The demand of our technology driven corporate or entrepreneurial lifestyle has made it increasingly harder to maintain optimal health and fitness. With long sedentary workdays, high levels of stress and a family that you want precious time with, exercise can be put on the back burner.
Here is a list of a few ways you can improve your health and fitness while not taking much out time of your workday.
1) Use your lunch breaks
Whether you break is 30mins or an hour use that time to get away from your desk. This will be a saviour for your sanity as well as your health. Take your lunch and walk outside, get some fresh air and get those legs moving! Have a look on google and you can always map out the distance you are walking too. Find a nice park, or if that isn’t possible walk the block a couple of times – you will be amazed how your productivity improves when you clear your head and get the endorphin’s kicking in.
2) Frequently stand
This will improve your posture drastically and get the circulation back into the lower part of your body. Do you spend a lot of hours on the work phone? Go hands free and walk around the office. Your body will thank you for it.
3) Stretch
Sitting down all day is honestly one of he worst things you can do for your body and overall health and fitness. The body is designed to move. By stretching twice a day you will improve your health long term whilst short term relieving pressure on and strain on your neck and shoulders.
Do some research; you know your work space and environment – what stretches will work for you? You want to find stretches that work the neck, shoulders and upper back. Your posture will have suffered throughout the day so make sure you open up your chest, which tends to turn in with your shoulders slumped at a computer.
4) Speak to your colleagues and Managers
Generally managers are becoming more understanding of the benefits in a workplace that can provide their staff with some balance in their life. Companies are willing to pay for their employee’s gym membership at the closest gym to the office. Other employers get a yoga or Pilates instructor once a week to do an afternoon stretch session with the staff. It is not uncommon for a massage therapist to do rounds around the office and provide neck and shoulder massages. Voice your ideas with a manager and they may be accommodating.
5) Pack your lunch
Preparation is key. The night before work, prepare your lunch and snacks for the day ahead. Apart from saving you money you will save yourself calories too. A sandwich in a café will have hidden calories, salty seasoned deli meat, high fat butter and mayonnaise, full fat cheese and more. This all adds up – if you made the same sandwich at home it will have 200-300 less calories. Have a range of healthy snacks fruit, nut, and vegetables, to get you through the day so you don’t feel the sugar cravings at 3pm.
Making a few of these small changes to your daily routine will be a start to improving your well-being. Your body is a machine that was designed to move. Try your best to get it moving. A sedentary lifestyle will diminish quality of life and contribute to the development of chronic diseases. Be the best version of you.
Amber Forder
