back in December and graciously waited until I was back in school for her feature. Without further ado….

1) What is your profession? I work as a Marketing Communications Manager in the publishing industry. I am responsible for all web, print, and email communications as well as advertising and public relations for my company.

2) Did you see always see yourself in that field? As an English major in college and someone who has always loved to write, I wasn’t sure what was out there other than careers in journalism. Marketing Communications wasn’t what I exactly planned on, but it offers a very close match to types of things that interest me, especially the social media and public relations portions of the field.

3) Does your day job incorporate healthy living? Not at all! I am not exaggerating when I say I worked every single day (7 days a week) from May until September without a day off. I rarely have time to take a lunch and often find myself working evenings so it is difficult to take time away from the computer.

4) If so, how? If not, how do you incorporate healthy living into your job? Incorporating healthy living despite my busy schedule is crucial because I know that the healthier I am, the better I feel and the more productive and happy I am on a daily basis. I try to take the stairs to my 10^th floor office whenever possible, and I belong to a gym just a few blocks away. Last spring, I also started walking 2.8 miles each way to and from work which added a lot of movement into my day, woke me up in the morning, and helped me to de-stress at night.

Meal planning is also incredibly important. I work in a building with many expensive, unhealthy options so grocery shopping and packing several meals and snacks keeps me full, satisfied and healthy. I usually have yogurt, almonds, fruit, salad, cartons of low sodium soup, and energy bars on hand to tide me over, in addition to whatever lunch I prepare for each day.

5) Can you provide readers with any tips on how to balance healthy living and working? What are some tricks you’ve picked up along the way? One big tip is to plan ahead as far as food goes. We have all been in the position where we are working late or miss lunch because of a meeting. It is so easy to act out of hunger and lack of time, but if you have something healthy on hand you will have no trouble staying on a healthy eating path.

I also try to work movement into every day. I mentioned taking the stairs, but I also like to do triceps dips in my chair (when no one is looking!), taking a brisk, short walk when possible, walking down to the end of the office rather than emailing all of the time, and doing calf raises when waiting for the copier or printer. It all adds up, and I find that just moving around, and especially getting outside, boost my energy like nothing else.

6) Where do you see yourself in 10 years? In 10 years I would love to be working in Marketing or Public Relations for a beautiful winery! Wine and food are two of my ever growing passions, and in a perfect world I would be able to combine the pieces of my profession that I am most interested in with my favorite outside of work passions!

If you’re interested in being featured as a Worker Bee, please email me at onalobsterplacemat AT gmail DOT com.