“Health is the most important thing,” or “You don’t have anything, if you don’t have your health.” We’ve all heard these sayings, and if you’ve ever seen anyone in declining health, there is no better illustration of why this simple saying is also true. Being that health is a lifestyle, the better you can incorporate it into the different components of your life, the better health you’ll be able to build.
In our fast paced lives, that isn’t always easy. So while I try to shop for fresh, organic produce and proteins daily, every day doesn’t lend itself to preparing a well-balanced lunch. Even though there are days, when I take the time to slice up fresh avocado, and heap it on top of crunchy romaine lettuce and kale, there are also days when I’ve worked late and come in early, and never made it to the store in between. On those days, I couldn’t be happier about the machine standing in our company’s kitchen—the Byte vending machine.
Our Byte machine is filled with delicious, healthy fresh food options ready to go. They are there for you when you forget your lunch, have to work late, or because you simply want a selection of the kinds of healthy choices Byte provides.
What is considered healthy? Probiotic drinks, yerba mate tea selections, almond butter packets, fresh salads, wraps and bars, turkey avocado sandwiches, or even bone broth! Breakfast options, meals, salads, sandwiches and treats, right there in your very own kitchen. We’re often compelled to compromise health for convenience, but there’s something really cool about a health care company that genuinely cares about health. In our case, they care so much that they subsidize 30% of the cost of our bites. In turn, Byte shares employee participation metrics and productivity savings with our company so they can measure the value of using a Byte machine in our office, and so far, it seems to be paying off.
A byte is a unit of data that is commonly made up of eight binary digits. A byte is the smallest addressable unit of memory in a computer system. It is a deliberate respelling of bite to avoid accidental mutation to bit –which is fun to consider when you think of every little bit we put into our bodies making a difference.
That’s why it helps when you’re not alone in trying to create a healthy lifestyle. In our fast-paced and heavily technological lives, the options and influences around us make a difference. Though there are varying levels of healthy, it’s usually fairly easy to find the unhealthy choices since grocery stores and vending machines are filled with them.
The Diet Coke commercials featured on Super Bowl Sunday this year, seemed to take pride in diminishing the value of health under the auspicious veil of “just being you,” “doing what you want,” or the idea that “life is short,” (or it will be for you), ostensibly being rebellious. All of this in the face of the very real concern that artificially sweetened beverages may be linked with an increased risk of stroke and dementia, as well as the possibility that diet sodas may actually condition the body to expect calories—not even leaving us with what might have been a compelling argument that diet sodas can be used for weight loss.
Another 2015 study found that older women who consume two or more diet sodas per day are 30% more likely to suffer a cardiovascular event and 50% more likely to die from related diseases than women who rarely consume the drinks. It analyzed nearly 60,000 women aged 50 to 79 years.
If it’s true that health really is the most important thing, which I know we could talk about for hours, considering the also very valuable aspects of love, good fortune, meaningful work, etc. I’m beginning to understand why you can’t have any of those, if you don’t have your health, and why in fact, that might have become so prevalent a saying.
With so many messages trying to tell us not to worry about health or offer quick solutions to our problems, it’s nice to know when you’ve been working hard for a company that cares about your health, and your tank is pushing towards empty, you’re just a few steps away from a solution that you can feel good about. Every little bit helps.