How many hours of a day do you
spend at work? Majority of our life is being used at work whether we want/like
or not. Therefore being at work became major part of our life. Current society
provides us comfortable and safe work places but focusing on efficiency and
productivity jailed us in a small space with limited movement. Working all day
with computer in a cubical tiny space discourages us to move and create an
unhealthy life style. Lack of movement can be a serious cause of obesity and it
can progress onto more serious life threatening diseases. So I would like to
share my thoughts on how to avoid these unfortunate outcomes.
1. Stand as many times as you can; Stand up or walk around as many times as possible
while you are working. A study from America shows standing needs 3 times more
energy than sitting so at least every 1 hour, try to stand up and stretch your
body and relax your mind. Try to walk around office and talk with co-workers.
It will help you to move and also get closer relationship with your co-workers.
Use the furthest printer so you can stand up and walk, and print each item separately
in order to stand up more often. Be aware of your lack of movement, and try to
maximise it. It would not sound like an exercise but it will create a healthy
habit at work.
2. Prepare your own lunch to avoid take away food; when you prepare your lunch, you can know/manage quality and quantity of the food. Most of fast food contains too much calories as they are focused on taste and speed, not health. I found that I most likely eat more than I eat normally when I eat out. So prepare your lunch box from home. It will make you eat less and healthy food, and also save your pocket.
3. Lunch time exercises such as gym classes, walking; I can see most of my co-workers have lunch on the desk and surfing internet most of their lunch time. You can utilise the time for getting fitter and healthier. There are many lunch classes are offered by gyms for workers. You can do 45 minutes exercise at lunch time which is widely recommended to keep healthy. If it is not convenient to you, walking with co-workers will also help you to get fit. Use your lunch break for a short exercise. I promise you that will make your working day much shorter and energetic.
4. No snacks while working/bring your own fruits; Avoid nibbling high calorie snacks while you are working. Such as pieces of chocolate, buttery cookies, lollies, etc. Quite often you do not realise how much you had and how much calories you consumed as you eat them without awareness. It can become a poor eating habit. If you need to eat between meals, have fruits instead. I always pack a couple of fruits with my lunch box and it helps me to control craving on sweets.
5. Watch out food at meetings; How many times you have regretted that you had too much and unhealthy food because it was served in the meetings. When you see variety types of delicious looking food served, you would find hard to control your desire to eat more. Do not forget that you do not move at all during the meeting and you consume more food. You can easily imagine the outcome. So be conscious what you can eat during the meetings. If it is possible you to suggest/prepare the meeting food, get lighter and healthy food.
6. Don’t use the lift use stairs; try to use stairs instead of lift. Main point is we need to MOVE more. How often do you use lift for walkable distance? We all tend to prefer the more efficient, but it seems to make our body getting lazier. Make a habit on using stairs it will help you to burn out quite a lot of calories.
7. Discuss health and wellbeing issues with colleagues and encourage each other; share your knowledge’s and news in health and well-being issues with co-workers. A couple of weeks ago, a colleague sent us an email about body fat measurement and diseases from the overweight shocked us and we had a chat about it seriously quite a while. It was very good eye opening news between us. So, talk more about how to get healthier and not to get fatter. Share good exercises type and encourage each other to start/concern being healthy life. Share information about healthy food and what to avoid. When you talk and think more about health, you will put more efforts into healthy life style.
8. Make a team to work out together; at the beginning of this year, my husband and his co-workers started making teams at work and trying to work out together to lose to their target weights. I believe that this is a very good idea and all the workplaces should encourage doing the similar things. Doing together can lead higher achievement. Promise to each other as a team member gives you responsibility to achieve the team goal. Promise with your co-worker to exercise together and keep the promise. You will get healthier and also a healthy relationship with them.
9. Scale at work; nowadays many work places provide a scale for their employees. Unhealthy employees can be also a problem to employers. I believe this is a good start for both. If you don't have one in your office, request one. You need to know how heavy you are and how heavy you are supposed to be. You need to measure yourself regularly so work place can be the best place. Putting on 1kg per month does not sound too bad but you will be 12kgs heavier next year. It is scary to even think about. Measure yourself regularly is very basic but most powerful start.
