Ask Slashdot: How Do You Stay Fit At Work?

Dishwasha writes "What do you do to stay fit? Probably like many of you, this code monkey has lead a fairly sedentary life consisting most on fritos, tab, and mountain dew. Every time I attempt to incorporate exercise in even the most modest amount it never really seems to work out. 'Just do it' or joining and going to a gym just doesn't seem to work and with time being my most precious resource at this point, I would like to incorporate exercise in to my daily work process. Our office recently switched to standing desks, which is great, and I would like to possibly bring in a flat treadmill that fits under the standing desk, but my bosses have balked unless the equipment is whisper silent. We are a small business in a traditional office park with no exercise facility. Do any other geeks out there have a similar set up and would like to share what they use to stay heart healthy and improve circulation during their work day? What other ways do you incorporate exercise in to your geeky or nerdy lifestyle?"

Comments

Lazy

[Russ1642]

What the poster meant was that he's just too lazy to go to the gym when he could be at home watching TV. Any significant workout is going to make you sweat a lot, which is why you don't do it at your desk. If you just want a physical job then sign up to be a mail carrier or bicycle courier.

Re:Lazy

[hedwards]

Not true. Unless you're in a place where the heat is turned up to high. Which it probably is, because even outside of server rooms, people turn the thermostat up way too high in the winter.

Doing some basic calisthenics isn't going to make you break a sweat. Now, if you're wanting to burn a lot of calories or tune up the heart, that's likely going to require sweat equity.

If you want to get strong and you're spending more than about 10 or 20 minutes a work out, you're wasting time.

Re:Lazy

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

What the poster meant was that he's just too lazy to go to the gym when he could be at home watching TV. Any significant workout is going to make you sweat a lot, which is why you don't do it at your desk. If you just want a physical job then sign up to be a mail carrier or bicycle courier.

You aren't going to do jack in terms of serious cardio or muscular exertion unless your white-collar-knowledge-worker environment tolerates people who look like they think that 'data mining' is something you do with a pickaxe.

However, in terms of destroying your fitness less slowly while at work you have options that are worth considering: If you need caffeine, go with (unsweetened/not-full-of-milkfat) coffee or tea, or a pill. Not a soda. Also, try to distinguish between loss of energy caused by boredom or need for sleep(not a good thing; but temporarily treatable with mild stimulants) from loss of energy caused by hunger(eat something lean and proteinacious). Assorted caffeine+sugar snacks are seductive because the combination of stimulants and a quick energy burst allows you to do a mediocre job of fighting off either kind of slump; but they tend to bite you because if you just need some caffeine you end up consuming hundreds of calories in corn syrup, or if you really need some food, you end up letting hunger drive you into using more stimulants than you need, and crashing once the sugar spike wears off.

None of that will actually make you 'fit' worth a damn, nor will it save you from 'research suggests that people who get less than X exercise die early'; but it is a comparatively painless way to cut down the amount of 'fit-as-in-not-fat' effort you'll need to put in at the gym later. Ideally, you'll even be forced to find a more stable, less spike/crash prone hunger and stimulant cycle, which won't exactly hurt your efforts to get some exercise either before or after work.

Re:Lazy

[Murdoch5]

I completely agree. Everyone one tells me they don't have the time to go and they have to much work but somehow yet manage to fit 5 hours of TV into the evening. To stay fit, burn fat and keep energized you really only need to work out twice a week, I usually aim for 3 - 4 times. Either go to a gym or stop complaining, you have the time, just go and do it.

Re:Lazy

[Anonymous Coward]

You can burn fat and get some decent exercise in 10-20 minutes, but "get strong" is such a nebulously stated goal that you're doing him a disservice implying it'll only take 10-20 minutes. If you're being honest with yourself it's more like 1 hour, three times a week. Ten minutes is probably just enough time to get through a warmup set. And yes, you will sweat. What a ridiculous contention. If you're an out of shape worker in a sedentary job, getting in an out of your chair probably makes you break a sweat.

Re:Lazy

[ShanghaiBill]

What the poster meant was that he's just too lazy to go to the gym when he could be at home watching TV.

It is not a matter of laziness. A gym membership is expensive, and going there is time consuming. The closest gym to me costs $80/month and is a 20 minute commute each way. I work till 6pm, then after an hour of meal prep, eating, and cleanup, I have about two hours with my kids before they go to bed. I am not going to cut that in half so I can go to the gym.

I stay in shape with a stand-up workstation, and we have a treadmill in front of a internet connected TV in the break room. I usually put about three miles on the treadmill while I watch the PBS Newshour. A treadmill at my desk does not work, because I cannot walk and type at the same time. I have seen salespeople do it successfully, but they spend their time talking into a phone headset rather than typing. I don't see that working for a coder.

Re:Lazy

[hedwards]

That's bullshit right there. Strength training is done for short periods of time and large amounts of weight. If it takes you that much time, then you're doing it wrong.

I realize that the fitness industry has everybody conditioned to think that they need to do a dozen different workouts and you've got to hit puny muscle Y, but if you're moving your body as a unit, you'll hit all of those spots. And the fact of the matter is, that there's no reason to be hitting most of those small muscles anyways as they're already getting a work out whenever you're working their antagonizing muscles.

You do 6 exercises across the week and yeah, I guess 10-20 is a bit on the low side, but an hour 3 times a week is way more than what it takes. I work out about an hour a week, tops, and I'm definitely growing strong.

You look at the way people spend their work out time, the penny ante crap that does nothing for them. The stretching and the cool downs, and the multiple exercises that work the same basic groups of muscles, and yeah, if you do cut out all that crap that you don't need in the first place, you can easily cut out half or a third of your time. Not to mention the fact that if you're going into a gym to work out, there's a ton of down time in the middle of your work out when you're switching equipment or waiting on gear.

Re:Lazy

[Dexter Herbivore]

Not to mention that gyms are mostly pointless rip offs. You DO NOT need to go into a special environment to exercise. For some people it helps, sure, but it's not absolutely necessary. You don't need a special machine to exercise your legs, jog on the spot, put a crate down and do step aerobics, do squats. Specialised equipment isn't a necessity and usually is there simply to make you feel like you've got your money's worth.

Re:Lazy

[interkin3tic]

Exercise as the main feature of staying fit is also a cop-out even if you DO go to a gym. One can of mountain dew has 700 Calories. Assuming you're jogging at 5 mph, that one can is going to take you an hour of jogging to burn off.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It would be a hell of a lot easier to just not drink the soda. You'll stop even craving it before too long, it's the caffeine that is addictive, not the soda or sugar. And the caffeine addiction gives you a headache if you go off of it, not heroin withdrawal induced seizures. If you can't take the time to go all biggest loser and spend 10 hours a day on a treadmill, you've got to change your diet. Eat the junk food if you want, but don't delude yourself into thinking you'll make up for it in your office chair.

Re:Lazy

[Radres]

Umm 1 can of Mt. Dew is 170 calories. http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/nutrition-calories/food/generic/mountain-dew/. Still not great but 700 is a bit off.

Re:Lazy

[Joce640k]

You aren't going to do jack in terms of serious cardio or muscular exertion unless your white-collar-knowledge-worker environment tolerates people who look like they think that 'data mining' is something you do with a pickaxe.

Speaking of which: Came here to say "Shovelglove"...

Re:Lazy

[Joce640k]

Even so, there's wisdom in what he says. An hour of gym, plus commute time, plus time in the changing rooms, plus expenses (membership + special clothing) can be completely avoided just by skipping those mid-afternoon Oreos+Mountain Dew. It's also a lot easier to do and you can't fool yourself about "going to the gym=special food treat" (thus cancelling the gym).

You can't cheat math: Calories in minus calories used = weight gained (or lost).

Ask anybody who's lost a serious amount of weight how it's done and "suffering in a gym" will be a minor part of the answer (if it figures at all).

Re:Lazy

[Joce640k]

I bet you ate less, too.

Re:Lazy

[Joce640k]

Yep. Gyms exist for one reason - to take your money.

For cardio, try, um walking. Go a place with trees and hills once a week and walk instead of pounding a treadmill in a filthy flu/fungus-ridden gym.

For strength, you can equip yourself for about $20, eg.: http://www.shovelglove.com/

Re:Lazy

[butchersong]

I have to go with hed on this. If you want to get strong you basically just need some free weights (deadlifts, squats some power cleans) and a basic understanding of diet and HIT strength training for a short period maybe twice a week. Really unless you are wanting to get more professional about it, the secret is mostly diet and then you lift some weights for half an hour at most twice a week. Probably closer to 10-20 starting out.

Re:Lazy

[Anonymous Coward]

Doing some basic calisthenics isn't going to make you break a sweat.

It won't get you in shape, either.

You do 6 exercises across the week and yeah, I guess 10-20 is a bit on the low side, but an hour 3 times a week is way more than what it takes. I work out about an hour a week, tops, and I'm definitely growing strong.

If you work out an hour a week, tops, you're not in shape. You're probably getting stronger, but you're not in shape.

If you want to find out what kind of shape you're in, get a heart rate monitor and GPS tracker (there are cell phone apps for this) and run for an hour outdoors with your heart rate around 150-165. "Good shape" will get you 7.5 miles. Good weekend triathletes will get 10 miles. Professional triathletes will get 12. Oh, and do this two or three days consecutively, because if you're at least in "good shape" you won't have much, if any, soreness or fatigue on the second or third day.

Having said that, you can get into decent shape with minimal time investment for a particular sport. Running three times per week for about an hour each time in Zone 1 will get you nicely in shape for running, and you'll be in ok shape for other sports, to boot.

Re:Lazy

[Pope]

So workout at home. It's cheaper and has no commute time.

Re:Lazy

[interkin3tic]

Well then you'd need to run something like 10 mph for SIX MINUTES to burn that off! NOT WORTH IT.

Okay, I was totally off, "about.com" lied to me. Or rather, I saw a number and wrote it down without seeing that meant a case or something. Time to go drown my sorrows with a can of delicious, nutritious mountain dew.

Re:Lazy

[kidgenius]

Sorry, but even the WORST cans of soda are 200 kCal per can. That number at the site is wrong wrong wrong. Still not good to be drinking it though.

Re:Lazy

[ShanghaiBill]

So workout at home. It's cheaper and has no commute time.

But it still requires extra time. If I use a stand-up desk, I burn an extra 200 calories/day (enough for an extra dessert), with NO extra time commitment. There are other benefits as well: Although there is a chair in my office, when people come into my office to chat about something, they want to look me in the eye, so they stand up too. This keeps conversations short and to-the-point, and I get more work done.

Re:Lazy

[kannibal_klown]

Well, I know plenty that actually can't fit in the gym time. I'm not one, but I know them. In her case, she does her gym time over the weekend when she actually has the time to spare.

My friend:
  6 hours of sleep
  1 hour to wake up and get dressed / ready for work
  1 hour to get kids awake for school + breakfast
  2 hours commute, round trip
  10 hours for work
  1 hour for making dinner, and eating it with the family
  1 hour for shopping + errands (groceries, kid's clothes, basic stuff)
  1 hour for helping kids with homework and general talking with them

So, as you can see, her work day is quite full.

Of which you probably want some time to decompress after all of the above.

In my case, my total free time is closer to 4 hours. So I'd have enough time for 30-60 minutes of gym. I just choose not to take it, save for some weekend exercises.

Re:Lazy

[butchersong]

Pretty much the same with me though I did also cut out sugar and down on carbs. I bought a barbell and some olympic weights and a squat rack. Only really use em twice a week. A lot of gyms around here aren't even setup for any kind of powerlifting... It's all fancy cardio and weight machines. I feel terrible every time I see some poor overweight person working their ass off on cardio. Just want to pull em all aside and talk to them about how easy it would be to turn their lives around.

Re:Lazy

[jedidiah]

The problem with a gym is that it is probably like a commute. Like any commute, it's not just the time you spend "working" but all of the required overhead before and after.

This is why onsite gyms are so cool.

Alternatively, you could buy yourself a machine or two and be pretty much set.

Not only can you save a lot of time doing this, you can save quite a bit of money too. Plus you can work out whenever the mood strikes or you've got a few spare moments.

Plus you can cater the environment to yourself. Set up a MythTV frontend or a Roku in your workout area.

You can "be at home watching TV" and workout at the same time.

Re:Lazy

[PRMan]

Calories are completely irrelevant.

Don't believe me? Quit eating carbs and you can eat as many fat and protein calories as you like. The pounds will drop off very quickly.

I switched to a 125g of carb per day diet and lost 70 pounds in 9 months. I did no additional exercise. My cholesterol, blood pressure and other readings improved dramatically (I no longer take high blood pressure medication). I have a ton of energy now compared to before.

I eat bacon and eggs (in butter) for breakfast 4 days a week and eat buttered vegetables and all kinds of other things, not worrying about a single thing but carbs.

Back to the summary, switch the Mountain Dew to unsweetened iced tea and the Fritos to beef jerky...

Re:Lazy

[jedidiah]

> If you work out an hour a week, tops, you're not in shape. You're probably getting stronger, but you're not in shape.

If you can run for 20 minutes at a time and do that 3 times a week then you are indeed in shape. You don't have to be excessive about this stuff. Once you get beyond the basic government guidelines, there are quickly diminishing returns for going overboard.

Re:Lazy

[Immerman]

Bull. It takes very little effort to significantly increase/maintain strength if you don't normally engage in significant exertion on a regular basis. My own strategy was keeping a pair of 10lb weights lying around and incorporating 10-20 reps of some random exercises (push-ups, sit-ups, butterflies, etc) whenever I have a random moment - less than a minute of exercise at a time, and using time that would otherwise be wasted waiting for a quick compile or heating a cup of coffee or something. I averaged less than five minutes a day total exercise time, all "free" since it came from down-time too short for any other use, and within a year I was considerably more toned and drawing a lot more positive attention, not to mention the joy of almost never feeling out of breath or over-exerted - those occasional 20-30 mile backpacking trips carrying a 30+lb pack went from being torture to a pleasant outing.

As for keeping to it - I have a "chore sheet" that I use for all the random annoying day-to-day crap that should get done but usually doesn't, with a bounty on each - typically $0.25-$1.00 apiece. At the end of the week I tally up the bounties and let myself spend the money on anything I want, 100% guilt-free. I choose to live fairly frugally for the most part, so the $10-$15/week I pay myself to exercise makes for a nice little splurge - obviously you might need to increase the bounties to fit your own lifestyle and motivational needs. As an added benefit my chore-sheet fits about two months onto a single sheet of paper - just a grid with room to make several tally-marks at each chore/day intersection, so I can see at a glance when and what I'm slacking off on and adjust bounties accordingly.

When it comes to losing/keeping off weight on the other hand exercise is a losing game - the calories from that soda/juice/candybar are going to take the better part of an hour jog to burn off. Instead I just watch my diet - no sweets/chips/etc. except as an occasional indulgance. Fast-food joints and the snack machine down the hall are an evil temptresses with no redeeming qualities. For snacking I got a hot-air popcorn popper and an olive-oil mister for the office, for food I cut way back on sugar and moved my diet heavily towards whole grains and vegetables - lots of oatmeal, brown rice, whole-wheat bread, and steamed and stir-fried vegetables, casseroles, mashed potatoes, etc. With a preference to things rich in fiber, which doesn't actually count much towards human-accessible calories. I use meat mostly as a garnish, and don't worry much about fat beyond not drowning my food in butter or oil on a regular basis. Lost almost 30 pounds in a year without feeling at all deprived, almost back to my dimly-remembered scrawny high-school weight, and it's stayed off for several years now with only minimal attention to my diet. My sweet tooth still hasn't completely forgiven me, but it was never satisfied anyway and now I can occasionally devour a quart or two of ice cream without worrying about the impact on my waistline (the real stuff, none of that synthetic low-calorie crap).

Re:Lazy

[Murdoch5]

you can always pick of exceptions to what I said. Most of the people I know who complain about not having time or being to busy are just lying to themselves to prevent from having to do work. Even when I'm busy, which I can admit isn't every day I can still find a hour or even 1/2 hour to do something. On my busiest weeks I probably work 100+hours and yet someone manage to get a workout in. I'm not saying some people aren't to busy but the majority who say they are just have an issue with time management.

Re:Lazy

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are serious at all about strength training, you need a barbell set with a squat / power rack. Barbell squats, deadlifts, presses, bench, cleans, and rows; these are the exercises that truly create a balanced strength program, not some gimmicky glove.

Nice thing is you can often pick these items up off of craigslist on the cheap because people are really good at buying workout equipment, but shit poor at using it anywhere after the first month.

Re:Lazy

[blahplusplus]

"It is not a matter of laziness. A gym membership is expensive,"

He's not serious about losing weight, take it from someone who used to say things like the OP. I had to find inspiration in this guy to finally get it:

http://www.johnstonefitness.com/

I just needed a mentor and inspiration that it can be done. i.e. learning from those who've successfully transformed themselves.

Re:Lazy

[SimplyGeek]

A lot of health insurance companies will reimburse you for your gym membership. Look into what your health plan covers. With cheaper gyms it can be a wash, so you get a gym membership for free.

Re:Lazy

[yurtinus]

As incorrect as those numbers are - this is it. If you're serious about being healthy, first thing to do is cut the junk. Cut way back on the soda (don't *ever* have one outside of a meal), switch to carrot sticks or some other sort of snack. Drink *lots* of water. Get a water bottle and fill it several times a day.

Don't count on getting a workout at work. A standing desk is a decent start, but you'll need more. There is tons of advice on the interwebs for simple exercise routines you can do at home before or after work. Pick one - it almost doesn't matter what it is, if it gets your heart rate up it's good for something.

Re:Lazy

[yurtinus]

A 10 hour workday with a 2 hour commute would drive me to a different employment situation in very short order. I'm not saying it's "wrong" because I know many people who thrive in that environment... But damn.

Re:Lazy

[Albanach]

Can you cycle to/from work one or two days a week?

Re:Lazy

[HornWumpus]

shovelglove?

For a second there I thought someone had realized my old digercise idea.

Send me $100 and I will send you your very own 'digercise' earth moving exercise equipment and a list of 'digercise' centers where you can actually get paid for working out.

Just take your earth moving exercise equipment with you to your local 'Home Depot' and you could earn up to $100/day. Half of that is your to keep, just send digercise the other half.

Re:Lazy

[Applekid]

you can always pick of exceptions to what I said. Most of the people I know who complain about not having time or being to busy are just lying to themselves to prevent from having to do work. Even when I'm busy, which I can admit isn't every day I can still find a hour or even 1/2 hour to do something. On my busiest weeks I probably work 100+hours and yet someone manage to get a workout in. I'm not saying some people aren't to busy but the majority who say they are just have an issue with time management.

I wouldn't go so far to say that they're lying to themselves: they are legitimately busy. It's just that their order their priorities such that working out is a lower priority than watching American Talent Can Dance Island of Fortune.

Motivation is, perhaps, the number one factor in fitness. And key to motivation is expectations versus results. Unfortunately, society paints a picture that anybody can work out and have a movie star body, when really it's the genes, a personal trainer, and eight hours a day working out that does it. Framed up for such unrealistic goals, the average person might get motivated, suffer through the sweat and effort, maybe even feel the sting of humiliation when they try to perform physically, and get themselves completely psyched out. That's when thoughts that it's not worth it surface, and therefore giving up and making other things more important than fitness.

Re:Lazy

[xaxa]

Umm 1 can of Mt. Dew is 170 calories. http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/nutrition-calories/food/generic/mountain-dew/. Still not great but 700 is a bit off.

That's (presumably) half the bottle/can. Who only drinks half?

From https://www.mountaindewenergy.co.uk/drinks/ the 'serving size' is 250mL, but the bottle is 500mL. 500mL has 240kcal, from 60g of sugar.

Re:Lazy

[dmatos]

You have kids and you want to increase your fitness level?

Go play with them.

Because of the crazy power-to-weight ratio that kids have, no adult can even hope to keep up with them. You'll burn 10 times the energy that they do, just trying to keep pace.

Climb trees. Play soccer. Chase them around the park. Throw a frisbee or a football back and forth. Ride bikes.

Your kids will love it, you'll love it, and you'll be more fit than you've ever been!

Re:Lazy

[cusco]

A routine that will only take a week or so to get into, and which you absolutely will do for the next ten years is actually fun and rewarding. Go to the animal shelter and bring home a beagle. Walk him every morning before you go to work, and every evening before you go to bed. After a week of this the beagle will **NOT** let you skip either walk, he's taking you for a walk come rain, snow, heat, or zombie apocalypse.

Beagles have a bad rep for howling and digging, but those are bored dogs who don't get out. A walk twice a day will keep them from getting bored and keep you both in shape.

Re:Lazy

[kilfarsnar]

I agree that you don't need to hit every little muscle individually. But 10 - 20 minutes for a workout? I don't see how you can get enough movements in, even if you're lifting heavy. How many times a week do you work out and do you do a split routine?

I do a basic full-body workout twice a week. The workout takes about an hour, maybe a little less. I use all compound exercises to maximize efficiency: pull-ups, push-ups, squats, deadlifts, dips, body rows, shoulder raises and some ab work. I do two sets of 10 reps each. I use a weight vest when body weight is not enough, and I have a couple sets of dumbbells.

I think this workout is about medium intensity. I've been using it for a few years and while I do look like I work out, I'm not jacked. I have built a solid foundation of strength but my progress has not been rapid. I'm even thinking of adding at third set to try to speed up my gains. I don't think I would have made much progress if I did less.

And I just realized, almost every sentence in this post starts with "I"...

Re:Lazy

[yurtinus]

It still doesn't hurt to look around. I go to a gym five minutes from my workplace that costs me about twelve bucks a month. I head there on my lunch break three or so times per week with a coworker. Sure, there's no reason I couldn't get the same workout at home without the equipment at the gym (especially since we moved from weights to a more general workout) - but for me the gym is far closer and more convenient. Having a coworker with similar fitness goals to work out with is also a tremendous motivation.

I'm not trying to disagree with your position here - I wouldn't want to spend any more than I do (or travel any further during my lunch break) for a gym - but it doesn't hurt for the submitter to look around and find something that really works for them.

Re:Lazy

[Dixie_Flatline]

Man, what is this? Of course exercise takes a time commitment. It's only your FUCKING HEALTH. Why shouldn't it take a time commitment?

Listen, I know we all have busy days and too much to do and we'd like to sit down and relax. The answer is to work less and rest and relax more. I know that's hard to sell, but it's the honest truth.

Wake up early, go to work, put in your 8 best hours, and then leave and go walk or run or ride your bike for an hour or two. On the weekends, do some exercise in the morning after a small breakfast, and then go for another walk or whatever before coming home to lunch. Then you can go on with the rest of your day.

Don't look at exercise as a chore. You don't have to run marathons or train for them to be healthier. I listen to a lot of science podcasts while I ride and walk, so I'm always learning something.

It's your life and health on the line here. What are you even working for if it's not to live a good life?

