I read an article a while back about how your spouse or significant other can drastically affect your good and bad habits. Makes sense, right? If your sweetie is going to the gym, you’re more likely to tag along. On the flip side to that, if your darling honey bear likes to eat out and eat often, you are more likely to follow suit.

So what about the people that you spend 40 hours a week or more with? How much influence do they have on your habits? Here at Imulus, we have 10 employees. So, needless to say, we’re a pretty tight knit group. We all go out to eat together on Fridays, and some of us go out to eat every day.

It’s especially difficult to refuse the lunch invite considering the fact that most of us exercise the use of peer pressure. I can’t count how many times someone has brought their lunch and has been talked out of eating it. This is, of course, a compliment to the victim of said peer pressure. We like spending time with each other and taking an hour out of our day to relax and shoot the shit.

This could present a problem. Especially if the choice of Big City Burrito arises. However, as aforementioned, this can also cause a positive impact on your co-workers when so many of them are advocates for health and fitness.

When you are surrounded by people who are often talking about which foods are good for you, (our accountant used to be a nutritionist for goodness sake!) you can’t help but let it seep into your brain – try as you might. Not only that, but Imulus provides breakfast foods every Monday morning which usually lasts us the whole week. Instead of the breakfast burritos or the bagels with cream cheese, we now have fruits and bread. This sets the tone for the rest of the day by eating a piece of toast and an apple.

Not only that, but just by working in Boulder, Colorado I feel the influence of being a healthier individual. Boulder has such a variety of different healthy restaurants, eating healthy even when you’re eating out is much easier.

Plus, every (that’s right, every) employee of Imulus is active. When your boss always uses his lunch break to go work out, it’s hard not to be influenced.

Moral of the story? Not sure. I guess what you can take away from this is try to ignore those bad habits of your employees. Maybe you’ll break the mold and be a good influence on them. If not, at least you’ll look hot.