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Getting Back Into Shape While At The Office?
rhuntley12 writes "Personally, I sit at a computer desk for 10 hours a day with very little actual work. I've also started to get a little belly and out of shape. I know it's real bad in my office, especially with all the beer I consume. What do you do to stay in shape? Any secrets? Recently I've started to do sit ups, push ups, and running up and down the stairs. I get a lot of odd looks, and would prefer something that doesn't make the whole office stare at me.
I've looked through some websites with equipment, but it's all serious equipment I can't/won't lug into work. Any suggestions?"
I still have a ways to go, myself, but I can tell you it works.
http://flwd.com/5bx/main/index.html
11 minutes a day, can be done just about anywhere. I'd suggest cutting back on the beer a little, and anything else with carbohydrates in it.
-- PhoneBoy
The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone, including the poster.
I ride my mountain bike to work. I only live about 4 miles from work, which translates to a 15 minute ride to and from work. It's enough to keep me in pretty good shape.
Oh wait, also give up beer.
First, let me preface this by saying that I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.
I started to worry a bit more about my health when I hit 30 a few short months ago. I've been blessed with a decent matabilism, but even a good burn rate can't help you when you sit on the ass 12 hours a day between home/work/stuff.
So here are my own tips that have kept me pretty good so far:
Eating Habits
Eat more meals a day, smaller amounts. Between 4 and 6 is good. Instead of taking that lunch break and loading up on tons of stuff that just leaves you sluggish, keep some food at your desk. And try to keep it to good stuff. A veggie platter is good with ranch dressing or something like that, maybe even a meat tray with mustards, I like sardines in mustard/tomato sauce with saltines off and on (which is why my coworkers are glad I have my own office).
My personal adage for food is that it's better to eat a bit of something that tastes good, rather than a lot of something that tastes bad. Fats and oils are not the pure enemy - as long as you do it in moderation. I think Jon what's-his-name from Good Eats had a good point back in a slashdot interview when me mentioned people don't eat fats, then they get hungry later. Good point. So veggies good, dressing with veggies good, meat good - don't just have junk food.
And I'm sorry - but loose the beer. I don't drink it myself, but that's because I think it tastes like shit. At least cut down, go lite beer - whatever. It's a lot of calories you don't need.
Exercise
Again, I have my own office, so about the chime of every hour I'll stop, do some pushups/situps, and go back. Not a lot, but just enough to get the heart pumping a bit. After work, I am again blessed to have a gym right on the campus I work at, so I can hit the treadmill for 30 minutes before I grab my stuff and go home.
If you can't do that, then do what I did at my last job - squeeze it in. Park at the farthest point you can so you have to walk into/out of work. If there's public transportation you can use, do that - if you have to drive all the way in, then park far. Believe it or not, but my last job I parked about a good block oway.
When you go to lunch, don't drive there, walk to it. You know that Jared guy? I don't think he got thin off of the Subways, it was the fact he walked back and forth from the Subway to work every day. Never, never, never use the elevator or escalators - always the stairs. Make less phone calls to co-workers if you can - get up, go walk to them.
Now, I know some people will say "But - I'm a telemarketer/I can't get up/some other excuse". Bullshit. There's always something you can do.
You don't have to change your whole lifestyle, but if your health is important and you want to be more when you're in your retirement than a rotting bag of bones, you have to make the time now. And it's not much - studies I've seen show 30 minutes a day is the rule, but it doesn't always have to be consecutive. A few minutes going up the stairs to a meeting, a little bit walking down the block to your car, maybe you buy an Eyetoy (I had a reader who loved hers - the boxing/kung fu games alone should get a good sweat) and play with that, or a Dance Dance Revolution pad for parties. And I will kill for a set of the official Sambe De Amigo maracas - not the cheap ass rip offs. Whatever.
I'm no Richard Simmons (I like women too much), and I'm no Arnold, but I've been able to stay fit enough for wild monkey sex with my wife. I could probably even cut out the treadmill if my family was down here with me just running after my son when he steals my Gameboy Advance SP.
Anyway, that's my take. These may not work for you, and I'm no expert, but hopefully these help.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
One way I found to keep at least a marginal amount of excercise while I sit and work is to sit on a ball instead of a chair.
Have a look for example here (i'm in no way associated with these folks....)
It helps improve your balance, strengthens your back/stomach muscles and does a great job of preventing Repetative Strain Injury. You really notice the difference after you used it for a while and than go back to a normal chair. It feels all stiff and uncomfortable...
I've enjoyed it for more than two years now. I got some weird looks in the begining, but now there are a number of people in the office using them too. Hope it helps.
Complexity is a measure of our ignorance...
I worked with a technical manager who did just that - for lunch, he'd walk about a mile to Subway, do the Jared thing, then walk back. Over the course of a year, he probably dropped 100 pounds. It was amazing to see.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Most places in the U.S., you're perfectly fine drinking water from the tap. I heard ("conventional wisdom") that spring water loses any befirts after having been out of the ground for 2 hours. I haven't researched this, but it doesn't taste any different than good tap water to me.
I bring a plastic cup to work and refill it from the water fountain. Much cheaper*, and has the added benefit of making you GET UP every so often.