Re:Lazy

[kilfarsnar]

For cardio, try, um walking. Go a place with trees and hills once a week and walk instead of pounding a treadmill in a filthy flu/fungus-ridden gym.

Good point. Walking or running outside is better exercise than a treadmill anyway. Walking requires you to actually move your body weight through space. On a treadmill you are just keeping pace with a moving belt.

Re:Lazy

[kilfarsnar]

Your point about improving diet is an important one. Not all calories are created equal of course; 700 calories from a balanced meal is not the same as 700 calories from ice cream. I would also recommend the submitter snack during the day. But eat healthy snacks! A good granola bar (no chocolate chips), a cup of yogurt, a handful of nuts, a piece of fruit, stuff like that. It will keep his metabolism up and keep him from getting too hungry.

Re:Lazy

[ILongForDarkness]

Agree. Things like this is often a choice. People decide they must own their own vehicle, home etc then have to settle remaining at a job 2hrs away and essentially trade their time and health for the money they need to pay for the vehicle/transport. Assuming you have to stay at the job I'd try to change the schedule if possible. But I'd seriously consider dropping the job. If they are paying well enough that 10hr days are truly worth it you should be able to afford to live near the job. If you can't afford a city property then the job isn't paying enough. It is costing 14 hrs of your day and 10hrs of real work and you can't afford to live? That's crazy.

Say could you talk them into letting you do your >8hrs from home on a Saturday? Could you do 12hrs every other day and then just 8 the following so every other day you have the extra couple hours you need for a workout? Speaking of weekends, and this is a common one: what are you doing then? A lot of people use their busy work week as an excuse to not do anything including on weekends.

Other things come to mind but it is all a matter of how she wants to live: cook bigger meals you can eat over a few days. 20min to reheat and 20min to eat every other day rather than an hour everyday. Knock out the impulse choirs/shopping: clean the bathroom and kitchen when the laundry is running not do laundry because you are out of things and then tomorrow do the bathroom etc. Do what you can to push the homework off onto weekends. My Korean co-worker sends his kids to school every Saturday for a full day, that is essentially what 1hr a night homework time means that she is doing right now. Why push everything into an already busy day?

I realize I'm not a women but it shouldn't take 1hr to wake up and get dressed it just shouldn't. Even accounting for having to do makeup and more complicated hair and such you just are getting too dressed up if you are spending an hour everyday to get ready. Everyone at work knows what you look like you aren't impressing anyone by looking like you are going to a fancy dinner every day.

It is a matter of discipline I have a friend that needs an hour to get out of bed he just lays there for an hour will 4 alarmclocks staggered throughout the room go off in 15 min intervals gradually forcing him out of bed. People are different I admit but it is amazing how for example during WWII they were able to draft pretty much everyone and they all managed to get into the same schedule. You just have to do it.

Re:Lazy

[kilfarsnar]

Not necessarily. If he kept his diet the same but started lifting 3 times a week, he would be burning a lot more calories than he had been before. When I started strength training I dropped 10 pounds in a month or two without changing my diet. Of course, then I started trying to actually build muscle and started eating more. I've gained 20 lbs and it ain't fat!

Re:Lazy

[candeoastrum]

If thats true then why don't martial artists, professional atheletes work out at home. I am sure they supplement by doing some at home but gym equipment offers many advantages.

Re:Lazy

[Dishwasha]

Some of the most productive people in the work are so because they are "lazy".

Re:Lazy

[kannibal_klown]

I never saw the 1hour thing too bad. I'm a guy, and it takes me about 30 minutes to shower, shave, brush my teeth, get dressed, and leave. And I don't eat breakfast or have to blow-dry my hair. I imagine if I had to put on some makeup, dry my hair, and eat... it would come out to an hour.

Re:Lazy

[Time_Ngler]

In the "move through space" sense, aren't we all circling the earth while stationary? Besides air resistance I don't really see a difference between a treadmill and walking on unmoving earth.

Re:Lazy

[Dishwasha]

in the world even...

Re:Lazy

[yurtinus]

Eh, I spend an hour at least between waking up and going to work. I enjoy taking it a bit slow in the morning: snooze the alarm once, cook a decent breakfast, enjoy a cup of tea, hang out with the girlfriend and the dog. Then again, I also don't stay up super late anymore... I used to do the wake up 30 minutes before I need to be at the office thing, but I much prefer my new method! When I get to work I am *awake* and ready to go, not a zombie waiting for that first cup of coffee.

Re:Lazy

[ILongForDarkness]

Yeah but she says she spends another hour with the kids for breakfast. So this 1hr isn't even feeding her. So two hours to get ready and eat with the kids. There has to be room to squeeze this.

For example is one of the kids old enough to help out? I'm 2 years younger than my sister. When I was in kindergarten my sister who was 7 thought it was the coolest thing in the world to make sure I picked out some appropriate clothes and got ready in the morning which of course freed my mother up to be packing our lunches and getting breakfast ready.

Re:Lazy

[ILongForDarkness]

Yeah but she's taking 2 hours. Her first hour is just waking up and getting showered/dressed. The next is breakfast and getting the kids ready. So that is two hours before even stepping out the door. I agree on the want to be awake bit. I get up about an hour before I leave. 20min to shower. 40min for breakfast and watching last nights daily show. I leave the dishes for when I get home so while I wait for my supper to cook I do the mornings dishes if they'll be too many for one batch or leave it till after supper and get it all done in one go.

Re:Lazy

[marnues]

My personal experience suggests the GP is more correct. 20 minutes is enough time to _start_ a good workout. The good stuff happens in the next 20-40 minutes.

Re:Lazy

[ultranova]

1 hour for making dinner, and eating it with the family

Make a large batch at once and microwave portions as needed. It's fast, easy, healthy, and some foods (particularly soups) actually get better the more times they get re-warmed.

1 hour for shopping + errands (groceries, kid's clothes, basic stuff)

Every single day?

So I'd have enough time for 30-60 minutes of gym. I just choose not to take it, save for some weekend exercises.

Well, in that case your options are to be born a mutant or wait for scientists to turn those genes into fitness injections.

Re:Lazy

[s.petry]

Wow dude, I'm not sure how you are claiming to be "strong" in that short of a time. 10-20 minutes is not enough to work out more than a few muscle groups for strength.

Lets look at a few basics for strength. I used to work out with Mr. Jr Hawaii (4'11" but built like Arnold at 210). I was not that big, but at my best I was 190 with an average of 4.5% body fat and stand 5'7". I trained people for PT in the Military, and had no difficulty with the Navy Seals PT tests passing mark 3. That was a few years ago, so not where I am today. I do however bicycle to and from work every day so am not in bad shape. Parenting takes away a whole lot of your gym time.

Strength requires isolation and several sets of repetitions per muscle group. Normal training includes 3 sets, with some rest in between to allow the muscles to regain oxygen. Depending on who you ask, reps should start at 10-18 and reduce as you work the group. You don't just whip the weight as fast as you can either, nobody in their right mind would tell you to do so. A curl should take 3-4 seconds at a minimum for the positive rep, and another 3-4 seconds for the negative rep. Rest is roughly 60 seconds between sets. That means at least 3-4 minutes for one muscle group.

I could fully work out my biceps and triceps in 20 minutes assuming ready weights (no plate changing) or use of a machine (which nobody should recommend for strength training). Upper and lower bicep, inner and outer triceps. I have never touched anything else during that time.

You were correct that it's every other day, but given the amount of time it takes to build "body" strength you need to be in the gym 6 days a week. 1/2 the body day 1, the other half on day 2, back to first half, etc.. and then rest 1 day per week. Trust me, I used to spend at least 3-4 hours in the gym every day on top of military PT (which primarily works cardio).

I'm not saying you can't get in better shape in the time you mentioned. From couch potato to working out 3-4 days a week for 10-20 minutes is a good thing. I don't think you could be considered "strong" in that amount of work out time, but closer to what should be normal strength for your age.

Re:Lazy

[serialband]

Some people are actually busy at home. I don't hire any gardeners, maids, or nannies and try much of that work myself. It serves as my exercise, plus I get to do the work to my satisfaction.

--

You don't have to sweat heavily to maintain weight. There are things you can do that will help. The #1 thing to do is to stop ordering soda pop with your meals. That's just extra unneeded calories and can be quite a large part of your calorie intake throughout the day. Just drink water or tea or coffee. The 2nd thing to do is to go for a walk during lunch. I just get out of that seat of mine when I can. Don't walk so hard that you'll break a sweat, and slow down if you think you're going to break a sweat. A brisk 15-30 minute walk every other day was enough for me. If you work in a large office park, you can take a walk around to see what other businesses are around. If you work in a large corporate campus, take a walk around and visit people just see what other people are doing. If you work in a skyscraper, take the stairs to other floors and look around or walk around all the other cubicles. You might meet some people who might be doing the same thing during lunch. If your building is less than 5 floors, take the stairs all the time, skip the elevator. As I got older, I also stopped having candy bars between meals. I've done basically these 3 basic things and I had maintained my weight in the 15 years that I've done this. YMMV.

Set a timer to force yourself to remember to take a break at least every 2 hours and walk around the office. Make it every hour just to stand up and stretch for a minute. If you're in between thoughts and are paused at the keyboard, stretch your arms, crack your knuckles, stretch your toes, etc...

The other main thing to do is to stop going to the standard fast food chain stores. If you're overweight, you can skip a meal once in a while or just have a bagel or a simple peanut butter & jelly sandwich instead. Stop going out to every meal each day. Again, YMMV

I've added to each step as I've gotten older and I still fit into my college clothes. You don't have to stop all at once, you just have to reduce each step along the way. It requires some conscious effort, but if you keep at it, you'll remain fit. Unless you want a washboard stomach or bulging biceps, there's really no need to waste money to go to the gym. You can get plenty of exercise gardening if you just want to maintain basic muscle tone. Just pushing and pulling a mower one handed for half an hour is equivalent to lifting small weights. Remember to switch sides. If you have some trees, just trimming them with a manual pole cutter is quite a workout.

Re:Lazy

[arkane1234]

Wow... where I lived (Phoenix & Las Vegas) it was ~30/month.
Where I am now (Dallas) it's 10/month.

Re:Lazy

[kannibal_klown]

:sigh:

I was talking about my friend who does not have 5 hours in the day, not myself.

As for the 1 hour for shopping + errands: key word is errands. When you have 3 adolescent kids, you can't really just assume that going to the grocery once or twice a week is going to cut it. Clothes, medicines, various things from the pharmacy, getting gas, school recitals, parent/teacher meetings, taking them to cub scouts, etc. All of these things add up, and something easily occurs once a week-day. Factor in the driving back-and-forth to these things and each outing easily becomes an hour.

Re:Lazy

[noc007]

I think I may do this. What a simple, smart idea.

Re:Lazy

[ChuckSnorris]

No. This is bullshit: "That's bullshit right there. Strength training is done for short periods of time and large amounts of weight. If it takes you that much time, then you're doing it wrong." 10 to 20 minutes will not get you in the 'large amounts of weights' arena. If you are just starting SL 5x5 or SS's novice program and are at beginner's weights you might be able to finish in 20 minutes. But once you get to an intermediate level you'll be spending that 20 minutes on just one of the major lifts, let only two or three. And this doesn't even incorporate any accessory work to help your core lifts (squat/bench/dead lift/overhead press). But the OP wasn't asking about getting strong. The OP was just asking about getting fit. That is a pretty general term and needs further explanation as to what the OP's goals are. That would be my recommendation for step 1 - what are you trying to achieve. All else follows from there. Without goals what can motivate and push you to stick with it? A couple other suggestions for addressing the lack of motivation would be to get a workout partner and/or join a site like fitocracy (it's free). If strength training interests you then checkout: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/

Re:Lazy

[ChuckSnorris]

No. This is bullshit:

"That's bullshit right there. Strength training is done for short periods of time and large amounts of weight. If it takes you that much time, then you're doing it wrong."

10 to 20 minutes will not get you in the 'large amounts of weights' arena. If you are just starting SL 5x5 or SS's novice program and are at beginner's weights you might be able to finish in 20 minutes. But once you get to an intermediate level you'll be spending that 20 minutes on just one of the major lifts, let only two or three. And this doesn't even incorporate any accessory work to help your core lifts (squat/bench/dead lift/overhead press).

But the OP wasn't asking about getting strong. The OP was just asking about getting fit. That is a pretty general term and needs further explanation as to what the OP's goals are. That would be my recommendation for step 1 - what are you trying to achieve. All else follows from there. Without goals what can motivate and push you to stick with it? A couple other suggestions for addressing the lack of motivation would be to get a workout partner and/or join a site like fitocracy (it's free). If strength training interests you then checkout: http://startingstrength.wikia.com/

Re:Lazy

[mrchaotica]

2 hours commute, round trip

10 hours for work

1 hour for shopping + errands (groceries, kid's clothes, basic stuff)

Well there's her problem: if she quit working for assholes that want 2 hours of (I assume) unpaid overtime every day, quit trying to work 3 counties away from her home, and learned how to consolidate shopping trips (i.e., get groceries once per week instead of 7 times), she'd have plenty of time for exercise!

Re:Lazy

[Optali]

Doing some basic calisthenics is not going to make you any fitter either. Well, it will move your blood a bit and avoid RSI.
Standing is a good workout by itself, very nice for core stability.

But if you really want a workout you need to do it at a level above 60% of your resting heart rate. This means sweating.

What I and many people do is using the 30 minutes lunch pause to go out running. I started this way 3 years ago and I stopped with it after 6 months... the reason?
I found out that running was totally made for me, I am now a sub 3:30 marathoner (actually 3:21:47, here: http://goo.gl/uuRqa) and planning to step into ultra-running quite soon.

My strategy is as Russ1642 said: stop being lazy and getting my butt to the gym and to the streets. I stay up at 4:00 in the morning twice or three times a week to run 8 - 12 miles before going to work. I commute by train and bicycle cycling 30mi /week and I three to four times a week I lift weight.

In fact, once you are "in the groove" you don't need any special stimulus: It's just what you want to do, it feels good, almost as good as sex and way, way better than playing video games or watching TV. And the best is that you can still eat pizza... even more, you will need tons of the stuff!!!
well, "pizza" is actually a figure of speech as most sporters have a healthy diet, in massive amounts but healthy. But hey... beer is not restricted! It's actually a tradition!!! Yeah!

Re:Lazy

[Optali]

That's bullshit right there. Strength training is done for short periods of time and large amounts of weight. If it takes you that much time, then you're doing it wrong.

right. There is a classic method called "the abbreviated method" (I assume you are talking about that one) consisting on a few movement such as the squat, the bench press, dead lifts and a few more, using heavy weight, perfect form and performed slowly, using very low reps, 4x6 normally for muscle growth.

However; with a higher amount of reps and lower weight you can tarin for muscular endurance.

But you are totally right: A normal session should not exceed 30 minutes (of excercise). More is should not be an option as it is supposed that you should end up pretty tired after a good workout, else it means that you are just lifting too light or following some strange fancy "get ripped abs in two weeks" program, lol.

Re:Lazy

[steelfood]

Better yet, instead of driving everywhere, walk or ride a bike to those same places. That's usually sufficient exercise to stay in shape and be healthy. Don't have sidewalks or bike lanes? Time to go petition the local applicable government to get some put in.

Re:Lazy

[Outta_the_way_peck!]

run for an hour outdoors with your heart rate around 150-165. "Good shape" will get you 7.5 miles. Good weekend triathletes will get 10 miles. Professional triathletes will get 12.

You clearly aren't a runner, at least not one capable of the 10-12 miles. It possible those great athletes to get that distance in an hour, but in race conditions. It isn't something they are going to do 3 times a week.

Elliptical

[Eowaennor]

I use a portable elliptical trainer that can be used standing or sitting down in a kind of peddling motion. It's non motorized and pretty quiet.

Re:Elliptical

[heypete]

Link? I'd be curious to get just such a device.

Re:Elliptical

[CheshireDragon]

Google "under desk elliptical trainer" and get a ton of choices

Re:Elliptical

[cruff]

Just be sure that the "under desk" part doesn't just refer to a place where it can be stored while not in use.

Re:Elliptical

[Eowaennor]

I got it from Amazon.. http://www.amazon.com/Stamina-55-1610-InMotion-Elliptical-Trainer/dp/B000VICRO8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1363286153

Re:Elliptical

[TeknoHog]

I use a portable elliptical trainer that can be used standing or sitting down in a kind of peddling motion.

Do you, perchance, work in sales?

I get up ..

[Idimmu Xul]

3 hours before I need to be at work and go to the gym, and try my damned hardest not to eat the free biscuits or cakes when I get in to the office.

Re:I get up ..

[Chris Walker]

Yep, although I don't go to the gym, I just walk. And not for 3 hours. I walk 15 minutes before work, 45 minutes at lunch and another 15-30 minutes after work. And I stopped overeating. That's all it takes. I lost 90 pounds in the last 6 months and feel so much better. Really, it just takes a little discipline. Also take a walk around the floor at work every 2-3 hours, not good to sit for extended periods.

Re:I get up ..

[tech.kyle]

Biscuits and cakes? I want biscuits and cakes. :(

I assume they have showers at the gym? If high school gym/weight training taught me anything, it's that Axe won't mask it all.

Re:I get up ..

[nortcele]

Yep, although I don't go to the gym, I just walk.

Of course you would. You're a Walker.

Re:I get up ..

[matt_kizerian]

Seriously? Did you even read the article? It isn't saying that exercising isn't good for you, it is that extreme sedentary living is very, very BAD for you.

Re:I get up ..

[Pope]

Really, it just takes a little discipline.

Doesn't sound like the original poster has any. Nothing we say is going to help unless he gets this first.

Re:I get up ..

[Kjella]

3 hours before I need to be at work and go to the gym, and try my damned hardest not to eat the free biscuits or cakes when I get in to the office.

I swear you're some kind of alien, I can't even work up the motivation to take the stairs in the morning. Anywhere between noon and midnight I don't have any problem exercising, but I only get up at the last possible snooze to get to work on time.

Re:I get up ..

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

There is no contradiction. I chose my wording to be alarming to the casual reader but still technically true so that people would take notice.

Re:I get up ..

[xaxa]

I swear you're some kind of alien, I can't even work up the motivation to take the stairs in the morning. Anywhere between noon and midnight I don't have any problem exercising, but I only get up at the last possible snooze to get to work on time.

I'm "late" (flexitime, but later than I'd prefer) pretty much every day, but I cycle to work, and usually try and wander round outside at lunchtime.

I cycle at a moderate pace on the way to work, to avoid getting sweaty, but I often go faster on the way home.

Re:I get up ..

[TeknoHog]

I guess the answer to the original question is Johnnie Walker.

Re:I get up ..

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

It takes a lot of chutzpah for you to accuse me of being misleading and then only partially quote me. What I wrote is true en toto - you can make anyone a liar by selectively quoting them.

Re:I get up ..

[The_Noid]

Exactly!
I used to live 10 minuted by bike from work. I found that time too short, so I walked instead, which made it 30 minutes.
Instead of sitting in the canteen for lunch, I (and several others) brought a packed lunch, and we walked around outside, in the park, for 30 to 45 minutes.

I can especially recommend walking or biking to work, it's great for clearing your mind, but I guess it depends on your local traffic situation and the availability of parks or green areas.

Re:I get up ..

[cgimusic]

Isn't that the answer to the question "How do you stay sane at work?"

Re:I get up ..

[Jenandra]

I assumed that you wanted to say, "... that not 'exercising is good for you' is true - rather ..." and auto-corrected it in my mind. Not everyone takes the trouble to do this auto-correction, and it sounds now as if you did that on purpose in order to be alarming. Yellow press style at its best.

Re:I get up ..

[Jherek Carnelian]

"It isn't the gym that makes a difference, it is the 8 hours sitting at a desk that really makes you unhealthy."

Sounds pretty straight-forward to me. Charges of "yellow press" just sound like pedant nerdrage.

We ask this question on Pi day???

[erroneus]

C'mon!!

Re:We ask this question on Pi day???

[Tablizer]

That's why Sphere Day comes after it

Re:We ask this question on Pi day???

[skatull]

On assignment to Lexington KY, introduce my co-workers to Pi Day, they introduced me to Derby Pie. Nomish!

Re:We ask this question on Pi day???

[nigelo]

Pie: Arse-squared.

Fitness?

[Anonymous Coward]

A rigorous diet of coffee and cigarettes help keep me in top shape at work.

If I'm feeling a little low on carbs and blood sugar levels I will occasionally eat a box of doughnuts.

Re:Fitness?

[badzilla]

Tobacco is a green leafy vegetable so that is definitely a healthy plan.

Re:Fitness?

[ub3r n3u7r4l1st]

Cannabis is a green leafy vegetable so that is definitely a healthy plan.

Re:Fitness?

[ultrasawblade]

Meth is a green leafy vegetable so that is definitely a healthy plan.

Oh wait ...

I keep the two separate and focused

[peter303]

Other than hall walking breaks to relieve muscle tension, I do vigorous exercise outside of work.

Its a lot like advice for insurance: combing investing and insurance in one product usually shorts both.

No Magic Bullets

[tompatman]

There's no magical way that's going to keep you in shape without a little effort to eat well and take some time to exercise. Lay off the fritos and mountain dew. Stick to water and coffee/tea and get some veggies in your meals. Make time to exercise over lunch or right after work, for at least 30 min. You're just making excuses if you think you can't carve 30 min. out of your day. I go to the gym at lunch and find it makes me more relaxed and more productive at work.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[DragonIV]

Exactly right. I'm 5'10", and was tipping the scales around 225lbs with a diet and lifestyle like the submitter. Here's what worked for me:

1. Ditched high calorie drinks (soda/juices) and limited snacking. Mornings, I switched to eating a single bowl of cheerios or two shredded wheat biscuits or a banana. Lunch is simple, sandwich, less than 400 cal. Dinner--I rarely eat out, and eating at home I have stopped eating dessert and eat smaller portions at dinner, with no second helpings.
2. Exercise. I run M/W/F for 60 minutes in the morning before work. Tu/Th, I do weigh training (pull ups, push ups, sit ups, other simple stuff), which takes me about 45 minutes. Google Evil Cyber's beginner workout if you want details.

In three months, I've dropped to 207lbs. I'd probably be lighter if I could break myself of *#!*$"&!! cookies, but one needs to be reasonable. My hope is to be below 200 by the end of May, and down to 190 by the end of the summer. You pretty much just have to build on your success, and if you fall off the horse by missing a few days in a row, get back on as soon as you can...but don't beat yourself up about it.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[PRMan]

Carbs are addictive. Stop eating Cheerios and Shredded Wheat for breakfast and eat bacon and eggs or sausage instead with tea or coffee (unsweetened). You'll have energy all day and will stop craving the cookies. If you start the day with carbs, you'll crave them all day long. And if you can keep your carbs under 125 or so (or as close as you can get), you'll drop the weight really quickly. Your blood pressure and cholesterol should improve greatly as well (yes, even with eating bacon and eggs).