10. Healthy food as refreshment for all work events; how many morning teas, afternoon drinks, birthdays, farewells, welcoming’s do you have at work every month? Request or suggest healthy refreshment. More fruits than greasy chips and heavy dips, healthy cookies than chocolate mud cakes, water or fruit juice than soft drinks.... these will create healthy eating habits at your work place. Countless occasions I regretted a lot what I ate without thinking and I believe that you would have done, too. Lets try to eat simple and healthy snacks so we can enjoy the events more.
2. Prepare your own lunch to avoid take away food; when you prepare your lunch, you can know/manage quality and quantity of the food. Most of fast food contains too much calories as they are focused on taste and speed, not health. I found that I most likely eat more than I eat normally when I eat out. So prepare your lunch box from home. It will make you eat less and healthy food, and also save your pocket.
3. Lunch time exercises such as gym classes, walking; I can see most of my co-workers have lunch on the desk and surfing internet most of their lunch time. You can utilise the time for getting fitter and healthier. There are many lunch classes are offered by gyms for workers. You can do 45 minutes exercise at lunch time which is widely recommended to keep healthy. If it is not convenient to you, walking with co-workers will also help you to get fit. Use your lunch break for a short exercise. I promise you that will make your working day much shorter and energetic.
4. No snacks while working/bring your own fruits; Avoid nibbling high calorie snacks while you are working. Such as pieces of chocolate, buttery cookies, lollies, etc. Quite often you do not realise how much you had and how much calories you consumed as you eat them without awareness. It can become a poor eating habit. If you need to eat between meals, have fruits instead. I always pack a couple of fruits with my lunch box and it helps me to control craving on sweets.
5. Watch out food at meetings; How many times you have regretted that you had too much and unhealthy food because it was served in the meetings. When you see variety types of delicious looking food served, you would find hard to control your desire to eat more. Do not forget that you do not move at all during the meeting and you consume more food. You can easily imagine the outcome. So be conscious what you can eat during the meetings. If it is possible you to suggest/prepare the meeting food, get lighter and healthy food.
6. Don’t use the lift use stairs; try to use stairs instead of lift. Main point is we need to MOVE more. How often do you use lift for walkable distance? We all tend to prefer the more efficient, but it seems to make our body getting lazier. Make a habit on using stairs it will help you to burn out quite a lot of calories.
7. Discuss health and wellbeing issues with colleagues and encourage each other; share your knowledge’s and news in health and well-being issues with co-workers. A couple of weeks ago, a colleague sent us an email about body fat measurement and diseases from the overweight shocked us and we had a chat about it seriously quite a while. It was very good eye opening news between us. So, talk more about how to get healthier and not to get fatter. Share good exercises type and encourage each other to start/concern being healthy life. Share information about healthy food and what to avoid. When you talk and think more about health, you will put more efforts into healthy life style.
8. Make a team to work out together; at the beginning of this year, my husband and his co-workers started making teams at work and trying to work out together to lose to their target weights. I believe that this is a very good idea and all the workplaces should encourage doing the similar things. Doing together can lead higher achievement. Promise to each other as a team member gives you responsibility to achieve the team goal. Promise with your co-worker to exercise together and keep the promise. You will get healthier and also a healthy relationship with them.
9. Scale at work; nowadays many work places provide a scale for their employees. Unhealthy employees can be also a problem to employers. I believe this is a good start for both. If you don't have one in your office, request one. You need to know how heavy you are and how heavy you are supposed to be. You need to measure yourself regularly so work place can be the best place. Putting on 1kg per month does not sound too bad but you will be 12kgs heavier next year. It is scary to even think about. Measure yourself regularly is very basic but most powerful start.
10. Healthy food as refreshment for all work events; how many morning teas, afternoon drinks, birthdays, farewells, welcoming’s do you have at work every month? Request or suggest healthy refreshment. More fruits than greasy chips and heavy dips, healthy cookies than chocolate mud cakes, water or fruit juice than soft drinks.... these will create healthy eating habits at your work place. Countless occasions I regretted a lot what I ate without thinking and I believe that you would have done, too. Lets try to eat simple and healthy snacks so we can enjoy the events more.
I believe that there are many
more options to keep healthier and avoid being overweight. Your ideas will be
very welcomed so share them with us. Long story short, we need to move more and
eat less at work. I hope my thoughts can help you to keep healthy at workplace.
These were all day on our table in the meeting, 05/03/2013 (True)
What do you think?
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