If you get bored of water all day (understandable), you can try fruit juice. But please, do REAL fruit juice and not colored hummingbird food. Juicy Juice and Ocean Spray 100% are my favorites. Also, don't spend all day drinking it or 1) you'll go broke, and 2) food will seem to pass straight through you without slowing down.
High water intake, OTOH, is a very good idea, and most people don't drink nearly enough. It's something like 2 quarts per day for an adult. May sound strange, but if your urine is clear, you're set.
* For those who haven't read YMOYL, it has the sensible notion of a "real hourly wage". Deduct the money you spend on work clothes, eating lunch out, transportation, everything, from your salary. See what you're really earning.
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My Dad lost a lot of weight on Adkins ... but it killed his kidneys and that caused congestive heart failure.
Three doctors have told me that staying fat is healthier than doing Adkins.
I'm going to get off the ideology of not consuming large quantities of saturated fats momentarily and reflect on one of the more notable long term real life trials that exist today. This example is based from evidence drawn from a sterilized clinical trial, but rather a true to life example of the Masai and other tribes existing for the last 10,000 years (kinda beats any existing trial out there by far). This tribe consistently ate over 300g of fats/day, mostly saturated. The tribesmens' diets consisted of virtually no carbohydrates. In the end, autopsies of these tribal members discovered that the evidence of lipid build-up in the arteries was marginal. In addition, treadmill tests (of live tribesmen of course) resulted in these individuals having comparable or superior performance to Olympic champions.
I invited you to google research performed by Professor George Mann from Vanderbilt University. Although the evidence wasn't aggregated in a labratory as such, it cannot be argued that the duration of this standing test beats out anything the FDA has implemented.
In conclusion, most evidence of kidney failure and such are attibuted to high fat/high carb diets. When carbs are drastically reduced/eliminated, the problem is severly mitigated.
Bicycling magazine did this article on riding to work. After reading the article, I was able to adjust my habits to accomidate biking to work in the morning.
I'm still working on pushing towards showers at work, but baby wipes seem to work just fine.
Forget the girlfriend, just send a picture of the bike. I can just take the seat off and kill two birds with one stone.
Forget the bike!
Buy a real musclecar. Not some silly Honda with a bunch of stickers and a 3" exhaust tip on the 1" diameter manifold-back pipe, but something old and with a V8 driving the rear wheels. And restore it for the fun and love of the machine.
*Nothing* keeps you in shape better than lying on the floor of your garage trying to hold a transmission above your head with one hand while you fumble the bolts in place with the other hand. The threat of having a transmission fall on your head makes you discover strength you never knew that you had.
Carrying an engine block into your house to keep it from flash-rusting over the winter, or dragging a pair of cast iron cylinder heads *and* a toolbox from one end of a self-service junkyard to the other, all serve to keep you in excellent shape.
Never mind the feeling down below when you start that motor up for the first time, freshly rebuilt with 12:1 compression, a lopey camshaft and solid motor mounts... forget the bike! :)
Also, I drink like an Irishman, I eat like a pig, and I walk a lot because I like it.
Net effect? 6'4", 34" waist, 200lbs even, toned all over, and I can lift and hold a LaserJet 4si above my head. Also, mechanics coveralls and a welding helmet make a good Halloween costume when you're too lazy to go shopping.
Dating isn't a problem. (But make a habit of holding the drink in the left hand so that the right isn't cold and clammy when you shake hands with potential mates...)
Are you fat? If you want to fix the situation, the solution is really easy, but often overlooked. Stop eating so much, and/or get more exercise. That's it, that's all.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
The first thing I had to do was stop beating myself up for being fat and accept that my body was how it was. I began looking in the mirror and saying, "Hey, that's not me" rather than, "God what a piece of shit." Changing my attitude toward myself allowed me to take the next step.
That next step was finding an activity that I really liked. I love to ski, but I don't get to do it often. But rollerblading is very similar in feel and fun aspect. I began rollerblading after work every night. I wanted to do it for an hour every night, but it was so damn fun I didn't want to stop before two hours.
Six weeks later I had dropped 30 pounds and had very nice, firm calves and legs. And DAMN did my butt look good. I've floated around 170 since then. Sometimes I'm in better shape; sometimes not. But I find that the key is finding activities you enjoy anyway and people to do them with.
I also took a diet/exercise course a little while ago that showed *why* eating healthy helps your body to remain healthy and strong as well as how to exercise effectively. Better to simply eat right than worry about cutting calories.
Fruit, vegetables, whole wheat and grains, dietary fiber, drop enriched/processed/refined foods, etc. Skip the Atkins diet as it's just not necessary, and there's enough evidence that it's not safe.
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I guess the War on Terror really is about freedom!
I remembered a presentation a while back ago about the difference between overweight people and skinny people. There was a study whereby a group of people were given the same amount of calories in their diet. They lived within a confined space, at the same time. At the end, with the same amount of food eaten by all, some gained as much as 15 pounds and others didn't. The difference between these two groups? The individuals who gained the least amount of weight tended to be people who fidgeted a lot more. They tended to shake their leg while sitting more often, and got up and out of their seat more often. The take home message? Well, maybe try to move around more often, even simple repetitive "useless" movements may help (and no, I don't mean the M word, that'll probably get you fired).
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