Re:No Magic Bullets

[David_Hart]

Exactly right. I'm 5'10", and was tipping the scales around 225lbs with a diet and lifestyle like the submitter. Here's what worked for me:

1. Ditched high calorie drinks (soda/juices) and limited snacking. Mornings, I switched to eating a single bowl of cheerios or two shredded wheat biscuits or a banana. Lunch is simple, sandwich, less than 400 cal. Dinner--I rarely eat out, and eating at home I have stopped eating dessert and eat smaller portions at dinner, with no second helpings.

2. Exercise. I run M/W/F for 60 minutes in the morning before work. Tu/Th, I do weigh training (pull ups, push ups, sit ups, other simple stuff), which takes me about 45 minutes. Google Evil Cyber's beginner workout if you want details.

In three months, I've dropped to 207lbs. I'd probably be lighter if I could break myself of *#!*$"&!! cookies, but one needs to be reasonable. My hope is to be below 200 by the end of May, and down to 190 by the end of the summer. You pretty much just have to build on your success, and if you fall off the horse by missing a few days in a row, get back on as soon as you can...but don't beat yourself up about it.

I'm a similar weight and height and I've started a similar program:

1. Instead of going cold turkey altogether, I've reduced my intake of soda by buying the half-size bottles and only having one per day (afternoon) and none at night. I have also begun to water down my juice (1/3 juice, 2/3 water) so that I still get my vitamin C, but less calories. I've always eaten smaller portions, but I've cut back on cookies (my bane too) to just having a couple of cookies for dessert but nothing later in the evening.

2. I can't stand running, but I do have an exercise machine that I use to work out. Also, to make it fun, I am using the Wii Fit. Once Spring/Summer arrives, I plan on getting out on the golf course.

I haven't dropped much weight yet, but I just started.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[DragonIV]

Ah yes, the fad diet advice. Losing weight is fairly scientific--if you ingest more calories than you spend, you gain weight. To lose it, you have to do the other direction. As for energy--I don't have energy issues. People with energy issues don't run fifteen miles a week. Blood pressure and cholesterol? Both were excellent even before I began this program. There isn't much room for them to get better. I'm not trying to lose weight to be healthy (though it's a nice side benefit)--I'm losing weight and gaining strength to keep up with these 20-somethings in my hockey league. :)

Re:No Magic Bullets

[DragonIV]

Good luck! Running is my choice, mostly because, well, I'm an athlete kind of guy who used to run track. It's great at ripping off weight. However, if you have access to a pool, swimming is even better and way less hard on the joints, but your exercise machine may also get that done for you.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[tlhIngan]

Ah yes, the fad diet advice. Losing weight is fairly scientific--if you ingest more calories than you spend, you gain weight. To lose it, you have to do the other direction

True, however the other aspect of a diet is to maintain a sense of "fullness" so you're not hungry all the time. It's easy to just take in 500 calories a day and lose a ton of weight. It's a lot harder when you're constantly hungry and everything tempts you. Eventually you'll break down.

Carbs tend to be "bad" because of their higher GI - your blood sugar spikes, then crashes, causing you to feel drowsy and irritable and hungry again. Proteins are "better" because they have a lower GI - your blood sugar tends to be stable, they tend to be bulky and give you a sense of fullness that lasts and you tend not to be as hungry.

All diets have the identical goal - reduce caloric intake. The only way they differ is how research shows the best way to do it and to be able to keep on it and lose the weight off for good (I think about 90% of people regain the weight they lost within a few years).

Re:No Magic Bullets

[BradleyUffner]

Ah yes, the fad diet advice. Losing weight is fairly scientific--if you ingest more calories than you spend, you gain weight. To lose it, you have to do the other direction.

I agree with you 100%, but some people believe that our bodies are magic little fairy kingdoms where the laws of physics no longer apply. I've had many arguments with otherwise rational people who just don't seem to get it.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[avandesande]

That's bull- went on a extremely low carb diet in November and have lost 40 pounds so far, with no attempts at portion control.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[DragonIV]

If you only eat crap your body doesn't digest, or has next to no calories, congratulations, you can lose lots of weight without portion control. If you eat calorie dense food that your body happily absorbs, carbs or not, with no portion control, then you gain lots of weight. This isn't rocket science, but there is some pretty basic conservation of energy stuff going on here.
I'm not saying you cannot lose weight on a low carb diet. I am saying that if you don't fix the primary issue of ingesting more calories than you exert, you cannot lose weight. Carbs are a calorie dense food, so limiting your intake of them isn't a bad approach, but it's far from the only approach.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[avandesande]

How do you know I am eating crap? The problem with carbohydrates is that 90% of them are pure garbage.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[DragonIV]

I'm not saying that you're eating crap, literally. I'm saying if you're eating something in unlimited fashion, it has no caloric uptake to your body, and as such, probably pretty limited value to it, too. The point of eating is to consume calories for your body to use for work. Eating stuff that doesn't stick is kind of a waste of effort. :)

Re:No Magic Bullets

[avandesande]

The problem with carbohydrates is that they do not trigger the feelings of satiation and when your blood sugar spikes and then crashes they can leave you feeling hungrier. For me eating a bagel makes me feel like I drank a six pack after an hour or so. Regardless, olives, cheese, meat and vegetables seem to work best for me.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[Kalriath]

My solution to that is to take a colleague or two with you. It does help that the company I work for is a healthcare company so naturally it's more tolerant to employees taking time out of their day to stay healthy (and I have a supportive manager) but even for a non-healthcare company I can't imagine them being opposed to a few team members heading out for a run or whatever.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[DragonIV]

I bet it varies quite a bit from one person to the next. I don't really have a major issue with carbs and satiation. My issue was simply this--I was a skinny ass kid growing up, and trained myself to eat more to be able to get stronger & bigger to compete at the college level in hockey. Mission accomplished, but after college came a desk job, and it turns out it's far easier to turn on a larger appetite than turn it off one you don't need it anymore.

Fast forward almost two decades, and while my vitals are excellent even today, there's no question that staying at that original weight of mine was not likely to end well. It had also become painfully obvious to me that if I planned to continue to play hockey in beer leagues against 20-somethings, I wasn't going to do that in this shape. :)

Decided to go the exercise route first, and surprise--running long distances again drove my appetite way down. Combine a run that chews up about a kcal 3x a week, and significantly less intake, and presto, the weight is coming off. The nice thing here is that this doesn't feel like a diet. I even ended up skipping two weeks of exercise at one point--and while I didn't lose any weight during that time, I also didn't gain any back. That right there is a victory in my book--one that has been elusive for much of the past 20 years.

Good to see you've also found a way that works for you, Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

Re:No Magic Bullets

[englishstudent]

The wii title "Just dance!" is pretty good for exercise on the wii. I've tried a few of the wii sports games, but they just didn't do it for me.

Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[eth1]

And switch to water, for a start.

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[Intrepid imaginaut]

I normally have a shot of espresso (straight back) and orange juice for breakfast, sip on water throughout the day, and have one cup of green tea and one of black coffee for lunch and in the afternoon.

The way that programming culture treats stimulants, narcotics and relaxants is nothing short of physical self abuse. One guy I read a while back was talking about sucking down strong coffee all day then drinking himself to sleep. That is a) a classic addictive cycle and b) ruinous for your body, not to mention that the effects of both the caffeine and alcohol reduce over time. And don't start with the sugary sodas and other drinks. This stuff doesn't help you program, causing sugar highs and lows all day, breaking concentration, and the same for the rest of it.

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[Bill Dimm]

A teaspoon of sugar is about 16 calories, which is nothing compared to a can of non-diet soda. It's hardly worth making your drink taste like crap (making it more likely that you'll to give up on your diet completely) to squeeze out every last calorie.

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[fahrbot-bot]

I normally have a shot of espresso (straight back) and orange juice for breakfast,

You'd be much better off have an actual orange than orange juice.
The fiber helps moderate the metabolism of the fructose and keeps you feeling fuller longer.

See: Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[dyingtolive]

Assuming you don't like it that way. The only significant sources of sugar I get is bread and beer, as I drink my coffee and tea straight. I also have a fairly decent diet. If I didn't enjoy the beer so much, I'd probably be a good 20-30 lbs lighter from that alone.

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[Intrepid imaginaut]

I also have a couple of slices of brown bread and an apple, plus oatmeal with honey, nuts and raisins. Sometimes a feta and spinach omelette if I've a heavy day ahead too. No, my breakfast and lunch aren't entirely liquid. :)

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[PRMan]

Water, coffee, iced tea, anything 0 calorie that you can drink. Diet sodas have their own issues, so I would avoid them if possible.

Re:Ditch the Tab and Mt. Dew

[AnalogDiehard]

+1 on ditching soda drinks. Read up on nutrition and the problem with processed junk like partially hydrogenated oils (transfats) and high *tose syrups which soda drinks are loaded with. That junk is in a lot of convenient foods today, in restaurants and grocery stores. Stay away from cafeteria or fast food chains for meals, BYOM (BYO meals).

Once while passing the cafeteria I spotted a plastic jug labeled "butter flavoring". Curious, I looked at the ingredients. Number one ingredient was TRANSFAT. That was when I decided to drastically cut back meals at restaurants.

My legs get restless every couple of hours and I like to walk. So I walk at a fast pace. Doing that twenty minutes twice a day will get your heart rate up briefly. Any occasion during the workday that you can walk, do it at a fast pace. Then you can use work time for brief aerobics.

I've done this for years and was able to maintain my weight.

Work it into the commute.

[crankyspice]

I knew I'd never reliably hit a gym, etc. (BTDT, repeatedly), and working out *at* work wasn't really feasible, so I worked out by going to / from work by bicycle. At first it was 5 miles each way, then I changed jobs and it was a 35 mile round trip, daily. Lost ~100 lbs in about 8 months. Have kept ~80 of those off since 2008...

Re:Work it into the commute.

[skiman1979]

That's a great idea, unless your commute is 60+ miles one way like mine...

Re:Work it into the commute.

[zuvembi]

Yup - I have a similar story. Was at 277 - dropped down to 177. Now I'm a little above 200 - but I've been reasonably stable for years.

Before you can say "I can't do it!", keep in mind you probably can if you wan't to. Here are some common objections I

• Do it every day - start at one day a week - maybe go up to three - or even five if you can manage it
• I'll be sweaty and stinky! I personally have a shower at work - but even without, if you are clean in the morning and change from biking clothes to work clothes while dabbing on some deoderant, a little clean sweat is not very fragrant.
• It's too far! So don't do it all the way. I know plenty of people who will drive part of the way, then hop on their bike and do the rest. That way you can tailor the ride to your time, fitness, etc. I even know some people who drive to work one way - bike back, then bike to work the next morning - then drive home.

If you don't want to do it, just say so - there's no sin in that. But don't come up with bogus reasons why it's a terrible thing you can't do and noone else should.

Re:Work it into the commute.

[Zumbs]

Then drive the first 50 miles and ride a bike for the last 10. Hopefully it is possible to find a parking lot somewhere in a reasonable distance where you can also stash a bike. Another alternative would be to consider moving closer to work or changing job to something closer to home.

Re:Work it into the commute.

[ciderbrew]

I commute by train and often get out 1 stop early for an hour walk home. If you drive that option isn't going to help.

Re:Work it into the commute.

[minogully]

That's true that distance can be a factor, but if you're determined, you can find a compromise between driving part-way and cycling part-way.

I used to cycle 21km (13 miles) one-way to and from work everyday, but then at the end of the season I moved out to a place twice the distance. Because I loved cycling I looked into it and found that my city offers free "park-and-cycle" parking at various places throughout the city. So now I drive to one of these lots and cycle the rest of the way.

The amazing part is that it takes the same time as taking the bus (my winter mode of travel), but I don't have to pay the $150/month parking, nor do I have to pay the $110/month bus pass. It's less gas money than driving the whole way, less wear and tear on my vehicle than driving the whole way AND I'm getting exercise without taking any extra time out of my day (than taking the bus).

Re:Work it into the commute.

[swillden]

Then drive the first 50 miles and ride a bike for the last 10. Hopefully it is possible to find a parking lot somewhere in a reasonable distance where you can also stash a bike. Another alternative would be to consider moving closer to work or changing job to something closer to home.

No need to stash the bike at the parking lot, just get a bike rack for the car.

Re:Work it into the commute.

[skiman1979]

All good points. However, I'm on a van pool, with no room in the van to store my bike. Moving closer results in fairly significantly higher costs in property taxes, school taxes, state sales taxes, and housing costs. I guess I could try to find a job closer to home... in this economy?

Re:Work it into the commute.

[arkane1234]

Your requiring the world to change to suit you.

Re:Work it into the commute.

[eherot]

If you found a place closer *enough* to the job, you could probably offset the other costs by ditching the car completely. Crazy idea, I know, but in most of the parts of the world where people don't have heart disease as a result of sedentary lifestyles, this is what they do to get around.

Re:Work it into the commute.

[skiman1979]

I Am? Since when? if I drove my own car, I could take my bike. I can't fit it in a 6 passenger van with 6 passengers and no roof rack. It is also not cost effective for me to move to a closer, much more expensive area and make my children change schools just so I can bike part way to work.

I am fine doing Insanity and similar workouts in my home. :)

Re:Work it into the commute.

[skiman1979]

Not worth making my wife and kids move, change schools, much higher taxes, etc... just so I can bike instead of doing Insanity, P90X, etc at home.

Take the stairs.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even when I'm not going anywhere.

Re:Take the stairs.

[hrvatska]

Yep, if you've got stairs in the building where you work get up an walk up and down stairs every 90 minutes or so. Ten minutes of stair walking is a bit of exercise. Last time I worked in an office it was in a building with four floors, with two flights of stairs for each floor and two more to the door to the roof. Over a nine or ten hour work day I could do about 40 minutes of stair climbing. And doing it in small amounts spread through out the day is better for you than doing it in one big session.

Proper Lunchtime and a Walk

[Anonymous Coward]

I just go to the gym, but colleagues of mine make it a point to take their lunch to a local park to eat. The break is as useful as the exercise.

Also useful, if you have got into the habit of using quick online chats to communicate info, get up and go to the person instead to talk.

Best product for such:

[Tablizer]

Sneakernet! Unplug yourselves.

Don't be such a facist

[Anonymous Coward]

You got into technology because you aren’t like everybody else. Why spend hours sweating in a gym trying to emulate people who are neurotic and or genetically blessed. Why make yourself feel guilty over eating food that tastes good and makes you happy. Your expiration date is set by your genetic factors and all the exercise in the world can only move it by +- five years. So what if you add an extra year to your life. Those are the dementia adult diaper wearing getting pushed around in a wheel chair by your born again Christian son years. Who really needs those? You are not going to live to see the colonization of mars or the creation of a sentient mechanical being. Every form of exercise that is good for one part of your body puts undue wear and tear on another. Get lots of sleep and practice good prostate hygiene.

Re:Don't be such a facist

[JonStewartMill]

>practice good prostate hygiene

We all know what that means, don't we?

Re:Don't be such a facist

[LynnwoodRooster]

The quantity of available romantic partners dramatically increases if you're someone less than the size of Jabba the Hutt...

Re:Don't be such a facist

[GameboyRMH]

And if you can get to "better than average" there's another, even bigger improvement!

Re:Don't be such a facist

[cusco]

Why make yourself feel guilty over eating food that tastes good and makes you happy.

I eat wonderful food and don't feel guilty at all. I married a Peruvian, and we cook dinner at home pretty much every night. YMMV.

Seriously, though, people need to learn to cook again. It's fun, inexpensive, and something nice you can do for your partner and/or yourself every day. I have never eaten a restaurant pizza that was as good as I can make, no hot sauce sold can compete with any of the ones that Rosa makes, and the worst meal that we have every cooked (paella) was still better than the best frozen microwave dinner you can buy.

Go for a run-

[gatzke]

I have tried various things over the years. The best I ever found was to make myself run every day. Get in the habit of roll out of bed, go run, shower, go to work.

One day I went to work, then after eight hours I realized that I never even stood up. I was busy all day long, with all of my meetings coming to my office. I never got thirsty or had the call of nature. I realized that I had been sitting on my rear for a full eight hours. I try to at least go get coffee now...

Work from Home | Yoga and Standing Practice

[ohnocitizen]

For myself, I work remotely. This let's me take a break to exercise during the day (which in turn helps me stay alert and focused throughout the work day). If you don't have this kind of flexibility at your job, it comes down to what exercises can you do that won't leave you a sweaty mess. For that, I'd recommend yoga you can do at your desk, or standing practice. The latter is great for building lower body strength.

If you don't mind getting sweaty, exercise bands, push ups and fifer scissors/situps, can be great for your upper body, and easy to use/do quietly in a relatively small space.

Whatever you do, don't stand all day. Standing desks just switch out the health problems you get from sitting. Varying what you do is the best tact - if you stand most of the day, find time to sit and rest your legs (and vice versa).

Re:Work from Home | Yoga and Standing Practice

[redlemming]

Nice post. I'll elaborate a bit on what you said.

A person looking to "get fit" needs to think about what it really means to "be fit". There is far more to being fit than just muscle strength or aerobic fitness (both of which are necessary, but not sufficient). To be truly fit individual, you also need to work on balance, coordination, and flexibility (all of which tend to be extremely poor for most people in today's world -- especially us nerds -- typically the result of accumulated bad habits, lack of good education, and neglect).

It is not just the physical muscles that atrophy over time in the presence of neglect, it is also the control and coordination of those muscles (or, the ability of the brain to drive the nervous system to use the muscles) that atrophies. Strength building activities that isolate muscles, and simple, repetitive aerobic fitness movements will not fully restore this lost control, let alone increase it over time. There is a world of difference between how a highly trained dancer or martial artist moves and uses their body, even in everyday life and outside the scope of these hobbies, versus an ordinary person that limits themselves to just lifting weights / running / biking / hiking / etc. Truly being fit requires reversing both types of atrophy.

Working on coordination of muscles also tends to help people learn to be more physically relaxed, without having to first tire out their muscles to get them to relax. Most people I see in offices are carrying a LOT of unnecessary tension.

Yoga, Pilates, and Tai Chi are all potentially great for working on the more subtle aspects of physical fitness in the office, iff you have a good understanding of what you're trying to achieve. Good instruction is essential. Patience and a sense of humor help as well.

Typically you'll need to be selective in what and how you do in order to fit these activities into an office space (and to be able to do these in office clothing).

In addition to a variety of Internet sources of information on this stuff, there are also a number of good books and dvds that can help you with this. Try looking up "office yoga", or look up the word "chair" paired with one of the following: "yoga", or "pilates", "tai chi", or even "exercise".

Another good option is to get an inflatable balance ball or a balance platform. Many exercises that can be done standing can also be done while balancing, with some care. Safety first!

Isometric exercise

[ngc5194]

You could always perform isometric exercises periodically while you work. There are a pile of decent books on the subject. One reminder: remember to breathe while doing these exercises, don't hold your breath.

Re:Isometric exercise

[Walking The Walk]

Along the same theme:

• * Ankle weights. Since you're at a standing desk, put weights on your ankles. It added a surprising amount of extra work for my legs, moving that weight when I shifted my feet around.
• * Sit on a fitness/yoga ball. I got tired standing so long, and my feet got sore. So I followed my co-workers' advice and alternated standing with sitting on a yoga ball. It takes the stress off your feet and legs for a bit, and really works your core (abs). Plus, it improved my posture (until I figured out a bizarre way to slouch while on a yoga ball.
• * Electronic muscle stimulator. It's basically isometric exercises, but you don't have to think about doing them - turn on the device and it forces your muscles to flex at specific rates. I hated the feeling of being out of control, but my brother has been talking up his for years.

Bike to work, get a dog, walk at lunch

[hawguy]

I bike to work 2 - 3 times/week (In the winter months when it's dark at night, I tend to bike in once direction only and take transit home. It's a 19 mile ride so even a one way trip is pretty good exercise).

The dog makes sure I got out for at least one 30 minute walk or jog (the wife usually takes her for the afternoon walk).

I spend my lunch hour walking with a few coworkers.

I can't imagine that a treadmill would work well in the office -- I'd either be focused on the treadmill and not working, or be focused on working and not the treadmill and would end up tripping myself.

M O V E

[fleeped]

First of all reduce the crap that you're consuming, that's quite important as you can understand. That said, whatever applies to you:
- Walk/Cycle to work
- Use stairs whenever you find the chance (ascending only, be kind to your knees)
- Take breaks to go for a walk
- Go running after work (run to home perhaps?)

Re:M O V E

[HornWumpus]

Strangely the title of the post you responded to is the only reasonable answer.

_Move_ out of Chicago for fucks sake. Don't move to Detroit.

Re:M O V E

[toutankh]

Why would anyone in a first world country want to live in such a place, not safe enough to walk/cycle to the office? This is not a rhetorical question, I've never been to Chicago.

Re:M O V E

[butchersong]

Jogging will play hell on your body though. Much better to walk interspersed with short all out sprints once a week if you feel you need it. Really all you need is a decent diet and some occasional weight lifting with free weights. The amount of lifting just depends on if you want to be slim or gain a lot of muscle.

Re:M O V E

[ub3r n3u7r4l1st]

family obligations, debt/mortgage, girlfriend etc. are usually reasons people don't want to take the challenge and move.

excersise

[mjwalshe]

Run do not walk away from such a hipster organization that has standing desks or can you bike to work? if you can only bike part way consider a folding bike like a brompton.

Re:excersise

[CalRobert]

What's wrong with a standing desk? I hardly see how it's bad to let people use the desk that suits them best.

Re:excersise

[GameboyRMH]

There's nothing wrong with them in the same sense that there's nothing wrong with Vibram shoes or fanny packs.

Walk to work

[Pinky]

I walk to work. 40 minutes both ways. It's 6.6km round trip. Decent exercise for the day and I get some reflection time and fresh air as a bonus.

High impact weight training:

[Hartree]

I exercise by lifting coffee cups.

Re:High impact weight training:

[gmuslera]

I exercise not lifting, but for going to fill them. Have to go for coffee two floors below i work, taking stairs up and down, every hour or so (either for coffee or water). Sometimes adding inefficiency to your life have side benefits.

My daily routine

[c600g]

I'm lucky enough to live close to the ocean, so I surf on my lunch when the weather is nice out. Otherwise, I'll take a 2.5 mile walk or bike during my lunch. I need to get off my ass after sitting in front of the computer all morning, and have just made it a part of my daily routine. I have three kids, and don't want to take time away from them (nor pay for a gym membership), so I find that this works best for me.

Easy: go to the gym

[hsmith]

I go to the gym during lunch and swim. 15min away, exercise for 1/2hr and back at work within the hour. The nice thing is, it splits the day in half.

Re:Easy: go to the gym

[Anonymous Coward]

And since you don't actually get to eat lunch, this has the added benefit of cutting your caloric intake. And skipping lunch has the added bonus of getting you the afternoon off after you pass out from low blood sugar.

Re:Easy: go to the gym

[RCGodward]

If you pass out from missing one meal you should probably see a doctor and not Slashdot.

Re:Easy: go to the gym

[Securitized]

Was severely overweight as a kid (husky jeans are no fun). I would really consider the gym, maybe you can go earlier in the morning? Great motivation and is nice to get out. Also, not sure were you are at, but going out and just running might be good (especially if you can knock out two birds from taking your dogs with you). My buddy just got a Pilatemate (looks a lot like a mobile bosu ball with some sort of workout plan for doing it at home), and loves it. But don't know a lot about it.

Whatever solution you come up with...

[Improv]

Please figure out a way that doesn't make you stinky at work. Just because *you* can't smell you doesn't mean others can't.

Not at, to and from

[skatull]

Cycle commuting

Re:Not at, to and from

[eherot]

Yeah, this. If it weren't for the bike I'd definitely never get any exercise.

Find something you enjoy!

[mlk]

Rather than head to the gym, head down to your local fencing/football/whatever club. You are more likely to make the time if you have fun doing it.
If you can cycle to work.
During your lunch hour go for a run and eat at your desk after the run. Zombies, Run! helped me with this. [ https://www.zombiesrungame.com/ ]
It may be worth trying something like http://www.gym-pact.com/ as well. It has meant that the last two weeks that have been extra crappy at work, and I've not been able to run during lunch I've made the effort to go for a run on the weekend.

My Plan

[Akratist]

I thought about this a while, as I got to the point where I went from having the luxury to go to the gym 3-4 times a week and run daily down to having little time. My solution was to take a mile walk one or two times a day. This gets me away from the keyboard and gives me a chance to think. At night, I have some free weights at home and will lift for maybe ten minutes and do some situps, knee bends, etc, just trying to exercise the large muscle groups. It's not a great or complete workout program, but at least keeps me somewhat fit.

being fit

[hypergreatthing]

Being fit = going to the gym and actively working on your body to stay in shape.
Losing weight, staying in a healthy weight range is not fit.
Saying you don't want to put any effort into getting/staying fit is a sure fire way to make sure you're never fit. You do need to exercise, you do need to make time for it, you do need to make it a priority. There is no quick easy way out of it.

bike to work (you gotta get there somehow)

[jdc]

or join a volleyball and/or softball league. Meet some people

I recently joined crossfit. I'm terrible at crossfit, always finish dead last, but I'm in much better shape after three months than I have been in the past ten years

Re:bike to work (you gotta get there somehow)

[juancn]

+1 for crossfit.

I just started doing Cross-Fit, the great thing about it is that every training session is different (I get bored easily) and you get results pretty fast. I also bike to work often, and I used to run a little.

Going back to the poster's question, the thing is, when you get older you have to do something or your body will not be kind to you. What has worked for me is to try something, do it for a while, and if I start to get bored, try something else. The secret to success is to keep trying. You'll start something, maybe you'll drop it (and that's fine), but when you do that, instead of giving up, just find something else to do.

If you are really that strapped for time, try running 20 minutes three times a week. At first, if you're out of shape, you'll walk most of the 20 minutes, but you'll get better pretty soon. One bonus of running is that it doesn't take much time (changing your clothes and maybe a shower), and you can do it pretty much anywhere.

It's a "Jump to conclusions" mat.

[djh101010]

See, it's a mat with conclusions on it. And then you jump to them.

Re:It's a "Jump to conclusions" mat.

[Quakeulf]

I don't know why, but I found this amusing.

Re:It's a "Jump to conclusions" mat.

[Roger Wilcox]

Never seen "Office Space?"

Re:It's a "Jump to conclusions" mat.

[Quakeulf]

I should probably see it.

Or Gatorade

[ub3r n3u7r4l1st]

that works too.

Re:Or Gatorade

[fakeid]

There are still needless calories in Gatorade. Less than your typical non-diet soda, but far more than water. It can be a rough switch at first so some of those extremely low calorie water flavor items (be them powder or liquid) can be a good alternative to plain water.

Re:Or Gatorade

[Tyler Durden]

Yeah but Gatorade has electrolytes. It's what plants crave.

Seriously though, seltzer water does the trick for me.

Get enough sleep

[Cinder6]

Numerous studies have suggested that obesity is linked to not getting enough sleep. Aside from that, try bicycling to work if it's feasible.

Re:Get enough sleep

[Kalriath]

I've seen enough counter-examples (people who rarely sleep but are rake thin) that I would attribute exactly zero value to these studies.

Eat right and exercise is my answer.

Get your bicycle out of your garage

[dmatos]

Unless you've got a truly ridiculous commute, you can probably bike to work without taking much more time than driving. I've got a 7km commute that takes 15 mintues in rush-hour traffic. I can ride it in 20 (17 minutes is my personal best).

It takes an additional 15 minutes at work to shower and change, but that's 15 minutes that I'm not spending showering at home. All told, I get 40 minutes of exercise in a day with a net time loss of only 10 minutes. AND! I use the hot water at work (free!), where they don't have those horrible low-flow showerheads.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[Sez Zero]

Unless you've got a truly ridiculous commute, you can probably bike to work without taking much more time than driving.

I work from home, you insensitive clod!

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[T.E.D.]

What do you consider a "truly ridiculous commute"? I note from your units you aren't from the USA. My commute here is 10 miles (16km), and that's pretty modest by our standards. The average is supposedly 16 miles (approaching 26km).

I've done the bicycle commute thing for a couple of years, so I have a bit of personal experience on this. Let me tell you, bike commuting here in the USA is not for the feint of heart. We don't have bike lanes in most places, and sidewalks are often viewed as a newfangled invention for the effitte. If you try to use the roadways, you will be sharing them with 2+ ton vehicles whose drivers are utterly shocked to see you, if they notice you at all.

Also, average temperatures here are firmly in the sweat zone, so you'd better have an employer that provides shower facilities. Places that don't have summer temperatures in the 100's (F) typically have outright dangerous conditions in the winter.

Don't get me wrong, all this makes for a great workout, if you can do it. But it is just not practical for all but a few people.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[trptrp]

I lol'd because I also got a 7 km bike commute but i do it in 30 minutes instead of 20, then I don't need to shower afterwards ;-)

But no offense, I know some people tend to sweat more and probably it's much warmer where you live.

What I also always find important is to take the nice tracks and if possible try to omit the crowded roads. One really shouldn't underestimate how much nicer and healthier (!!!) it is to go a little extra in order to be able to ride through a park or along a river, instead of breathing the exhaust fumes on the road. I hope in the future air of a certain quality will be seen as a right of the cyclists.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[dmatos]

I actually ride a recumbent with hard, skinny tires as soon as the snow has melted. My personal best of 17 minutes occurred because I managed to hit almost all green lights on the way home. A faster bike won't speed me up that much :)

In the winter, on a singlespeed mountain bike (well, actually a 15-speed, but the gears stop working after the first week of salt & slush), it takes closer to 30 minutes to complete the ride.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[dmatos]

I like what they do for my water & gas bills. They're just not that satisfying to use.

So my solution is doubly good. I get nice, satisfying, high-pressure water with little risk of running out of hot water. And I don't have to pay for it :)

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[dmatos]

I've heard other work-from-homers say that including a morning commute helps them separate their work from their not-work time at home. They'll leave through the front door, go for a 20 minute walk (you could do a 20 minute bike ride), then come in the back door and go straight to their office.

At the end of the day, out through the back door, 20 minute bike ride, in through the front.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[dmatos]

"Truly ridiculous" is anything you can't bike without reaching your personal "I'm gonna die now" limit. For me, I'd set that at about an hour of riding, which would let me acheive the average commute distance on a good day (26km/16mi). But it's a personal choice. Obviously, as the distance increases, the extra time required to bike it instead of driving it increases as well.

I totally understand the stones it takes to join the cars on the road. My route has no bike lanes at all, and is along the biggest, busiest roads in a city of 350,000 people. But I've been riding my bike around town for 15 years now, so I'm pretty inured to the horrific driving that goes on around me. On the other hand, you are correct, I'm not from the US (rather, from that cold neighbour to the North), so at the very least, I don't have to worry about being shot to death when some jackass behind me gets pissed off that I've slowed him down.

If you are going to try this, there are three things I highly recommend:

One - get a rear-view mirror. It's invaluable when you want to change lanes, and for keeping an eye on the cars behind you that might cut you off at that right turn ahead.

Two - practice vehicular cycling, and take the lane (ride in the middle) when it's necessary to do so for your safety. Vehicular cycling means that your actions are predictable to the cars around you.

Three - if you're really having problems, either mount a camera on your helmet, or mount something that looks like a camera on your helmet. I was astounded by how much more room I was given when people thought they were being recorded.

As far as temperatures, I'm one of the lucky few that experiences days as hot as 100F (39C) in the summer, and -30F (-33C) in the winter. I get both extremes! I am fortunate enough to have a shower provided at my workplace, and I recognize that.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[HornWumpus]

How much faster are you with a flat tire?

I wish I could ride my road bike anywhere but paved bike trails. Slime doesn't seem to work well at over 100psi. It works, sort of, at least your tire isn't completely flat.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[T.E.D.]

Well, if your personal definition of "truly rediculous" is 1 hour, and you do (based on your first message) about 21km in that time, then the average USA commute is a good 5KM too far for you. In other words, most people in the USA can't do what you are doing based on the distance alone.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[dmatos]

If I had to travel more than 10km, chances are I'd be coming in from out of town, and I wouldn't spend as much time stopped at red lights. I can average about 26kph on my bike when I'm out riding in the country.

Next up - statistics, man. The average trip is 16 miles. That does not mean that 50% of the people travel more than 16 miles, and 50% travel less than 16 miles. An educated guess would be that commute distances follow something more akin to a Poisson distribution (sorry, I forget what the continuous form of that distribution is), with the median commute distinctly shorter than the man, due to the long tail formed by people with 100 mile commutes.

Thirdly- citation needed. Here's a report from the US Dept of Transportation:

http://nhts.ornl.gov/2009/pub/stt.pdf

Here, it states that the average commute for someone who drives alone, in 2009, was 12.09 miles (page 54), and for all people, it was 11.79 miles. Based on the historical trends, I find it hard to believe that it's jumped by 30% in just four years.

Finally - I'm not telling everyone in the US to bike to work. Some guy asked for a good way to stay in shape, and I responded that the only thing that I do is bike to work. I don't really get any exercise outside of that. I think it's a great way to keep in shape. Unless you are also Dishwasha, or you know their commuting arrangements intimately, don't discount my suggestion to them. Anecdotes aren't data, and data isn't anecdotes. Maybe it's a good suggestion, maybe it's not. Only they can tell that.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[Kalriath]

Doesn't work if you have a low pressure mains. Damn my city council.

Re:Get your bicycle out of your garage

[T.E.D.]

Next up - statistics, man. The average trip is 16 miles. That does not mean that 50% of the people

Actually, that's a very good point. Median != Mean. I have co-workers who commute 60 miles every day. It doesn't take many of those to raise the average rather high.

Ride a bike

[Jon_S]

To work if you can. Otherwise just ride a bike. Once you start, you will get so hooked that it will become your priority. Trust me on this one.

Re:Ride a bike

[TheDugong]

^This.

I got up to ~96kgs/212lbs at 173cm/5'8" by working in IT and developing OS software for fun. Went to a gym and cycled the 8 (hilly) km each way to work for a while and lost ~10kg.

Got very fit after my office moved 24 (hilly) km away and decided to keep riding it. I now ride for fun (up to 400km in a day), have a personal trainer to make me work muscle groups that cycling does not work and to generally kick my^K^K^K^K^K^K^Kencourage me, and generally am considered a fit bloke.

The advantage cycling gives is that you are likely to be able to get to work in a comparable time to driving, but getting fit at the same time. IOW, it takes no time out of your day. It will also allow you to get over the pain hump* while doing something practical. Once you are over the hump you'll (well, I did, YMMV) start enjoying exercise and being fit for its own sake, so going for a run will not seem liek an ordeal.

*The pain hump is just getting used to exercise after being a potato for a few years.

Re:A couple simple rules

[thmsdrew]

Yeah I'm sure you're the epitome of healthiness with a soup-only diet. There's a difference between staying fit and losing weight.

Re:A couple simple rules

[Anonymous Coward]

Losing weight doesn't make one fit.

bike

[ssam]

cycle to work.

for my commute it saves time compared to any other 'reasonable' mode of transport. (not including jetpack, helicopter, pneumatic tubes) (ok maybe a motorbike might win).

Fitness is a decision, and a lifestyle

[Scot Seese]

TL;DR: Pick something - anything - and commit to doing it 5x/week for 30-60 minutes per session for 30 days. It will become habit after a month and you will be less likely to quit. Install MyFitnessPal on your smartphone and use it religiously as a companion for those 30 days, and beyond. Nutrition is 80-90% of fitness.
---

Fitness and healthy living is a decision you arrive at following an inner monologue.

Experts say it takes 30 days for any new habit to become a routine, to become "cemented" in your life. So, go buy a cheap, used copy of something like P90x off eBay, study through the program booklets that come with it, and promise yourself you will adhere to the program for just 30 days. Then another 30 days. Then another 30 days.. There is an excellet P90X subreddit where experienced practitioners coach new people, and Redditors post their 30, 60, 90 day progress shots for support, encouragement and motivation.

If you are very overweight, or not fit enough for strenuous exercises, visit the Reddit /r/keto subreddit and give the Ketogenic diet a try. It works. It's essentially a new spin on the low-carb low sugar diet. Lots of fish, chicken, pork, beef, veggies, and it WILL melt pounds off like nobody's business.

The most important thing is to just do SOMETHING, KEEP doing something, and DON'T QUIT. To borrow some cheesy Tony Horton-isms from the P90X videos, "Do your best and forget the rest" or "just keep pressing play every day."

It's a lifestyle you must be willing to adapt

[toggaM]

I get a kick out of all my co-workers with the "Oh, I gotta start eating healthier/exercising...." line but 98% of them never do anything about it except talk the talk.

I'm fortunate enough to only live 2.5 km from work, so I walk back and forth everyday. This only burns about 250 calories but the biggest thing is my diet. I work on a 2000 calorie diet (exercise incl) and it maintains my weight around 132ish. I'm 5'6" and not a 'big' guy to begin with but after leaving the military, 2 years later I was up to 148 lbs and had a 'gut'.

I use to go to the gym at lunch but my 42 yr old body started to reject this to no fault of my own. I couldn't learn to take it easy and pushed myself too far. I would really like to be more active but have accepted I am getting older and being able to just maintain my current weight with little exercise and diet will have to suffice.

Weekends are 'my' time and I eat/drink what I want; its the only way to keep up with this life style without going crazy :-)

Morning Workout to a Video and Treadmill Desk

[monk]

I do the Power90 workout with my wife six mornings a week before going to work, then I have a treadmill desk at work where I walk all day as I code, read, surf, post on /. If we have a really early or hectic day ahead we move the workout to before dinner. If we're sick or injured in some way we modify the workout a bit. The big secret is not to push hard, just show up and keep moving. The workout is for cardio and strength, the treadmill desk wiped out any aches and pains and bad posture from hunching over and typing for 20 odd years.

Give yourself three months of drill instructor attitude to get in the habit and aim at 3 years to measure your results, just to avoid any short-term thinking. That worked great for us, and now it's just natural to get up and do it.

That's pretty much all you need.

Re:Morning Workout to a Video and Treadmill Desk

[Dishwasha]

Thanks for the no-duh moment, googling 'treadmill desk' was so obvious. Can you share the particular model you use and about how much noise it makes?

It find it unendingly hilarious how low-tech and redundant most people's answers have been on a self purported geeky/nerdy website. It's also funny how many thought that I actually eat fritos and drink tab and mountain dew when it was in fact a geeky cultural allegory. I'm also going to have to assume that the lack of any kind of links to preferred equipment is a resounding demonstration that the ./ community loves talking out of its self-efficating butt in areas that deviate from their actual practical experience.

I saw the proverbial "whoosh" on the whole "at work" thing which I can guess you appreciate. A large amount of time is wasted sitting or standing in place at work every day and simple non-cardio walking can burn 100-130 calories an hour, with which we have 6-8 hours at our disposal daily. Not to say that cardio isn't important, but improving daily heart and cardiovascular is better served with longer, lighter exercises like walking than short intense activities. It seems to me walking in place would probably be the least disruptive thing to do while coding and provide the biggest time efficiency and physical benefit ratio.

I think at this point I'll just have to go to several exercise equipment stores and bring a decibel meter to measure treadmill operating noise since the stores will probably have significantly more internal noise than my office.

Re:Morning Workout to a Video and Treadmill Desk

[monk]

> Thanks for the no-duh moment, googling 'treadmill desk' was so obvious.

I actually gave you quite a few specifics. No links, because I didn't intend to promote any particular brand. Normally, I would be happy to give you more detail about the treadmill desk I've used for several years now and how well it's worked out and the issues raised and resolved at work, that sort of thing. Over that time, walking 8 hours a day had a small positive impact on my cardio fitness and a big positive impact on skeletal/muscle resilience and comfort. But your attitude actually makes me enjoy whatever small suffering your life may bring.

You really need to learn how to interact with humans who haven't been paid to pretend they like you.

Re:Morning Workout to a Video and Treadmill Desk

[Dishwasha]

Ooh, how deliciously petty!

No links, because I didn't intend to promote any particular brand.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize that a mob of treadmill enthusiast bloggers and advertising agencies were waiting with baited breath to see what treadmill monk (1958) is willing to endorse and "promote" so that exercise manufacturer X can cite it and cause their competitors' stock to take a dive in response. Most humans who haven't been paid to interact that buy something and like it, just so you know, they tend to share with others what it was they enjoyed and what their experience was with it. For example, "I like Jiff peanut butter because it is the creamiest" is a much better response then "I like peanut butter" because there is a lot of different peanut butter out there with varieties in composition, taste, and texture, and people seek out the experiences of those that most closely correspond to their own preferences to save themselves from a lackluster or bad experience.

Let me give you a little lesson in economics to get you off of your high horse. Giving preference to something that has benefited you is not a sin even in the world of perfect equanimity you live in. When you don't share those experiences you only do a disservice to the various engineers and other hard working people who took the time to produce a quality product that enhanced and made your life just a little bit better.

If you don't like my attitude you should just keep it to yourself. Shame on you for not remembering the first rule of /. and the Internet. Do not feed the trolls.

Re:Morning Workout to a Video and Treadmill Desk

[bingoUV]

It seems to me walking in place would probably be the least disruptive thing to do while coding

It seemed to me that walking would be very disruptive, especially for coding. Not sure about yours, but mine involves a LOT of typing. I haven't tried, but I imagine it to be very difficult. Does your coding job involve much less typing than mine, or you don't mind typing while walking?

Re:Morning Workout to a Video and Treadmill Desk

[Dishwasha]

The one great thing about a standing desk is you can fine-tune the exact height of your arms and wrists. I find coding typing to happen in fits and spurts which is very different from the kind of fluid typing needed for writing reports/documents. I can easily type 70+wpm with 95%+ accuracy when I take a typing test with very little freeform typing on a day-to-day basis, but I can bet my coding typing is significantly slower due to the nature of the typing.

That being said, I really wouldn't know how disruptive walking while typing can be until I try, but my comment was geared towards alternative exercises others were suggesting such as disrupting myself from work by pulling on resistive straps or getting away from the desk and work and walking or running outside.

Re:A couple simple rules

[griffjon]

One great trick, I probably saw it on lifehacker or similar, is to phrase your decisions in terms of priorities - i.e., when choosing to do activity X (TV, long lunch, etc.) instead of Y (gym, run, etc.), consider that you're saying, "no, X is a higher priority for me than Y right now." It's cheesy, but it help keep you focused.

Yes - bringing a home-made lunch saves a ton of money, and is much easier to portion-control with. Don't eat snacks at work (supply yourself with healthy alternatives if need be).

Instead of an hour lunch break, take an hour gym break to a nearby gym, or work with your supervisor for a flex hour instead of a lunch break, show up an hour later (and use that to go to a gym on your way in). You'll be *amazed* at the increase in your afternoon productivity by going to a gym in the middle of the day, instead of stuffing yourself at the nearest lunch spot.

Walk/Run/Bike to or from work - only works if you have access to a shower facility or public transit for one-way commutes at work

Join a gym, *hire a trainer*, set a schedule. I went to the gym 3x/week for 2 years, slowly lost 5 pounds. Added a trainer, lost another 5 pounds ... in 3 months.

It sounds like the company cares about health, which is a great start - getting access to shower facilities at work really opens up a lot of possibilities, so investigate some options there.

Simple stuff

[Drachemorder]

I have a couple of exercise bands at my desk which I use when my hands are free. They don't take up much space, and you can get some with pretty decent resistance. You could also get a couple of ~8-10 pound exercise balls; tossing those from hand to hand can be a pretty decent light workout. Standard free weights are an option too. Honestly, you're just not going to get a lot of cardio in while at your desk. But you can do some light strength training and toning, which will help keep your metabolism up a bit if nothing else.

Make the time.

[R.Mo_Robert]

What's consuming the rest of your time? I bet you have an hour or so to spend at the gym before or after work if you really want to. Or could you do it during your lunch break? Also, you'll want to change what you eat--the Mountain Dew isn't going to help you. (Not bragging, but I'm a full-time graduate student with two part-time jobs and still manage to work out for about an hour a day--and I still have time to make my own dinner, which lots of people also insist they don't have time for. You might try that, too. In fact, I grow (most of) my own dinner in the summer, too. On the other hand, I don't have kids or anything that might require more time at home.)

If you still insist that you don't have time to work out, do it on the way to work: ride a bike instead of driving (or taking the bus/train/etc.). Maybe add in an extra ride over lunch. Lots of people, myself included, do this where I work. Even better, do it for all your errands and you'll save on gas, too.

You'll have to put in some effort, and the chances of you being able to do that at a sedentary job aren't that great. But it's worth it. You'll feel better in the long run.

Martial Arts

[EricWright]

I joined three gyms in 5-6 years and never stuck with it for more than 3 months, wasting the rest of the year's membership. Then, I decided to get into martial arts (partly as a family activity). A decent school with good master instructors will keep you motivated. There's always a new goal ahead of you: your next belt promotion, that new technique you saw the senior students practicing, new opportunities, etc. I've stuck with it for 6.5 years now, earning a 2nd dan in taekwondo and have been training in various Korean sword techniques for the past 3 years. When I started, I was around 215#, now I hover around 185-190# which is appropriate for my height and body type.

You just have to carve time out of your schedule. I drop my older son off at school around 7:15, work from 8-5, train immediately after work 2-3 days a week and still have time to cook dinner, attend soccer practices, help with homework and so on. The big difference is that I watch little TV any more ... and don't really miss it.

Ride a bike to work.

[CalRobert]

Ride a bike to work. If you're between 8 and 15 miles away this is perfect, but short of that biking to work and then hitting the gym really quick on my lunch helped me drop about 40 pounds.

Few tips

[butchersong]

Anything with more than a calorie or two isn't a 'drink' it's 'food'. That means that coke that you drink and that the waitress refilled for you means you had 2 meals for lunch. Trying to stay fit by doing aerobic work is a pain in the ass and is usually counter productive and in the case of jogging likely to lead to injury. Lift weights. Start out easy enough but look into high intensity lifting (free weights) once or twice a week for 30 min to an hour or so. I'm serious about this. A total of just one hour a week and you can be 'cut', 'buff' or whatever in a few months. You don't have to go no carbs but cut your carb intake and try for most meals to be protein, fat and veggies. Even if you don't buy into the 'low carb' stuff you have to know protein keeps you full longer. Carbs you immediately get a jolt of energy then you crash. If you also live a sedentary lifestyle this will eventually kill you. Start drinking green and herbal tea. It's warm and will substitute for snacks a bit. Last, skip breakfast. Light lunch. Meaning you have maybe 300 calories until work ends then eat at night when you'll naturally be more inclined to snack.

Go for a walk

[HockeyPuck]

Instead of taking a 60minute meal break. Eat your lunch in 30minutes and then go for a 30minute walk. It doesn't have to be right after you eat but insert the 30minute walk sometime in the day.

Block that 30minute walk out in your calendar so people can't (or will try to avoid) scheduling a meeting/concall over that time.

It's absurd if your boss expects you to sit at your desk for 9 hours a day (8hrs of working + 1 hr lunch).

Re:Reduce your fat intake

[ub3r n3u7r4l1st]

Enforce a straightly East / SE Asian diet at work. Ban Pizza, Hot dogs etc.

No more excuses

[Synon]

If your workplace has showers I'd definitely recommend biking to work. Depending on your commute it may not be much longer than driving, my drive is 16 minutes and it takes me 25 minutes to bike 8 miles to work. Saves gas, I get my workout in, and it's time that mostly would have been wasted in the car anyway... if time is an issue this may be a great option. Get rid of all the junk food and sugary drinks, take your lunch with you, and bike or run during lunch. We have a group of guys that bring in mountain bikes and we hit up some of the local trails around here. Or you could go run. But having a group helps with motivation and keeps people accountable. It seems time is a concern for you, but honestly stepping away from your hectic schedule would probably do you a lot more good than trying to exercise while you work.

My experience...

[AnotherShep]

A few things that have been helping me:

-Snack, but on good things. Fruit, cottage cheese, yogurt, etc. Read the nutrition label on everything.
-Drink water. A lot of water. I've been drinking 4L a day - that helps both reduce food cravings and avoid kidney stones. Fuck kidney stones, seriously.
-Take up a sport. There's no more fun way to exercise than something fast-paced and competitive. If you play video games, stop doing that and use that time to do something out in the real world.

wasn't this same question asked a few weeks ago?

[roc97007]

...or am I experiencing deja vu?

Take the stairs. Stretch in your office. Walk at lunch. Set your watch to beep on the hour, and when it beeps stop what you're doing, get up, stretch, and walk around the building. Get a dog, walk him when you get home. Try jogging with your dog on weekends. (Don't overdo it until youDo some sit-ups before getting in the shower in the morning. It's not a lot, but it's more than most do, and it'll help keep you alive.

Speaking of which, cross the streets carefully when you're walking the dog.

Re:Make the time

[ub3r n3u7r4l1st]

more importantly, unionize so you can make your time on employer's dime. That's the new American way.

I had this issue

[undeadbill]

Here is how I dealt with it:

1. Cut back on my work hours. That includes oncall response times. I found I can still get my work done in 40 that I used to do in 60 by working smarter instead of harder.
2. Ride a bicycle to work. If it is ten miles or less away from home, you can do it. If it is winter, consider zip ties on the tires for traction, or using cross country skis. Remember to use lights and have a loud horn.
          a. Use a skate board if you are able to, and if you are close enough. Better work out.
          b. Use public transit and walk to work if neither of the above work well.
3. Go walk a little every hour. Standing is fine, but walking will help a lot. Don't go longer than 2 hours without moving around.
4. Water, unsweetened coffee, or unsweetened tea. No more mountain dew, ever.
5. Cut carbs. That is how type 1 diabetics keep their blood sugar under control. Excess blood sugar gets converted to fat. The recommended daily minimum is about 200 carbs.
          a. The easiest way is to completely fill up on green salad at every meal aside from breakfast. Eat anything you like after the salad.
          b. Fats and everything else have to go through extra stages until they are broken down to sugars which get turned into fat.
          c. Cut back on the salt. Cut it out entirely unless it is part of a recipe or already part of the meal.
6. Get uninterrupted sleep. If someone or something is making it harder to sleep, fix it.
7. Stretch a lot. People think exercise helps, but actually I found that a lot of stretching went a long way toward slimming me down and reducing my blood pressure. Stretching is also exercise.
8. Buy and wear really good shoes if standing and walking a lot. Extra weight can really mess up your lower joints until the benefits of exercise kick in.

Body tinkering - nerd it up

[arlo5724]

So I'm a nerd who works in a chair all day, but I also weight train at least 3 times a week and run competitive times in everything from 5Ks to half-marathons, AND I used to weight about 320lbs (I weigh around 160 now). The trick? I treat it like I do everything else I love to do: I think of my workouts as ways to fix, tinker, and improve (dare I say, hack?) my body. It's easy to think of our computers (or whatever we work with daily) as important extensions of our physical selves, but we seem to do this to the detriment of our actual bodies. I wouldn't let one of my systems limp along with broken hardware/software and have spent hours or days fixing problems, so why shouldn't I commit half an hour a day (to begin with) to my own physical upkeep? It turns out that although it was a seemingly IMPOSSIBLE struggle at the onset, after several weeks I began to really genuinely enjoy it! Running in particular got me hooked because it's the sort of thing you can keep working on, and continue improving, without ever feeling like you're stagnating if you do it right. It seems to me that anyone with the typical geek mentality could easily change their mindset to feel the same way. Of course, it's just my experience, and therefore anecdotal at best, but still my 2 cents.

Work out in the evenings at home

[skiman1979]

My work does have a gym, but it requires a vehicle to drive there. I carpool, so I usually don't have a mode of transportation to get there. Even if I did, I'd have to do it during my 30 minute lunch break. No time to fit a round trip drive, plus a workout, in that time. Sometimes during nice weather I'll go for a jog outside, but most days, I just do a workout routine at home.

I get home at 6 PM, eat dinner, get the kids to bed by 7. Work out until about 8, then go to sleep by around 8:30. Wake up at 4, go to work, repeat.

I started out doing light cardio or jogging runs outside in the evenings, but now I do a program called Insanity. I just have no time for a social life, or TV, or any kind of entertainment really, except on weekends.

Add distance

[Eustace Tilley]

Park your car not at the office park, but in some other office park 15 minutes' walk distant.

DRUGS

[SpaceManFlip]

If you want to start off by losing weight and then transition to a workout routine (made easier by being less fat) you can get a cheater's jump-start on the weight loss by taking controlled drugs in the amphetamine family. I have been to a couple of doctors who prescribed me phentermine for weight loss and I'm down about 40 pounds overall now. I did some workouts, formerly routinely, but not so often now. I plan to get back into that soon when the weather is better.

But damn! Taking some speed pills and losing weight is fucking awesome! I did so with FDA-approved meds with a legal prescription, and don't regret it a bit. Of course, you will need to be evaluated for cardio health before trying anything like that.

Re:DRUGS

[kannibal_klown]

phentermine ? Seriously?

That stuff A) damages the heart and B) is unhealthy.

Don't listen to this guy

Re:DRUGS

[SpaceManFlip]

Well it cured my obesity, with a couple of short-term treatment periods of about 3 months each, over a course of a year. My BMI is now about 26.7, less than a point from being in the non-overweight / healthy range.

Would you rather have heart problems from obesity, or diabetes, or both? I chose the pills knowing the risk involved, and I definitely feel much healthier than I did before. Choose your own poison.

FWIW, I also made more healthy dietary choices like reducing corn-syrup beverages (replaced with clean filtered water) and lowering my carb intake from breads, pastas, etc. But nothing beats the magical ability to take a pill and not be hungry at least half the day.

RFP: Exercise bands

[Eustace Tilley]

I have a couple of exercise bands at my desk which I use when my hands are free.

More information about desk-friendly exercise bands, please.

Re:RFP: Exercise bands

[RKThoadan]

Just about any resistance bands are workable. Grab any of the hundreds of options like this (first hit at walmart.com) http://www.walmart.com/ip/Gold-s-Gym-Long-Resistance-Tube/12167856

At an absolute minimum you can sit on it, grab the handles and stretch. I just loop the handles over the armrests on my chair and am quite capable of forgetting its there for months at a time.

Bike to work

[csubi]

If you live too close : make a detour.
If you live too far : do only part of it on the bike.

You might not develop a gorgeous torso but your cardio health will be top-notch.

Standing desk

[coldsalmon]

I have a standing desk. See this NYT article (which may or may not have been contradicted by a different pop-science NYT article): http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/stand-up-while-you-read-this/

Just walk

[Tomster]

First -- having a standing desk is awesome, and you're probably doing more for yourself just with that than you could with an exercise program while still sitting 8+ hours a day.

Second -- take a break a few times a day and go for a brisk walk. Ten or fifteen minutes of walking will clear your head, helping your concentration for the next couple hours of work, and get your heart rate up a little.

Third -- cut out the crap and start eating healthy.

Fourth -- don't buy into the "you need to get motivated" crap. If getting motivated worked, there wouldn't be such a huge industry in motivational books/conferences/blogs. Motivation will last a week or two, but when that initial enthusiasm wears off willpower and discipline have to be there to take over long enough to establish new habits. For most people that takes about a month.

Fifth -- lead a balanced, healthy life. That's not always possible, but when something is out of whack in your life there are going to be consequences, so take care of yourself -- not just physically, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thomas

just do it

[uptown jimmy]

In the words of the immortal Jerry Rice: "You got to make time every day." Get your butt out of bed and run two miles before work: you'll get there feeling like a million endorphin-enhanced bucks and you'll drop weight steadily. All it takes is two miles a day, at a steady jog, nothing too strenuous. And eat something not created in a factory somewhere. Time is not your "most precious resource". Your mind/body unit: that's your most precious resource. Give yourself a modicum of care.

Bike to work, use the stairs

[Anonymous Codger]

Biking to work is a great way to turn a soul-deadening commute into a real workout. And stay out of the elevators, take the stairs.

If you're in a low building with no stairs, follow the lead of your smoking co-workers. Take a "smoke break" every hour but walk around the building instead of smoking.

Easy, stop eating crap

[minniger]

Seriously. The amount of sugar/corn syrup in EVERYTHING is amazing. Cut it all out and you'll notice a change in a few weeks. Now this is really difficult to do. Again. It's in everything. You can thank the corporate food engineers for that.

Exercise? Get up and walk around. If want more? Pick short high intensity things for 10-20 min at home each day. Jump rope is excellent. Plain old pushups and sit-ups cover everything else for starters. Main thing for me was to not make a big deal about it, but to do it. Just keep doing something small everyday and it'll add up.

Re:Easy, stop eating crap

[kencurry]

... Main thing for me was to not make a big deal about it, but to do it. Just keep doing something small everyday and it'll add up.

Also, don't listen to the naysayers: "it's not true cardio...walking is useless...etc" - every little bit helps. Emotionally and physically.

Use an "Execu-ciser"

[ARos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54g_vxovsjY

I took up swimming

[SpaghettiPattern]

I can't neither get my weight down enough nor my condition high enough to bike to work. Somehow the 500m (1500 ft) difference in height has gotten too much for me. So I took up swimming. 3 to 4 times a week 40 minutes of exercising. Without killing myself and without ruining my ligaments. I feel good and I knew that I would! And nice. Try it.

Bike, sports, good food

[cHALiTO]

I cycle to work, 6km round trip (I cycle to the train station then do the rest of the commute by train). Then I do indoor climbing twice a week for a 2 to 3 hours, and I play 5v5 or 8v8 football (soccer for the americans here) once or twice a week.
During week days I hace orange juice and coffee for breakfast, maybe some buscuits (just a couple) then I get either a good salad and fruit or some vegetarian dish for lunch. I do eat meat, but moderately and at dinner or on weekends (usually on sundays, as it's somewhat of a tradition here in argentina).
I only eat junk food like cheetos and such at parties or when I meet with friends for a beer, never at work or at home, and I rarely drink coca cola or anything like that. Mostly water and beer :)

Re:wasn't this same question asked a few weeks ago

[roc97007]

Was supposed to have been:

(Don't overdo it until you get used to it. Heart attacks while trying to get healthy are embarrassing.) When I started jogging, I went around the block, and I was done. Every few days I'd add another block until I was doing five miles a day. That seemed to be good enough and I didn't try to push it any further. Then my knees gave out, so I walk now.

Motivation is your problem

[enantiomer2000]

First of all you probably won't get huge results from exercise only at work, but following your criteria, here is what I would recommend: Use a timer of some sorts. I don't care if it is a manual one on your desk or if it is on your phone. Set the timer for every 30 minutes. When the timer goes off you do as many exercises as you can. Start off with pushups and alternate between narrow, medium and wide grip. After the set up pushups are done (don't worry it won't take more than 60 seconds), move onto the next exercise. Before I got serious and started doing weight training with my power rack, I would walk out the front door to the fire escape and do pullups (while wearing lifting gloves) off of it. If you can do pullups while at work this is awesome. Another great exercise to alternate with is wall squats. They won't replace weighted squats but you can feel the burn if you hold it for a few minutes. There are a lot of exercises you can do for minor muscle groups but since you won't be doing that many sets, I recommend sticking to the big, compound muscle exercises. Just make sure that you don't neglect your core. If time is an issue at work, alternate between exercises every 30 minutes. Like I said, your greatest adversary here is your state of mind. If you want to see real results, I recommend starting a fitness program at home. I did p90x at home for about 6 months and got good results. But I got bored with it and am now using a power rack for bench press, squats, deadlift, etc.

Getting fit.

[urieleoc]

I would suggest changing you focus from 'staying fit at work' to 'get fit in general.' Work is not making you out of shape. Once you make up your mind to get fit, it isn't difficult.

1. Log everything the goes in your mouth. Everything. Gum. Coffee. Water. Cough drops. Vitamins. Get a very accurate count on calories. Alter the foods you eat to drop the calories to a normal level.
2. Ate lunch at your desk, then go for a walk for your lunch break. If you can't walk during lunch, walk for an hour before or after work. After awhile, you can change the walking to jogging. Take it slow to start.
3. Make the food you eat from ingredients/cut out processed stuff.

After a while, maybe start lifting weights. Squat, deadlift, pull ups, push ups, rows. Lot of compound exercises with weights. Start with an olympic bar and add weight when it is manageable. Look up from 5x5 program. They are easy to follow for people new to lifting.

I've dropped from 300 pounds to 190 in the last year. 3 days of lifting and 3 days of lift cardio per week, alternating weights and cardio. Rest 1 day a week.

Re:Getting fit.

[kannibal_klown]

I don't disagree with most of what you're saying, but your job does can your fitness.

I used to work a cruddy job at a convenience store. But I was standing all day, lifting heavy things (bags of quartz, seed, boxes, etc) and always moving around. I was still quite over-weight but I was happy with my fitness. I did some exercise on the side and ate well.

Then I got a desk job. Fast-forward X years later: my eating habits didn't change and still do the little bit of exercise on the side... and my weight spiked insanely.

Going from active 8-hour days to sitting-at-a-desk for 8 hours, it does hurt your fitness.

I take long walk back to cubicle

[Looker_Device]

And pretend to work.

Great workout.

Its simple

[viperidaenz]

Get married.
Buy a house
She'll make you do DIY and landscaping until you're sore in places you didn't know you had.

Deep Breathing and Isometrics

[hoboroadie]

Back in '78, I met a guy who was built like Tarzan. He told me all he ever did for it was deep breathing and isometric tension exercises whilst sitting at his desk. I do that, and am conscious of my posture while sitting or walking.

Standing/sitting up straight and breathing are probably the most important things you can do for your health.

get enough sleep

[ub3r n3u7r4l1st]

Sleep Deprivation Is Linked With Obesity

Try to get telecommuting rights, It gives you more time to recharge yourself and stay fit instead of wasting all the time on commuting (if bike is not an option, such as living beyond 15 miles).

That is, unless you work for a certain company with a dumb blonde CEO that recently banned telecommuting.

Bike to work, don't eat crap

[gimballock]

Biking to work is great because it integrates exercise directly into your daily routine doubling the value of that time. The trick is to remove all the easy ways of being lazy and leaving the bike at home. My commute is 25 min bike ride to train station, 20-30 minute train ride, 15 min ride from station to office. For me it's mostly downhill to work and uphill back. I by my train pass by the month so skipping the bike ride and driving to work (say when its rainy or overcast) is a pure waste of money. The train ride gives me time to recover a bit between the two legs of the trip. I get to read and prepare for the day and not think about cars or NPR stories, its the only time of day that is truly mine. The other thing I do is to invert the ratio of veggies to meat you consume. At least 51% plant matter (the fresh the better). Also no french fries or soda.

make the time to workout

[NoahsMyBro]

It's a difficult PITA, but I wake up 2 hours early 3-4 days each week and go to a gym. I spend 45 minutes-1 hour on a treadmill or elliptical and pass the time by watching sci-fi shows saved to an iPod, connected to the exercise machine. (Off-topic - just finished BSG, am now getting started with Farscape). I can watch the show on the 12" display instead of the bouncing 1.5" ipod screen, with the added bonus of my workout history being tracked at Nike+.

It *IS* difficult to make the time, but it can be done. You may even feel a positive effect. I've spent my entire adult life always short-of-breath. I believed I had a slight case of asthma. Once I began regularly working out the out-of-breath feeling lessened and eventually disappeared. I now find it returns if I stop going to the gym for about a week or more.

I also try to be health-conscious when I eat. That is also not easy, but is a choice. I frequently eat turkey sandwiches on wheat (no cheese), salads, or supermarket sushi when I'd really rather have a cheeseburger.

Personal solution to the same problem.

[RobertT]

I have Diabetes and I can not ignore this issue. I have an elliptical at home, in a room with a TV. I watch TV when I exercise on it. I take walks through the neighborhood on nice days and I try to do this with someone else. This has worked for me in the past. With the elliptical, increase the resistance once you have plateaued on the current resistance level, for 3 times a week. Need a boost in the performance, watch a naughty video. On the day to day viewing, what something you like to watch and need time to watch. For me, it's Bones, Castle, etc. You know something to distract you from looking at the time you have been on the machine.

This will only work if you force yourself to take time and do the exercise.

Take breaks, exercise a bit

[mellow106]

Taking a short break every 30-45 minutes can help productivity in general (e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique). It's good to come up for air, check your To-Do list, etc. Keep a small exercise device (dumbbell, exercise cord, whatever) in your office and do a quick set of something whenever your take a break. If you're in a cube farm or other semi-public workspace, stick to silent, cool-looking exercises (e.g. bicep curls). If you have a door you can close, throw in some squats, crunches, pushups, etc.

Re:A couple simple rules

[MrHanky]

Walk/Run/Bike to or from work - only works if you have access to a shower facility or public transit for one-way commutes at work

Cycling doesn't need to be that strenuous (if the commute isn't long), and is good exercise even if you don't sweat all that much. Considering that the cost of transport is included in the cost of exercise, and how efficient cycling is for both, it's really ridiculous how few people actually commute by bike.

Yeah, I know most of you'll say: it's cold and it rains, the traffic is dangerous, and it's just not practical for me. Some of you will be right, and many of you will be wrong.

Try a game!

[1001011010110101]

Ingress makes you move around, I lost quite a bit of weight since I started playing ( http://www.ingress.com/ )

Re:Try a game!

[hairyfish]

Invite only, that makes it kind tough to get involved...

Do at least a little

[Un pobre guey]

Every morning between the time you get up and the time you go to work do 25 sit-ups, 20 pushups, and 25 standing toe-touchings. If you can do that much yet, work up to it over a period of months. Every weekend, go on at least one 5 mile walk, preferably two. If 5 miles is too much, work up to it gradually. If you don't move yourself to do it, nobody will. Think about migrating to a plant based diet, at least a few days a week. Don't look at it as a belief system, philosophy, religion, doctrine, spiritual path, etc. It's just food. Go plant-based a few days a week and figure out what foods you like or don't like and take it from there. Again, you have to drive it.

Just walk

[redmid17]

Seriously, it's pretty fucking easy. Walk home from work if you can. If you can't, try walking around during lunch break or a normal break. You're basically asking the laziest way to stay in shape because you've been too lazy to maintain an exercise regimen, which is extremely common. Motivate yourself.

eat a small meal every 3 hours

[capitalj]

you need to keep your metabolism up all day, eat grilled chicken at lunch and have two snacks of a small portion of almonds 1 in the morning and one 1 hour before you leave. also workout 4-5 times a day for atleast an hour.

Exercise

[Imagix]

I walk to work, and I practice swordplay. (Look up Western Martial Arts and/or Historical European Martial Arts). Yes, learning how to fight with a rapier, longsword, quarterstaff, etc.

Don't make such a big deal out of it

[KingTank]

Why do it at work? Get yourself an excercise bike with pulse. $150. A lousy 20 minutes with your pulse at 150-160 will get you an awesome cardio workout. If that's too hard, start with 10 minutes and work up gradually.

Eat Plants.

[klek]

Great suggestions. -- I personally love bicycling to work, and I don't like gyms at all. (except for the eye-candy, fortunately I pass by one every day ;) -- Always taking the stairs especially in a 4+ story building helps. -- If you commute by transit, get off a stop before or after yours and walk the rest of the way. -- If you have a private office, stop and do 20 PUSHUPS five times a day at random times (whenever you need a break), --adding muscle speeds up the metabolism--, then take a quick walk around the office. My coworker has lost 30 lbs doing that, plus: -- He also changed his eating patterns to eat mostly plants -- staying away from grains and meat whenever he could. Made a HUGE difference. -- Drink more water, water helps the metabolism as well as digestion. Green tea is beneficial in similar ways, plus helps reduce the chance of alzheimers... But ultimately, you'll only do it if you have arrived in that place where you feel you truly have no choice but to do it. good luck.

I have two young kids

[Chirs]

I get maybe 1-2 hrs of time in the evening, and I'm usually doing household chores during much of that time. Can't go to the gym because I need to be around if a kid wakes up.

I make do with an elliptical and doing body-weight exercises, but it's hard to find time.

Re:I have two young kids

[Pope]

A friend at work has 2 small kids. He wakes up 30 minutes early and works out at home before the kids need to get their day going. Pretty simple.

Re:I have two young kids

[Fallingcow]

1) Place kids on shoulders.
2) Do squats

Re:I have two young kids

[Spottywot]

Ha Ha, I do exactly that, gets harder as they get older too.

Re:I have two young kids

[cayenne8]

1) Place kids on shoulders.

2) Do squats

How about:

1. Let the wife deal with the kids so you can work out.

Re:I have two young kids

[ILongForDarkness]

It sucks if you are single parent but if not take turns. Nothing wrong with you taking care of the kids every other day for 2hrs while your significant other gets in their exercise and then you getting your workout in on the other day. Or find a gym that has daycare (most big chains do). I think a lot of them even include it with the membership. So pick the kids up and instead of heading right home go to the gym and fire off a workout your still home by 5 and they can eat by 6. There are ways around almost any problem. Usually the I can't = I won't. Likely culprits:

- too many activities for the kids and none for the parents. Mom is too busy dragging kids around to soccer practice to get any exercise herself.
- artificial schedule: we simply must have supper by 6pm. (why?). Can't miss the football game (why?)
- living beyond means/in the wrong place: 2hr commutes, working 10+hrs a day just to pay the bills etc. If work costs you your health it isn't worth it. No matter how much your work pays you "still breathing" is a better compensation package.

Re:I have two young kids

[quack.sawbones]

A mate of mine found a book that was basically weight training stuff using your kid as the weight. This included leg lifts, pushups, squats, arms etc... Dad gets a workout and the kid thinks it's amazing having Dad lift him and throw him around. Everyone wins!

Re:I have two young kids

[hairyfish]

You don't even need step 1. Most couch potatoes will struggle to do a set of squats with only their own body weight. I think a person should be able to do a basic set of exercises without external weights, eg pull up, push up, squat, dip etc. If I was king I'd actually offer a tax incentive for anyone who passes a basic test each year, since this would surely pay for itself through savings in health costs. And yes there'd be exceptions and special cases but most people should be able to use their body for what is was designed for.

Re:I have two young kids

[blue_teeth]

5BX.

Re:I have two young kids

[Ritchie70]

Hahah.

True though. My daughter's around 30 pounds and I have visible arm muscles now that I never had in my life.

Re:I have two young kids

[Ritchie70]

I'm with you except maybe pull ups. Depending on arm length and body type that can take a LOT of strength.

Home is better than Office

[Graydyn Young]

I agree that going to the gym is just too time consuming for many people, especially nerds. But on the other hand, trying to get a real workout on the job is only feasible for the very few people that have equipment/showers in there offices. The happy medium here is working out at home. You'd be surprised how little space you need, just a little more space than what's taken up by a yoga mat will do. And you don't need any equipment at all, although a few things (weights, bands, etc.) are nice to have. If you don't know enough exercises to get the job done, you could try one of the exercise mobile apps out there. Or you could grab one of the workout videos like Insanity - that will burn the lard off your ass in a hurry.

walking is the best exercise

[kawabago]

So take a walk and look for a better place to work while you're at it!

Get the diet in order

[Riddler Sensei]

...a fairly sedentary life consisting most on fritos, tab, and mountain dew.

Most people in this thread are likely to focus on the highlighted part. And they are certainly good in doing so. Spending 45-60 minutes, 3 times a week, picking up heavy things off of the ground is one of the greatest things I have ever done for my strength and physique. It has been great for building muscle and cardiovascular health. However, when you say "fit" I assume you meant fat loss, first and foremost. And when it comes to fat loss that is done in the kitchen.

Well, here's my angle. Exercise is for strength, endurance and health. That is, when you lift you should be lifting to increase your strength and what you should be counting is the weight lifted and the reps repped. When you cardio, what you should be counting is miles ran/sprinted/biked. However, what many do is count the calories burned instead. And you do burn calories. You burn calories during the activity itself, you usually get a metabolic "afterburner" effect and you burn calories when your body rebounds (this also has the effect of partitioning a portion your dietary protein and fat towards tissue and hormone construction instead of just flat energy). And that's great. But you just CANNOT out train a shitty diet. Saying to yourself that you can eat/drink X today because you did Y is such a dead end, terrible, philosophy that gets many in trouble. The freedom to eat something because "you earned it" just leads to heartbreak for many. If you're going to exercise, exercise for the sake of your body's strength and health, but don't think that it will suddenly make that sugary coffee and bagel a non-factor in your obesity/diabetes.

That said, I honestly believe that the "fritos, tab, and mountain dew" part is the real core of the issue here. Refined sugars and grains coupled with modern fats (seed oils, trans-fats) are the bane of many peoples' lives. Insulin resistance, leptin resistance, celiac disease, IBS, SIBO, etc.. Simply switching to whole foods can almost entirely bypass this issue. Learn to cook your own meats, find tasty vegetable recipes, use fruits and nuts as calorie/nutrient dense desserts. When you do this the trans-fats disappear, the refined sugars and HFCS disappear, the 600+ grams of carbs a day disappear. You will learn the role that protein, fats and carbohydrates play in your body and how blindly trying to cut one of them to zero is a poor decision (seriously, when did we decide that we DIDN'T need dietary fat for healthy tissue and hormone production?). Your hunger will likely diminish as well as these foods tend to be VERY satiating.

It's funny when people ask how to get in shape that they will jump up and be ready to run in place for hours on end per week, but if you tell them that they will HAVE to cook their own meals, well, suddenly they're deers in headlights. People seem more willing to spend hours on end spinning away in their spin classes than spending a few minutes in the kitchen.

In summary:
Exercise = Strength, endurance, health
Diet = Fat loss, disease control, health

Do them together, but don't think you're going to get strong just through eating or that you're going to lose fat just through running.

Re:Get the diet in order

[Riddler Sensei]

Of course there are always n=1 as you point out (it worked for you, but that's just one data point). I do try to steer away from blanket statements such as that, especially in the diet and fitness world, but it can be difficult at times. There are general things that you can say about these sort of things but they are never 100% spot on for everyone.

Really, I'm just trying to warn people away from the "I can eat this 10" pizza and beer by myself because I did an hour on the elliptical today" mentality. Basically, the pitfall of rewarding your one step forward by taking two steps back.

Re:Get the diet in order

[The_Star_Child]

This, this, this. This is the most informative post in this whole thread. Read it. Absorb it. Live it.

Re:Get the diet in order

[bingoUV]

While that is correct, I guess that "rewarding" oneself once a month is a great strategy. I don't completely buy the leptin theory, but I see it like I am just a human. If there won't be any planned indulgence, I might lose the disipline to not do any implusive indulgence. And that would be too bad.

It also works as a (very slight) motivator when working out. No "reward" if overall work-out performance is not satisfactory for the month.

Re:Get the diet in order

[Riddler Sensei]

Indeed there is often plenty of talk of "refeeds" or its more sinister cousin the "cheat day". You mention leptin which, if like you, you don't buy into then the purpose of these meals is the psychological reward. This reward can be both powerful AND damning. We're humans and we love rewards. We respond well to them. However, having one eye on that end of the week reward can be torture for some. Check out Martin Berkhan's article on the Marshmallow Test for some decent thoughts on such an effect.

I'm not really an advocate of rewarded nor strict as it's really up to how the individual can handle either. Both have the potential for great benefits and both have the potential for cataclysmic failure, and it's all dependent on the individual. Eventually give up because there is just no reward in sight? Fail. Concentrate so hard on that reward that you completely sabotage yourself? Fail. Which kind of person are you? Can you power on without, relatively, immediate results? Can you trust yourself with the reward system? Both can work, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a fairly even split between then number of people who would succeed with one method and fail with the other.

Re:Get the diet in order

[bingoUV]

Nice article, the leangains one. But being a "fitness enthusiast" website, it makes the mistake of implying that somehow the principle is only applicable in diet/exercise sphere. VERY incorrect.

Investing, famously, requires studious, super-aware, deliberate INACTION at times. Same principle of not thinking about it too much making it easier to stay true to your plans applies. Relationships, personal as in dealing with wives and girlfriends; corporate as well as international diplomatic relationships, all need a talent for aware inaction in spite of provocations.

Nothing special about diet/exercise, and ability for inaction is a secret of success , only like in many other fields.

Re:TED Talks on a Treadmill

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

My big problem with working out is how stultifyingly dull it is. I bought a used Nordictrac treadmill on CL a few months ago - only ca. $200. 15 minutes at 8 degree incline and 4.0 mph will leave you in a bit of a sweat but not much more. I try and do those on a regular basis throughout a day off or evening. You only need a few minutes to towel off. I've a monitor for a desktop PC set on a stand in front and bought an extra numeric keypad with a space bar key on its lower left corner - with this I can hold onto the handlebars and tap it my thumb to scroll down a page while reading. Num1 is keyed to a macro for Page up; 2 is next track on my media player, 3 is scroll down one line. Works for me.

Rage Powered

[DarthVain]

Seething rage and frustration bottled up over the years keeps stress and blood pressure just below the boiling point, which burns a ton of calories. It also has the interesting side effect of near total insanity (worried more about those satellites they have than physical health or appearance).

At the very least...

[flacco]

If you're sedentary, you could benefit from working stabilizer and core muscles, and this is possible without equipment.

Squats - even without weight - will strengthen your legs, back stabilizers and the connective tissue in your knee. Do multiple sets to near-failure.

Planks - get in the "up" position of a push-up and stay there, back straight, for a good 30-60 seconds to start. Repeat several times.

This is assuming you can do this while taking short breaks from your work. If you absolutely must incorporate it into your actual while-working time - I don't know, attach a 45 pound plate to your mouse or something.

Hopefully at some point you'll start to feel some benefit, and this will motivate you to dedicate some time to exercise outside of work.

There is no silver bullet

[copponex]

You have to make a lifestyle change. If you eat shit, and you sit there like a pile of shit, you will look like a pile of shit, and you will feel like a pile of shit.

We are mammals, and we aren't supposed to sit inside all day. We need to move around and get some sun, or our biological systems are going to continue to store fat like it's winter. Without Vitamin D and exposure to fresh air instead of the toxic inside environments we work in, including low levels of oxygen due to poor ventilation, we have trouble getting all of our biological systems to run like they are supposed to.

I am in a constant battle with my weight, which I am usually on the losing side of. When I cut out all sugar, including sugar in coffee, and I focus on eating vegetables and non-meat sources of protein, I feel like absolute hell for three days and then I feel amazing until I start eating crap again. This time around I'm going kind of nuts with pressed kale/apple/carrot juices and very little meat. The change is astounding. Within a week all of the weird aches and pains I had, including some of my back pain, began to disappear. (I am down to a BMI of 30 from 36, and still trending down).

I really think the Western diet starves us of basic building blocks for repairing and maintaining our bodies, and as we discover more about our symbiotic relationship with bacteria, I bet they will find out that the ingestion of products (sugar, processed flour, etc) that easily turn into glucose make our symbiotic bacteria go apeshit and stop serving their purpose. It's like stuffing petri dishes into your body and hosting a microbiological world war.

The funny thing is that once I rid my tongue of the expectation of a wall of salt and fat and sugar, healthy foods that seemed bland are suddenly rich with flavors and it's no problem snacking on carrots and raw broccoli with hummus or whatever and staying away from sugar drinks which are now overly sweet. I can get an Americano with a touch of milk and it tastes like chocolate if the beans are good. Roasted whole vegetables (which I am trying to learn how to cook myself) are as satisfying as any fast food meal, but I don't feel like shit an hour later.

Probably the best side affect is that my body now tells me when it's full. Two years ago I could eat an entire pizza without really thinking about it. Now I can have a bowl full of vegetables and feel more satisfied. (Not sure what the science behind that is, exactly, but it works.)

Mass produced foods are designed to addict, and kicking that addiction is just as important as kicking a smoking habit, if not more. Once I hit my target BMI, if I can stay on track, I will introduce a small amount of meat back into my diet, but I'm fairly convinced that processed sugar and processed wheat are literally poison for our mammalian biological systems. Now that it's out of mine, I don't have to think about going outside. Getting up and moving around is no longer a chore. It's actually becoming a joy that I haven't felt since I was a kid and spent every possible moment outside.

Anyway, tl:dr; Pollan seems to be right. Eat lots of veggies, a little bit of dairy, and a tinier bit of meat. Drink water. Go outside. Do not drink sodas or eat fast food, ever. If you put garbage in your body, your body will turn into garbage.

You simply have to make exercise a priority.

[SCHecklerX]

It's not difficult. It just seems it is not a priority for you. Make it one. Also, make it fun, which will help to make it a priority. Get a mountain bike, a kayak (whitewater is awesome if you are lucky enough to have a club nearby), snowboard. Something that requires skill at that you will progress with and look forward to doing. I always look forward to my winter roll sessions every friday in the pool.

What has worked for me

[curunir]

There's been two things that have helped me immensely:

• 1. Replace your chair with an exercise ball. It will take a while before your abs/back can go the whole day, so you'll need to keep your chair until then.
• 2. Find an exercise that works your mind as well as your body. For me, it's rock climbing--specifically bouldering. Climbing involves a lot of problem solving. As you progress, you learn tools that help you solve the increasingly difficult problems. There's a lot of physics involved in bending your body and positioning it to maximize friction between hands/feet and the wall/holds. Regardless, the fact that the exercise keeps my mind active is what keeps me coming back in a way that exercises that turn my mind off never did.

Re:What has worked for me

[oobayly]

This. I can't believe that there is only one other person who climbs. I couldn't stand the idea of mimicking a hamster in a gym - I need something to stimulate my mind. Bouldering 3 times a week (I've tried twice in two days and failed miserably) and as you say, you can't just run at the wall without thinking the problem through (well, some people can).

The other benefit is that it's very social - people are always willing to discuss how they climb problems and give pointers (apart from one guy who once told me "you don't do it that way". To him I say "fuck you, don't be so arrogant". I was shown how do do it by a girl climbing V4)

Uh, I do it AFTER work

[jonnythan]

I go to the gym and lift weights after work. On the weekends and some evenings I play tennis and racquetball or hike or ski.

I work at work. After work I exercise.

So... yeah. What do you do after work?

Have a ball at work!

[fdisk-o]

As many others have mentioned here already, ride your bike to work if you can... Many of us here in Amsterdam ride to work daily. There aren't any hills, but the wind can increase the effort significantly. Maybe you think you live too far away from your work, but if you are like most people, the distance is probably less than 30km (~19mi) and even more likely to be much closer than that. Make sure you dress for the ride and the weather so you'll be comfortable. You'll be a lot more likely to keep it up for the future. Watch out for cars on the way to work and get some really visible lights for the front and back. Once you're at work maybe your options are limited by space, noise, or expense or all three. That's the case for me. I use an exercise ball as a chair. It sounds odd and unproductive, but it keeps my core engaged all day long. I purchased the largest one I could find(60cm) and over-inflate it until it is pretty firm. At first my back 'hurt' since the muscles were tired, so I spent the first few weeks only part-time on the ball. I used to have back pain from slouching in a chair but I've been sitting on the ball for 3 years now and have been completely without back pain for the last 2,5 years.

Get clean. Self-care is work. Step up.

[neiras]

You're an addict. You need to get clean. It's that simple.

Whenever you make excuses to yourself (and I know you are), imagine a cracked-out junkie slurring out the excuses with his toungue hanging out. See how seriously he takes himself? Hear how stupid he sounds? That's you making excuses.

I think the most challenging thing for me was completely eliminating caffeinated drinks. It took 3 weeks of real effort. I was a total asshole during that time. Went cold turkey. When the headaches got really bad I started allowing myself one swallow of coffee per day as an emergency measure, but only one, so I had to save it for times when I really needed it. I also went and sat in coffee shops to surround myself with the smell and temptation of coffee, and drank mint tea. Bleah.

Oddly, I started to crave bitter drinks. It's hard to define what caffeine tastes like, but I can pretty much taste something and know whether it's caffeinated now. Solved the craving with Roastaroma teabags. Not quite the same, but good enough.

Results: Anxiety issues that I never knew I had vanished. Focus returned. Productivity went through the roof. You think you're a good programmer, all hopped up on stimulants and pulling long hours? Stop. Purge. Be amazed.

Once I was clear, I found I actually had willpower again. I started swimming. Set your clock a couple of hours earlier, eat a banana, drive to the pool on the way to work, swim as far as you can, then shower and head to the office. Pack a breakfast the night before and eat when you get there. Note: You'll have to go to bed earlier to make this work. It's worth it. Bonus: you'll learn how to swim. I had never swum a proper length when I started this. Use a kickboard if you have to.

Don't screw around with a "3 days a week" thing. If it's a work day, work on yourself. It's either part of your life or it's just a fad. Once you're clear of caffeine, don't allow yourself to skip a workout. It's just not on. Everyone else can bend to you for once - you're turning your life around.

You'll be ready to go, full of energy, and have a clearer mind than you've had in years. Just be sure to tell everyone around you what you are about to do, so they can be understanding when you bark at them by mistake.

Re:Get clean. Self-care is work. Step up.

[ILongForDarkness]

Good points. Not sure about the caffeine I don't have a problem because I can stop whenever I want ;)

But will power definitely has to be there. I'm lucky that my work is fairly flexible but I still had to push back a bit. If it is a workout day and someone tries to schedule a meeting for early in the morning I just say no. If they really push it I tell them I have an appointment I had to schedule weeks ago (technically true since I know every Mon, Wed Fri from ~10-11:30am I'm in the gym). In terms of extra work creeping into your personal life/responsibilities you just go to say no until you can at least do the minimum needed to take care of yourself. I really push back on this kind of thing: why should you leave every spare moment free just in case the boss wants you to work a couple hours unplanned? If it is a true honest to God emergency fine. But if it is just not bothering to check first before scheduling a meeting or something I couldn't give two shits.

Short exercise

[leifbork]

You could do something really exhausting for a short period of time.
Get a chin/pull-up bar and use it before work. Do 3-4 reps where you're about completely drained of energy after each rep.
Here you could see how GH and testosterone levels depend on rest length in between repetitions http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20555276.

For back and stomach you can do V pull-ups:
http://www.chunkfitness.com/exercises/back-exercises/lat-exercises/v-pull-up-calisthenics

Or; easier but less muscles (breasts, back, biceps, forearms):
http://www.chunkfitness.com/exercises/back-exercises/lat-exercises/pull-up-chin-up-calisthenics

(If you really need front shoulders and triceps as well, you could complement with push-ups).

That's about the whole upperbody if you put in some ear wiggling.

If you're really nerdy, you can build this one for recovery:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/august/cooling-glove-research-082912.html
A cooling glove, that vacuum pumps the hand in order to keep up circulation from the hand, while cooling it, in order to quickly cool the core temperature after
exercise, without cooling the muscles. According to this Stanford article, this will give better recovery than steroids, for some very strange reason.

Here's something about high intensity training, where you do 3 minutes of really uncomfortable exercise per week:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/242498.php

bike to work

[cats-paw]

takes care of your commute and exercise in one fell swoop.

you would not believe how good a shape you can be in biking only 5 or 6 miles one-way to work.

obviously you have to be able to do it relatively safely which is not always easy depending on where you live.

Fencing

[HeckRuler]

Possibly not all that Slashdot or geek related, but my workout of choice is the sport of fencing. It's not as healthy as running, and it won't bulk you up like lifting weights, but there's a lot of though and strategy that goes into it. And the mind-numbing boredom of the gym is is such a big turn-off. I need to be engaged in my exercise otherwise I quite out of sheer boredom.

And it'll make you sweat. It's certainly a workout. Calories burnt aren't calories that go to you gut.

So yeah, I stay fit by stabbing my friends.

Re:Fencing

[ILongForDarkness]

Fencing lead to thinking of sword fighting lead to sex :) That is how my mind works. But anyways: sex it is a good workout. Assuming you have a partner that is willing do more of the work and more frequently. 20+ minutes of active sex is a good full body exercise. When/if it gets easy do things that are harder like picking her up while standing or doing sort of tiger pushups rather than thrusting with your hips. I'll find a way to fit (at least) 3X a week of that into my week without any complaints from me of those around me :)

Don't do that at work...

[jafiwam]

Don't do that at work. You aren't going to make significant headway while still accomplishing your job.

What you can do though are these things:

• Start bringing a dark veggie lunch and less of it
• Drink lots more water, and lots more trips to the bathroom
• Stretch, do leg crunches, and make sure your computer manipulation appendages are stretched, relaxed and moved in other ranges of motion
• Get one of those blow up balls to sit on when you do sit, this keeps your whole trunk flexing and puts more work into your back, it also helps you sit up straighter

Basically though, a good workout isn't going to happen at work. Make time when you aren't working. If you are still less than 30, realize it gets much much tougher later in life to catch up, and much tougher to even get back to a reasonable fitness from a gooey middle. It's best not to let things get out of hand in the first place.

gyms can be cheap...

[schlachter]

I guess it depends where you live, but there are plenty of nice gyms in many areas for $20-$30/month (i.e. LA Fitness - I pay $18/month). If you use it, that's crazy cheap for what you get access to. But yea, $80/month seems pretty expensive.

Re:gyms can be cheap...

[Dayze!Confused]

I pay about $32.50 a month each for me and my wife at LA Fitness. We take Zumba classes there four times a week. If we wanted classes like that outside the gym it is about $3/person/lesson, which would cost around $48 a month. I have also paid for the membership to access any of their clubs so sometimes I can hit the one near work, other times we alternate between the two near our home.

Treadmills might fine for some people, but there is something to be said about group fitness.

Re:gyms can be cheap...

[schlachter]

FYI...my wife and I were paying $35/month each for LA Fitness. Then they offered us the same membership for $18/month each if we signed a 3 yr contract, which we did. Maybe u can get the same...

Re:A couple simple rules

[Joce640k]

If you're 300 pounds? It helps a lot.

300 pound people simply can't start hitting the track.

Ice Hockey, 3 days a week.

[MooseDontBounce]

But as I get into my 50's, I've found even that isn't enough and I have to watch what I eat and drink.

For a second there

[DFurno2003]

I thought the title said: How about some Fritos at work?

Bah Humbug

[screwzloos]

It's too bad this whole standing office thing is going mainstream. Too bad for everyone else, that is. Luckily (or maybe unluckily), my spinal injury makes that an accessibility issue so legally I can't be required to participate if our HR office decides they want standing desks installed for everyone. I am physically incapable of standing for more than about twenty minutes per day.

If you're having weight problems, consume fewer calories. That's it. Alternating diet coke and black coffee does wonders to suppress appetite. Working out will only make you hungry. I am the most sedentary person I know, but with about 1800 calories per day, my weight is the same as it was in high school. 6'2, 165lbs.

Am I in shape? Hell no. Doesn't matter anyways, though. Everyone else is fat so I'm still ahead of the curve.

Not many answers for AT WORK fitness

[jupiterssj4]

We recently visited an office that uses the treadmill desks and were impressed. However, since we don't have them yet we do have a Wellness Program. Since wellness is both physical and mental, it is important to reward individuals who normally wouldn't do any activity but sit there to actually do something. We have significant prizes for winners of the Wellness Program. We include points for walking, visiting gym, other physical activities, give gym membership reimbursements, and monetary reimbursements for smoking cessation (we test participants to make sure they aren't smoking). We also set up a Wii with lots of active games, DDR and Xbox 360 with Kinect and Nike Training to get people up and doing something in their downtime (most of our employees who are sitting around are on standby). We also provide a nutrition counselor and have regular healthy eating demonstrations. We also have financial training and planning seminars (to reduce stress). Wellness is important to our company, even though we are small, and it has helped many of our employees and while I don't have the data, I'm sure it has reduced our self-insured medical insurance costs to the company.

Re:by not being such a nerd

[jafiwam]

Go search Youtube for "code monkey". There's a popular song with those lyrics. It's not supposed to be taken literally. Anyway, where does one find Tab now days anyway?

Don't waste time driving to work

[Uncle_Meataxe]

Weighed myself this morning and am the same as I was in college (ca. 1980). I ride a bike to work every day, all year long. 35 miles (58 km) round trip. It takes about an hour longer than driving. So, I get two hours workout for an hour's time. Yeah, I live in California but I rode all year long in Michigan and Colorado. You just need to dress right...

Yelling.

[JustAnotherIdiot]

Lots and lots of yelling at faulty machines.

Sensible CrossFit

[englishknnigits]

I know that may seem like an oxymoron to some people but there are ways to do it. Only go 3 times a week. That is 4ish hours total out of your week (1 hour workout + some travel time) which isn't all that much. At three times a week you won't be smashing yourself into a brick wall physically (as can happen with crossfit). Find a CF gym where the trainers actually watch you and have a good on ramp program. Having a group to workout with is motivating for most people, especially when you know they will notice you didn't show up since you typically go to the same classes.

Having a set time that you go each time is good motivation wise and helps prevent the rolling "I'll go in just one more hour" which leads to "well, it's too late to go now."

I would say doing a structured weight training program would actually be better for you physically and be more optimal time wise but it requires much more self motivation and discipline than going to a CF gym.

Above all, be safe and actually do something. Doing something is, usually, better than doing nothing so find what you will actually be motivated to do. I know tons of people who normally wouldn't be motivated enough to show up at the gym but consistently show up to a CF gym.

Re:Sensible CrossFit

[ichthus]

Couldn't agree more. I go 3 days a week, and usually run once or twice over the weekend. Also, at the box I go to, we just had six weeks of Paleo challenge. I'd been told that fitness is 80% dietary and 20% exercise. I don't know if that ratio is accurate, but I saw huge results from those six weeks and would definitely recommend incorporating good nutrition into anyone's fitness plan.

Did you do CF Open WOD 13.2 today? I got 4 rounds + 5 reps.

Baby Wipes + Running + Healthy Eating = Fit

[Zymophideth]

Keep running shoes in the office and bring a fresh pair of gym clothes in every day. Before lunch go for a jog. After the jog do some lunges or push ups, switch it up each day. When you get back to the office go to the bathroom and run your head under the sink, strip down, wash yourself off with a bunch of baby wipes and spray your whole body with deodorant. Basically, a whores bath. After getting your work clothes back on go to your desk and eat your lunch which consists of a salad (no fatty dressings), some nuts and a serving of fruit. At this point the only liquid that exists to you is water, after a jog you will learn to love it more than anything else. Try slamming a Dew after a big run and see what your body thinks about that horse piss.
OR
Instead of taking that long of a "lunch" break, eat a healthy lunch at your desk and leave work early to have time for the gym. If either of those options don't work, you need to find a new job that can accommodate some gym time in your life. No matter what you do though you have to start eating healthy ALWAYS, especially if you can't find the time for exercise. If you eat garbage and work out you will still look like garbage, you'd be amazed at how few of calories you burn when working out and how much there is in the food we shovel into our face.

Your body evolved to chase prey over long distances on foot; to fight, to walk around all day scavenging; to eat meat occasionally, and to go days without food. The way you're living your life doesn't even come close to that level of excursion or occasional starvation. So to make up for it you have to run like a bat out of hell 1 hr a day and eat like a rabbit, that's the tradeoff. I know it sucks, but it's what us cubicle people have to do to attempt to restore balance to our body. Needless to say the best job choice I ever made was finding one with a gym in the same building.

My advice

[Kjella]

Here's the secret about exercise: It can't fix a bad diet. Even though I'm now in fairly good shape exercise-wise, it takes me an hour to work off 5-600 kcal. That is the equivalent of about 100 grams of potato chips, that I could snack away in a heartbeat. Gulp that down with half a liter of soda and you're already 200 kcal past what you could reasonably exercise off if you spent an hour at the gym. Every day. While I do recommend exercise as an additional way to lose weight instead of or in addition to a diet, if you're not breaking even without any you're fighting an uphill battle. I tried that once and eventually you get tired of exercising just to keep your weight in check and spiral upwards again.

Now there's vitamins and minerals and whatnot else needed to eat healthy, but the key to calorie intake is basically hunger management. Eat low calorie foods - I don't really care which but they fill the stomach and you can't get fat on 20 kcal/100g salads and vegetables. Beware of "light" products that are a little healthier than regular but still basically very unhealthy, don't cheat yourself into thinking "light" potato chips are good for you. Don't eat until you're full, the stomach thinks it's missing out on calories and goes into high gear to store fat - just enough that you don't get hungry again right away. Eat early in the day, at bedtime you should be so close to hungry as possible because your body won't wake you at night to eat, sleep takes priority.

Now exercise is good for two things, endurance and strength. Trust me, it helps a lot to have 5kg of muscles and 15kgs of excess fat instead of 20kg of excess fat. And it helps to not be wheezing and chest pounding at the least bit of strain. But any amount of exercise that matters take time, taking the stairs instead of the elevator only helps an ever so tiny little bit. Make time, it's your health it's about. If you need to make it work with your family, make the time with your family active. It doesn't have to be the dead serious gym exercise to work, anything that gets you out of the chair and in motion works. But I'll give you a silver lining, when you're in bad shape it's hard because you can't do it long enough and hard enough to matter, but if you get there it's easier to keep it going.

Re:My advice

[Iniamyen]

This. Sorry guys, unless you are an Olympic athlete, diet MUST be part (and a big part) of the equation. I've learned this through experience.

Lifting some weights for 20 minutes a day and maintaining your crappy diet will not make you fit, it will make you look even fatter.

Re:Convict Conditioning

[fldsofglry]

I second this. Convict Conditioning has helped my joints become stronger as well. I am going very slow through the process, but it has been very beneficial for me. "Coach" stresses progressing slowly, which I have done, but that can be trying to one's patience as you might not "see" results quickly in the beginning.

find a hobby

[j2.718ff]

You're not likely to become "fit" at work.

I recommend finding a hobby or sport that involves physical activity. But I don't recommend it as a method for getting fit, but as a reason. Let's say you become interested in running. Every time you run farther than before, or faster, you'll feel better about yourself because you know that you accomplished something. And if you really develop a taste for running, you'll start finding additional non-running workouts you can do just to get better at running.

The biggest challenge here is finding the sport or activity that appeals to you. There is no easy answer - everyone has different motivations. But once you've found one that truly appeals to you, you'll do well.

In short: Don't play your sport to get in shape; get in shape to play your sport.

Bycicle

[kur0saki]

I go to work by bycicle to work. The way is about 15 km long. Once in the morning, once in the evening. On vacation I usually run about half an hour in the evening. Plus the right meals. Works well :)

Are you trying to get fit, lose weight, or both?

[IronChef]

I can't speak to getting fit as I never have been and never will be--but if losing weight is a goal, start counting calories. Get MyFitnessPal or a similar free app and log everything that goes in your mouth. This is something you can do immediately with a minimal time investment and it will make a big difference.

Try P90X

[trptrp]

It's a workout programme you can do at home with only a few tools (pull up bar and resistance bands mostly). Each workout is of fixed length, you let it run and you can see the time on a progress bar also.It's fun, though I've to admit I don't do it as often as intended, but still, I like it because I save all the time and hassle and money going to a gym.

Re:Try P90X

[trptrp]

But I've to admit that less change might be better, like just going for a walk. To that you can stick.
This workout I only recommend to folks who want to be sportive at a certain level and work for it.
Otherwise the above mentioned tips, like cycling are of more relevance.

Exercise and common sense!

[pev]

Common sense : taking regular breaks to re-focus, have a walk around the office and walking to get lunch at lunchtime.

Exercise : I personally do Capoeira a couple of times a week at the moment. Helps fitness and flexibility and strength but equally importantly its a good source of social interaction in the evening which is important when working alone and living alone much of the time!

Stop making excuses

[fafaforza]

Go running for 20 minutes per day and quit eating processed crap. You'll lose plenty of weight, your breathing will improve, you'll sleep better, etc, etc. Your health should be just as important to you as your career, and you could easily make time for it.

Do the math

[Deep Esophagus]

As others have observed, it's not just about exercise; it's about diet too. The particular form that each takes doesn't matter as long as you do the math to make things balance out.

A typical adult male will burn ~2000 calories a day just sitting there staring into space (give or take a few hundred depending on age and weight). Now look at the calories of your favorite fast food and snacks and drinks -- a few hundred here, a few hundred there, and suddenly you're eating 4000 calories a day while still only burning 2000.

It takes 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound. If you eat 3500 calories more than you burn, you're up a pound. Eat 3500 calories fewer than you burn, you lose a pound. It's that simple. The hard part is counting calories when no nutritional information is available, and working out how many calories you actually burn for any given activity. The Compendium of Physical Activity is a great start if you want a more precise DIY formula tailored to your exact specifications, or there are any number of websites that will let you plug in your age and weight and amount of time at a standard activity, and spit out the calories burned. I keep mine on a spreadsheet, with the most frequently consumed foods in a quick table along with the most frequent physical activities. At the end of the day I get the difference between the two and know if I went overboard and need to starve myself for a couple of days, or if I can step on the scale with pride.

Now, a bunch of folks have recommended specific activities - run! go to the gym! ride a bike! Feh. *ANYTHING* you do that keeps your body moving so your heart rate goes up and you burn more calories than at rest is a good thing. Unless you're specifically targeting a muscle group for development, you will be equally successful whether you walk, run, do calisthenics, or have a marathon session of great sex with a gymnast. Personally I avoid running; my older brother ran religiously for 30 years and now his knees and ankles are completely shot and useless. It takes longer walking 3-4 miles and hour to burn the same calories you would running, but your body will thank you in 20 years for the lower-impact activities.

On the diet side, don't feel like you are doomed to never eat a pizza again. It's all in the math. When I can't stand going another day without ice cream or pizza, I have a serving or two and damn the calories. Then I just eat much lighter (all vegetables instead of meat and starches) for a couple of days to pay back for those extra calories, and/or do another 2-mile walk (250 calories).

Did it work? See for yourself. In August 2009 I was over 260 pounds. I started walking -- just a block or two and I was winded and in pain -- and watching my calories, and by July 2010 I was down to 160. That was actually too extreme; I gained 30 of that back and I no longer look so skeletal. But I can walk 2 miles without stopping to rest, and 4 miles with resting. That may not sound like much to people who still go snowboarding and have marathon sessions of great sex with gymnasts, but for me it's literally the difference between life and death.

Go to the gym, and make it apart of your lifestyle

[areusche]

It's hard to do, but if you really want to have a body that you aren't ashamed of then you have to work for it. I never went to the gym prior to this year. I ended up getting twelve sessions with a personal trainer who helped me get the form right. Once I got some level of fitness acquired from that, we made a routine for every other day and a nutrition plan for bulking up.

You have to go to the gym with a plan in mind as to what you want. For me, i've always been tall and skinny. The ultimate curse. For me to over come my powerful metabolism, I had to go against conventional strength training advice because my body isn't like everyone else. I eat roughly 3500+ calories a day. I get up at 6 or 6:30am, shower, take the bus to work, and am fortunate enough to have a gym in the basement of my office building. I work out for an hour which really helps make the day better, shower again, and go to work. I eat 5 meals a day.

The gains are slow, but the immediate effect of feeling 100% better is noticeable. I live in the shittiest city in the world (Boston) and between the lack of sunlight and bitter cold, the gym helped pull me out of some winter sadness. Seriously, it's not hard to start a 3 day routine. Getting the will power to go is all it takes, but once you start going you will eventually start feeling guilty about not going to the gym.

My Solution

[strangeattraction]

I have found myself in your situation for a number of other reasons. My Solution has been to incorporate exercise into my everyday experience. 1. Under 5 floors I always use the stairs. 2. I make sure incorporate a walk to work. Park farther away or use Public Transport. (15 min each way) 3. Walk during lunch. 4. Don't use escalators. 5. Salad for lunch 3 days a week. 6. Reduce alcohol intake. 7. Fruit and Greek yogurt for breakfast. 8. Avoid pure carbs for breakfast - only gets you to eat to much at lunch. 9. Eat earlier and less for dinner if you must cut back on a meal. None of these has to be done for very long each day. Abstinence, Radical Diet Changes and things that require you to consistently carve out 1 hr a day (ie going to gym) are not sustainable. Variables in work/family life usually prevent it in my case. Small changes over a long period of time work best for me. Went from pushing #200 to #175 in little under a year just doing those things. Without totally giving things I like - good food and drink.

Play video games

[davidbrit2]

Seriously, play games like DDR, or Rock Band's drums, and you can get a heck of a good cardiovascular workout. I wouldn't bother trying to get significant exercise at work. Save it for after-hours.

Rock climbing, ultimate frisbee, mountain biking

[caleb.madrigal5786]

I've found that these sports are incredibly fun, and have made "working out" one of the highlights of my day instead of the dread of it. Making working out enjoyable also helps maintain my "motivation pool" for other things.

Cycling.

[EmagGeek]

I don't stay fit at work. Work is for work.

But, I do ride about 300 miles/week on the road bike. Seems to do the trick along with eating good food (which includes bacon cheeseburgers, steaks, and lots and lots of sweets).

Work out before showers

[ZeroPly]

The level of sweat varies between people, but I think it's safe to say that most people would like a shower right after they work out.

So plan around the shower. What I do when I'm in a complete time crunch, is work out hard for 10-15 minutes before I get in the shower, every single time. You have to do intensive exercise, so things like burpees, half squats, mountain climbers, and lunges are what I prefer - no easy cardio. As a technical geek it's always tempting to look for the quick tech fix like a treadmill desk. But you can do a lot with just a 6x4 open area of floor.

Bottom line, you have to make exercise a mandatory part of your routine. You wouldn't go a week without brushing your teeth in order to save time on a project. You have to think about exercise exactly the same way. Once you do, it becomes easy.

Two Year Old

[mjr167]

I go home every day and chase a two year old in circles around my house while she screams "AHHH! There's a dinosaur it's going to eat me!"

WARNING: Acquiring a two year old may have other side effects.

Repetition

[halcyon1234]

If you can't increase the difficulty level of your exercise, you can still get a better workout by doing more of it via repetition

It also qualifies you to decide what makes the Slashdot front page

Limited supply of blood

[holophrastic]

I've never been able to mix exercise with work. I'm not fit, I'm not unfit. But any sort of workout significantly sends my blood far far away from my brain. The result is that I simply become too stupid to program anything. I become so stupid that I make unsafe driving decisions too -- which is a real problem in a tiny sportscar.

So for me, exercise comes on days off of work, or days of brainless work. I simply cannot mix the two.

Brominated vegetable oil in dew, diet dew.

[doug141]

Anyone hitting the dew hard should read up on brominated vegetable oil.

Bike to Work

[CyclistOne]

I bike to work. It's only ~ 2.5 hilly miles, but it's enough. Plus often I'll do errands on the way home. At work, several times a day I'll walk up around one side of our building going up stairs three or four flights, then come down, go outside, and walk around the other side of the building. It's short, but it gets the blood flowing, especially in the cooler weather, and gives my mind a break.

Re:5BX

[Kinthelt]

5BX will kill your back. Trust me on this one, speaking from experience.

go for a walk

[hodet]

I try to take two 30 min brisk walks (am and pm). Clears the mind too.

Grab a friend

[AioKits]

Seriously, any exercise activity is much easier to do if you've got someone to go through it with you. It could be something as simple as both you hop on a tredmil and gab for an hour, to the weight training courses, or taking up a sport. With a friend it is so much easier to convince yourself to do. In a year I went from 185lbs (83.9kg) to 162lbs (73.4kg) all because I went regularly, thanks to the friend. I have been lax, but hovering at that weight for a while, and have now started up again. My next goal is 140lbs (63.5kg) or so. If you're curious, my height is 5'8" and I have been going the healthy eating route again.

Someone mentioned it earlier but myfitnesspal.com has been a great boon to help me track my food intake. There is no miracle diet or super pill, you just gotta bust your ass for a bit, then it starts to become routine.

Re:A couple simple rules

[jedidiah]

He said "soup for lunch". He didn't say that he was on the Warsaw Ghetto diet.

Plus "soup" could mean any number of things including meat, cheese, or cream.

Re:A couple simple rules

[digitalmonkey2k1]

I'm just using the excuse: You insensitive clod, I'm a field service tech!

Re:A couple simple rules

[R3d M3rcury]

Instead of an hour lunch break, take an hour gym break to a nearby gym [...]
Walk/Run/Bike to or from work - only works if you have access to a shower facility or public transit for one-way commutes at work.

Y'know, nearby gyms also have showers. If you can find a smaller place--most large corporate places don't have this--check with them about getting a "shower membership." Explain the situation and see what you can work out.

Another option: Sponge bath. Get two sponges. Soap one up and put clean water in the other one. Go into the handicapped stall, clean yourself up with the soapy sponge, rinse yourself off with the wet sponge. Get dressed.

I'll also throw my sweaty bike-shirt in the sink, run warm water on it, rinse it off, and hang it up behind the server rack. 30 minutes later, it's nice and dry.

That said, the most important thing about getting exercise is "Do you enjoy it?" If you don't enjoy bicycling, it's not going to be worth getting up early and dealing with the hassles involved. In which case, you probably should look for something else that you enjoy and do that instead.

Re:Reduce your fat intake

[jandar]

Ban Pizza

Pizza hasn't necessarily a high joule value. Double cheese or other fat causes the joules. I make my own vegetable pizza with wholemeal dough and relatively sparse cheese. These are delicious and have not more joules than any other normal warm meal.

Walk to work

[joncombe]

I'm fortunate to work 2 miles from home so most days I walk there and back. But in my previous job where I had to drive I used to go for a 15 minute walk before I left for work in the morning. I found it helps to wake me up to!

My previous employer had a fitness program

[xs650]

Everyone got enough exercise jumping to conclusions, flying off the handle, running down the boss, knifing friends in the back, dodging responsibility and pushing their luck.

Re:Walking + Martial Arts

[GJSchaller]

I agree wholeheartedly. In addition to the social draw to go ("I don't want to miss a class, I have a belt test coming up, my partners need me," etc.), a good school will also engage you mentally as well. Discussion of the theory behind your art and moves (Which is better? Punching faster, or stronger muscles?), etc. appeals to the geek in me.

If you have a kid, enroll them too (if they are old enough), and make it a family activity.

Just be wary of the school. If it's a lousy environment - if you're not challenged, if the instructors are jerks, if you feel like you're being patronized for your money - move on. A good school challenges you (and occasionally you fail), to teach you how to overcome adversity, from inside or without. If you get a belt without trying for it, it wasn't earned, and you're being ripped off. (Chances are, you're not getting into better shape, either.)

Revenge of the Nerds

[ponraul]

Why are you all buying into the same nerd-jock dichotomy from junior high? Exercising or taking up a sport won't lower your IQ 30 points or make you unable to write a C program. You should have more in your life than sitting in front of a blinking screen, snacking and anime porn.

I'm an mechanical engineer and I also am a competitive powerlifter who holds state titles. Being at that level of sport requires a considerable time commitment, but It's something that I enjoy. I remember the first time I tried incline benching; I got pinned under 95lbs. Now, I can rep 365lbs. I would never have discovered this ability if I just looked at exercise and strength as something for dumb jocks who are mentally enfeebled.

KISS

[luis_a_espinal]

What do you do to stay fit?

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do. I walk about 20 minutes to work (I live close by). But when I don't leave close by, I simply park my car far enough to force me to walk. I use the stairs, I do push ups in my cublice, and I keep a set of resistance bands for a variety of arm/shoulder workouts. I also keep a set of CoC grippers (140lbs and 190lbs) at the office. Two times a week I change clothes and run from the office back home. At all times I carry a bagpack that weights about 15lbs. Sometimes before lunch, I walk down the stairs to the first floor and run through them all the way up to the 6th floor for some fast and short bout of anaerobic training.

All my life I've made time to work out (BJJ/Judo, weight lifting, powerlifting) while working O/T at the office. But that was when I was single. Now that I'm married and with two kids, I don't have much time to do that anymore. As a result, I resort to the "tactics" I mentioned above (plus I've modified my diet to take into account the reduction in physical activity.

Probably like many of you, this code monkey has lead a fairly sedentary life consisting most on fritos, tab, and mountain dew.

No. Many of us aren't like that.

Every time I attempt to incorporate exercise in even the most modest amount it never really seems to work out.

No. It is not that it does not seem to work out. It is that you do not make it work out. Part of being physically active is taking personal responsibility of our life habits.

'Just do it' or joining and going to a gym just doesn't seem to work and with time being my most precious resource at this point, I would like to incorporate exercise in to my daily work process. Our office recently switched to standing desks, which is great, and I would like to possibly bring in a flat treadmill that fits under the standing desk, but my bosses have balked unless the equipment is whisper silent.

Dude, just park far enough to force you to walk 10 minutes. Do push ups in your cublicle. Go take a walk at lunch. At home, how much time does it take to do 100 jumping jacks in the morning and at night????? If you are overweight, alter your diet.

Put simply. KISS.

We are a small business in a traditional office park with no exercise facility.

See above.

Do any other geeks out there have a similar set up

Of course.

and would like to share what they use to stay heart healthy and improve circulation during their work day?

See above.

What other ways do you incorporate exercise in to your geeky or nerdy lifestyle?"

We exercise. 5 minutes here and there, and when you know you have done 20 minutes of exercise in a day. We change our diet. Once a week on an off day, I try to go to the gym. If I can't, no biggie. I simply go when I can and go balls out circuit training.

There are no formulas that people can give you. The only things that count are:

1. how bad you want it,
2. how reasonable your expectations are,
3. and how much discipline do you have

The last part is important. No discipline == lots of excuses for doing nothing.

Find an activity you enjoy

[Daetrin]

Don't just go to a gym because you feel like you need to go to a gym. Experiment with different activities until you find one you really enjoy. I was lucky enough to discover rollerblading when i started college. When i started putting on weight after college it was easy to convince myself to go rollerblading more often because it was something i enjoyed.

On the downside it's not much fun to go rollerblading in the winter, even in a place like California, so i tended to lose ground for four or five months of the year until i was introduced to rock climbing by a friend. Now during the winter i go to the climbing gym more and rollerblade less, and during the summer i rollerblade more and go to the gym less. And as an added bonus the local climbing gym has a small room in back with various exercise equipment. I never was willing to sign up at a regular gym just to use their equipment, but as long as i've already got a membership at the climbing gym i find myself using the equipment there more and more.

So in short the more active things you can find to do that you actually enjoy the easier it is to set up a regular exercise schedule. If you look at exercise as something you loathe but need to force yourself to do, you're naturally going to find excuses not to do it.

25 miles

[sean.peters]

Which is not at all unusual around here (northern Virginia). And a lot of people have to go via the interstate, where a bicycle would be both suicidal and illegal.

Believe me, I'd love to bike to work. It's just not practical.

Re:25 miles

[dmatos]

Buy a bike rack, drive most of the way, and then bike whatever's left.

That, or move a little closer to your place of employment :)

Re:TED Talks on a Treadmill

[neonKow]

Why not just read a book or magazine? It's probably good to diversify your reading, and given that you thought of using a desktop + numpad on a treadmill, you probably get enough computer screen time as is.

Simple answer

[kerashi]

I don't.

Genetics

[CanHasDIY]

If you're "lucky"* like me, you have a hyper-active metabolism, and thus stay skinny without having to do any actual work. It won't get you in shape, however, but that's what the 'boxer's gym' in the garage is for.

* Everybody else seems to think it's lucky... of course, they're not the one's who have to deal with being hungry 24/7/365.

Buy your own equipment

[GodfatherofSoul]

I calculated the costs of buying a really nice elliptical, bench, plates, and dumb bells and found that I'd make up the costs of a gym membership in 3 years; and that was not counting miles on my car, gas to commute, and the convenience of being able to work out at any time of the day. Gym memberships are for people:

* Primarily motivated to work out by external factors; getting to check out gym hotties, need a trainer to push you, etc.
* Don't have the money for the up front expense of equipment
* Don't have the space for equipment
* Have an extremely advanced routine where home equipment won't suit your needs.

Stationary Bike + Video Games

[archer, the]

Put a stationary bike in front of a decent TV and PC/game console. If PC, add a keyboard/mouse tray to the bike. Pedal hard while playing your favorite game(s). Kills 2 birds with one stone: you get your game time and your exercise. I dropped 20 pounds doing this.

just do it

[ILongForDarkness]

Get up and go for a walk every 1-2hrs. Don't feel guilty about it just do it. Getting a bit of blood circulation going helps you think more clearly. You can wait till you get a bit of a sticky problem or a point were you really want to think a bit ("designing" part of work even if agile at some point you have to think about the how and why not just the what) and go do it. No reason why you have to sit at a desk to think.

Another simple thing that can help: both control the amount of food you bring to work (even if you are going to eat potato chips bring a small snack bag not the whole costco need a forklift sized thing) and put them away from your desk in the fridge or break room for example. Gives you a reason to get a little exercise AND not to snack literally every minute of the day (you'll feel guilty getting up every few minutes to go get something). If you must have emergency snacks around (I do since I can have problems that keep me a few hours later than planned on an already 10hr work day) make sure they are healthy. A tub of protein powder and an anti-oxidient fruit shake say Rather than again the whole Costco crate of chocolate and a case of Tab.

Lastly, don't be afraid to give up some of that "precious commodity" your time. You likely won't stay healthy without some effort outside of the few miles a day you can walk while at work. Why do we feel guilty about taking care of ourselves? Spending 5 hrs a week on an FOSS project is "giving back" or "learning". Running the kids around to THEIR activities is considered being a good parent and helping them stay socially and physicially healthy. Somehow parents (or single adults) feel selfish if they take that same 1hr for their own health. Crazy. Exactly who is going to take care of your kids when you are so bloody fat that you have to get a scooter to pick up more pop at Walmart or you are diabetic and start missing all kinds of work because of medical complications?

Re:Smelly

[xclr8r]

No one wants to smell funky sweat or even breath after heavy breathing in the work place. Save it for after work. Or do isometric abdomen exercises if you must.

not entirely on topics but... calorie counter apps

[themib]

About 9 months ago I decided that I wanted to be more health conscious. I looked for ways to work out a little while on the job, and ultimately decided that it wasn't really feasible with my desk job. So I made some changes in my life style.

I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app on my android phone and started to record everything I was eating. I was gestapo about recording everything. While you do not need to be completely anal about it, I recommend that you do it until you have a clear picture of just how many calories you consume through out a day. Some of my favorite meals I avoid now simply because [the Chili's Bacon Chicken Ranch Quesadilla has] TONS of calories. This is really all about awareness of what your putting into your body, and just how high the calories are.

I researched the amount of water that I should be drinking, and instead of reaching for a soda, or coffee I drink the same amount of water now. I use the same app to track my water intake. In the morning I put a minimal amount of sugar in my coffee. If I drink tea instead I use a small splash of fruit juice to lightly sweeten it. Just enough to take the bitter taste out of either.

I avoid the elevator like its a zombie plague zone. I go up and down the stairs probably a dozen plus times a day, and while that amount of exercise isn't a lot it still is exercise in my book. I also looked around where I work to find restaurants with in a 10 minute walking distance, and walk to and from lunch. Instead of calling people on the phone, I try to walk to their office to ask them questions. The point is to be more active than you have been. I also stopped eating snacks at work.

I've since found the time to go the gym about 2x a week for about an hour, and although I have been slacking off on the gym I've lost over 40lbs. Most of what I do at the gym however can easily be done in the privacy of your own home, its just convincing yourself that you have the 30-60 minutes and sticking to it.

Good luck.

Re:A couple simple rules

[xaxa]

If you don't enjoy bicycling, it's not going to be worth getting up early and dealing with the hassles involved. In which case, you probably should look for something else that you enjoy and do that instead.

Getting up early?

I cycle to work in torrential rain because I'm generally running late. Cycling takes 15 minutes, the bus takes 20 (longer if it's raining, and more people are using the bus), plus up to 15 to wait for it if I've forgotten what minutes past the hour they leave.

Google says driving takes 10. Maybe it does at 4am on Sunday, but at the times I'd want to go to work it's more like 15-20 (following the bus, essentially).

Drop and give me 20

[danstoner]

Push-ups and jumping jacks are free. Take the long way to the bathroom, or the break room, or the drinking fountain. While other workers might take a smoke break, you can take a walk break. For a while I used software such as Workrave to remind me to get up and move.

My Take

[Dripdry]

Water, some tea or a little coffee sometimes.

I eat paleo at work unless we're treated to lunch. Even then , go for mostly meat and veggies.

Also, isometrics. Tense muscles *as hard as possible* for 10-20 seconds. Do that a couple times and hour every other day or so and I have to say it's not too bad, seemingly. Then I go home and get some exercise in a few times a week, yoga a couple times a week. Maybe hiking or walking, something slow and steady, on weekends ideally.

I love all that junk food, but I guess I like being in shape more. Also, cutting out the crud seems to keep my energy up. I can't imagine being strung out on coffee and sugary stuff all the time. Since I went mostly paleo about a year ago I'm less moody, which is great.

Good luck!

A couple options: dog + hobby

[cara]

Get a dog - I got a dog because I wanted one, but was amazed at how much more active I was simply caring for the dog - minimum of 3 walks a day, plus playtime.

Take up an active hobby - make sure it is something you enjoy and will stick with. I took up inline skating and just love it. I do it for fun, and the exercise I get is a bonus.

CrossFit at 5:30PM 4 days a week

[Sebastopol]

Gets me out of the office at exactly 5. It's a fun group of people and the workouts are different every time. Can't beat it (I used to run alone and tried going to the gym alone, but without peers and coaches, it was hopeless). It's a good hard sweat done in ~45 minutes. Been at it for 5 years, started at age 34.

CrossFit

[ittybad]

The company I work at (really, the best place I've ever had the privileged of working) gives us a fitness credit and we are encouraged to go to CrossFit at any hour of the day. For a while, my team would all go at about 11am, but after switching teams, it turned out to be more conducive to our schedule to go at 8am. The team building is great and working out with your cohort is extremely motivating. Had I been spending the last (nearly) two years working out on my own, it would not have continues. Having a team that helps keep you motivated (and in turn, you help keep them motivated) is essential.

Re:A couple simple rules

[cusco]

Cycling doesn't need to be that strenuous

Unless you live in Seattle/Redmond. Holy crap. If the hill that I live on here existed in Michigan (where I grew up) there would be a ski resort on it. Biking in Seattle mostly consists on planning your route to avoid the absolutely horrible hills by going up the just really hard hills. When my asthma woke back up in my 30s bicycling anywhere but rail trails went out the window.

Sport + Eat Less + Eat Healthy

[JodiJodiJodi]

I work as a sit down developer.

To keep fit I play sport twice a week with workmates, one day it's touch rugby, another it's football (soccer). Work has a shower which makes that all possible. The Gym bores me, so I don't bother with that.

I don't eat cake, biscuits, cookies or chocolate (new years resolution). I don't drink soda, pop, or sugar drinks. I take a fistful of nuts (mmm cashews) and about 3-8 pieces of seasonal fruit to work to chow down during the day. I have a light lunch (1 slice of home-made wholemeal bread + peanut butter). I drink 1l of water and numerous cups of no-sugar tea. I get really hungry by dinner time.

Since I stopped eating sugary stuff, I no-longer get the afternoon doze-sugar-lows.

So far I have managed to lose my moobs and can see my stomach muscles again. I don't weigh myself.

Re:TED Talks on a Treadmill

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

Because of the difficulty in turning pages, for books anyway. Past a certain rate of speed you need to keep your arms on something for stability, or I do anyway. Certainly helps you to concentrate on what you're reading. Now, to hold books open there's things like the Book Magic Clip that slides into place holding the pages open. I've made my own versions of these in the past out of the musical wire they sell in hobby shops; instead of how the Book Magic slides down from the top, my version holds books open from the sides. The wire passes around the back of the book and two arms bend around to hold the book on the front. I tried drawing you an example in ASCII art but the 'junk' characters filter shut me down. :/ It's not complicated at all though. Jeweler's pliers helps to bend the wire. You have to make a variety of sizes for different books. It's quite easy to make these though.

I should also mention that the Nordictrac has a very convenient angled surface on its control panel, perfect for putting the keyboard on; but this is also where the fan is located so no gentle breezes. Of course you can always just have a floor fan for the same purpose.

I ride my bike to work almost every day

[funkboy]

n/t

Re:I ride my bike to work almost every day

[Dave Cole]

I ride my bike to work every day - clocking up 220km / week.

Last year I was a bit lazy about riding on the weekends so my average week dropped from over 300 km to 200 km. This year I am trying to reverse that.

More than one way to skin a cat...

[yurtinus]

Hopefully a lot of people in your shoes have been skimming these posts and seeing what works for other /.ers. There are a ton of valuable methods already posted, but here are the common themes I'm seeing:

1) You *must* tweak your diet if you're serious about this. There are heaps of fad diets out there but they all share the common theme: Eat Less Crap.

2) Find something active that you enjoy. Hiking, biking, sports. Doesn't matter what it is - if you can do it for the sheer enjoyment you won't stop. If it's often and active enough, you don't need to bother with the 3rd item in this list.

3) Come up with a an exercise regimen to do a few days a week. Could be just cardio (walking, running), could be some form of whole body workout. Don't be afraid of the workout videos (or even searching youtube) - you'd be surprised at the workout you can get with zero equipment and just a few square feet of space on the floor.

4) This one isn't mentioned as much, but if you can find a coworker or group in the same situation with the same goals, you will dramatically improve your chances of success.

If you have a desk job, there really is no solution you can do "at the desk." Sure, there are things you can do that help, like standing to work, but if you really want improvement you're going to have to add something to your schedule (or multitask it in with TV). That said, I *strongly* disagree with the people who say you need to make a lifestyle change to improve your fitness. You don't need anything that drastic - just start with some tweaks in your diet and adding exercise. For me, when I started seeing improvement, I wanted more - so more tweaks followed!


Now, here's what works for me:

- I keep a water bottle (12 or 14 oz) at my desk and fill it up whenever it's empty. I like that it's smaller, so I get up more often (usually every hour or two), and the water doesn't have as much time to get warm
- I don't have "open" snacks around. No bag of chips to pull from mindlessly. Sometime during the morning I'll have either some fruit or some crackers and peanut butter. Sometime during the afternoon I'll have some fruit or yogurt or something of the sort.
- I mountain bike in the spring/summer/fall and just started snowboarding in the winter. Usually this just means one big workout per week, but I love doing it - so it doesn't feel like work. PLUS a not insignificant part of my motivation for my workout regimen is to improve my mountain biking.
- I commute to work by bicycle once or twice a week during the spring, summer and fall.
- And probably the biggy - I work out at a gym near the office three times (or so) per week during the lunch break. I go with a coworker which has greatly improved both my motivation and the quality of the workout (we're always challenging each other to improve). The gym isn't even necessary, we basically just cycle through the p90x workouts which could be done anywhere if you can get some resistance bands and something that will pass for a pull up bar.

immediate plasure of fitness important

[peter303]

I agree the jury is still out whether it helps, hurts, or has little effect on longetivity.
The immediate pleasure of fitness includes feeling better during the day, doing things more easily, fitting in to clothes and seats. A well chosen exercise can be fun and mentally refreshing.

Walk or cycle more, get a dog

[root_42]

I go to work by bus, but I still have to work ~1km to and from the bus. Also you could take a bicycle to work. Many workplaces offer showers for bike commuters (ours does). Also I have a dog and have to walk her 3x a day, rain or shine. Thus I get to about 6km of walking each day. Helps a lot.

ride your bike

[noh8rz10]

I ride my bike to work. gets my excercize in, a little bit each day, some fresh air, winning!

Re:ride your bike

[ATMAvatar]

As do I. I live close enough (~2.5 miles) that I will frequently even ride home for lunch. As it gets warmer, I will start to ride extra on the side, like I did today.

Treadmill workstations can help people concentrate

[Paul Fernhout]

"I can't imagine that a treadmill would work well in the office -- I'd either be focused on the treadmill and not working, or be focused on working and not the treadmill and would end up tripping myself."

Increased concentration on a treadmill workstation has been my experience and that of others too who report on using them. There is the rhythm of walking that can help keep one on-track. Also, in general you feel better which means less distracting aches and pains of sitting all day. You may quickly get used to it like I did. I vary walking, standing, and sitting on a tall stool with mine. On the other hand, my wife has found she can't type well using one. So, your mileage may vary. I could believe they work better for some people than others.

The person who posted the original question should point out to his or her boss that treadmill desks run at low speeds (typically around just one mph as a slow walk, so not noisy jogging speed) and so in general are fairly quiet. There are a variety of manufacturers that focus on quiet, so get a high end one.

One big downside compared to walking with coworkers or a dog outside is you don't get vitamin D from noon-day sunshine in the summer. So, do both.

Search on Dr. James Levine and the Mayo Clinic for more information. Here is a good link:
http://www.squidoo.com/walkingwhileworking

Re:A couple simple rules

[MrHanky]

Well, I've got those, but mainly on the way home. The worst hill is approximately 650 ft vertical over 1.2 miles, and I wouldn't claim to do that without breaking a sweat. It's easy on the way down, though.

Re:A couple simple rules

[quantaman]

I've been running to work for several years (fortunate to have shower facilities and a reasonable proximity). The major advantage is that it's a very passive form of exercise, if you go to the gym you have to stop what you're doing and go to the gym, if you have to go for a run, same thing, in either case you have to expend some willpower and motivate yourself to do it which is probably the biggest obstacle to exercise.

But running to work? There's even less setup and maintenance involved than with a bike, and you don't have to worry about traffic or road conditions. I get two runs every day with very little effort (if I want to go to work I do it automatically) and as a bonus I've become a pretty damn good runner.

Sugar and gluten seem to be my keys

[javaguy]

Years ago I did the Atkins diet, I lost 30kg in 3-4 months. I don't consider it a great long term option these days, but it works, though perhaps not for the reason Atkins thought it did. I'm vegetarian now partly thanks to the excessive meat I ate back then. I've tried all sorts of diets, no sugar, gluten free, low GI, etc, etc, most worked to at least some degree if I stuck to it. I think the rigor is more important than the diet you choose.

A good workout might burn say 500 calories. For most people it's far easier to cut that from their diet than to exercise every day.

What helps me is:
  - Cutting down sugar 95% - this includes fruit juice, sauces, manufactured products, alcohol
  - Cutting out gluten - I don't have ceilacs, but I find if I stop eating gluten I lose weight much more easily
  - Accurately and honestly track what I eat and what I do. There are heaps of systems, myfitnesspal is the one I use
  - Moderate exercise 3-4 times per week. I live in a hilly area, 30-40 minutes walking up and down those works for me. Even something as simple as a 15 minute walk at lunch time helps.

This is working for me, slowly but surely

It's not rocket science

[ddtstudio]

I get up damn early, get on the bike for a few hours at least. And refuse to work insane hours. If a project or product "requires" all hands for 80 hours a week, it's already too late.

Ride a bike

[mcsqueak]

Do you like cycling?

Ride your bike to work. It's a simple way to add exercise into your day.

I was always too lazy to go to the gym, but found cycling was something I enjoyed. So I started doing it more and more, and eventually started riding to/from work.

My office is 18km from home, and the ride takes me about 45-50 minutes. So one day of riding gives me almost two hours of working out, which is great. I do that a few times a week and it really helps. I was never fat, but at one point I was pushing 190 lbs, and at 5'11" I'm a bit short to weigh that much. I'm down to 175 and think it's a much better weight:height ratio.

On the way to work I try and take it easy so I don't get too sweaty, but in the evening I really try and hammer to get a good workout. And when it's light later in the summer I'll make my ride home longer so I can get an even better workout in and enjoy the sunshine and warm weather.

A focus on high-intensity, low-time, workouts

[RobertinXinyang]

At my last position I was able to put a punching bag in the hall next to my office. The nice thing about a punching bag is that just a few minutes is a good amount of time, unlike things like a treadmill that are low intensity but are used for long intervals

I think the boxing equipment also added to my "reputation" at work. It worked well for me and my personality becuae I am a real nice, helpfull, type; but, it is something you may want to weigh. In my case it halped add ballance to the personality I presented, if you are already a agressive type it may make you look like a hothead, if you are a real quiet type it may leave people thinking you are going to go postal.

At my new position, I havn't been here long enough for stuff "start showing up" so I just do some pushups now and again. I also cycle to work.

Re:A focus on high-intensity, low-time, workouts

[endus]

High intensity low-time workouts, eh?

Well, that certainly flies in the face of every piece of research about weight loss.

You're much much much better off doing low intensity workouts (your heart rate in a specific zone) for longer periods of time.

Re:A focus on high-intensity, low-time, workouts

[RobertinXinyang]

It certainly does fly in that face with most recommendations about weight loss. There is no magic bullet, and certainly not one that will work in most offices. That is why I think it needs to be combined with cardio, like riding a bicycle to work. The problem is that there just isn't much, as far as long, low intensity, workouts that work well in a real office environment.

That being said, I found the boxing to be good for keeping my general activity level higher at work. Weight loss does not only occur during intense activity, it also is increased by raising your activity level. The reality is that workplace fitness needs to be something you can do for 3-5 minutes; no, that is not ideal for weight loss. However, it becomes part of the process.

BTW, I went from 229 to 185 ( I am 5'6", the goal is 175)

Re:A focus on high-intensity, low-time, workouts

[RobertinXinyang]

I will also point out that weight loss was not the only goal. i also wanted to build up my arms and shoulders. In all the regimen worked well. I definitely was getting more positive attention from the young women in the office and the men were treating me different too, in a better way. I was no longer just the nice guy who had the ability, and the willingness, to help anyone out ( a classic "Bob").

  I was the nice guy who had the ability, and the willingness, to help anyone out who, no one doubted, could punch though a wall if I wanted to. In an aggressive culture it mattered. I really did continue being the same person; but, people stopped acting like I was a pushover. Like I said, it also went over well with the younger office women too (and really, why else do we care about our waist to shoulder ratio?)..

Maybe you *should* race

[erice]

You don't have to run marathons or train for them to be healthier.

No, but it helps. Having actual goals that are not nauseatingly dull and that have a hard time limit go a long way toward keeping one motivated to keep going when one just doesn't want to.

GymBarbie: Gyms are *hard*

[KMSelf]

If you live in an area where a good gym is that far away, you likely have enough space that you can create a decent workout space in your own home.

It's also highly likely that you're overlooking other options: high schools, community colleges, YMCAs, and various athletic clubs offer inexpensive access to cardio and strength equipment.

Note that "gym" and "fitness" don't consist simply of cardio. Strength training is highly underrated by much of the lay public.

A power cage, or even a set of bar stands, an Olympic barbell, and a few hundred pounds of plates will do you a lot of good. It's a bit of an investment, but it pays off in large dividends.

For cardio, a four-minute workout can be highly effective.

Hire a trainer

[naroom]

A personal trainer helped me a TON. Wife and I went together for a year. It cost a bunch, but it established a habit. And the habit has stuck since. Now the game is, if one of us skips a gym session, that person must pay $20 the other's favorite charity. The EFF only made $60 from her last year :)

I'm a stagehand

[Krigl]

All it takes is to do my job.

MAKE TIME

[map200uk]

There's only one answer MAKE TIME The only thing holding you back is..yourself 1 ) Join a gym, look for a 24/7 gym Golds 24 or 24hr Fitness - 24hr allows you the flexibility you may need 2) Change your routine, either get up earlier and go before work or instead of going home and eating chips and watching tv..go AFTER WORK 3) In relation to staying fit at work take your food with you..stop drinking sodas at your desk and potato chips..cook your food the night before and take healthy food to work..swap the sodas for green tea 4) If time really is as limited as you say..ok well , noone's saying do 2hours in the gym everyday...see what you can fit in a nd work around it 30minutes cardio on a bike, 30minutes weights..30minutes is plenty of time for a good workout.(shouldn't do more than 45-60 mins) Lastly - if you dont think you can even manage 30minutes..depending on your fitness look into HIIT (high intentist interval training) your whole cardio workout can be done in 10-12mins!

I lost 70lbs

[endus]

I lost 70lbs after being heavy all my life. Here's the secret...

Eat fewer calories than you burn. ...that's it. There's no magic solution, there's no way around it, there's no pill or device or routine which will allow you to keep eating shitty food and not exercising and lose weight. You can eat nothing but chocolate bars and lose weight if you really want to.

Change the way you eat to something you can live with on a long term basis. Dieting doesn't work.

Putting a treadmill under your standing desk is an asinine solution. I can only imagine how much your boss was cringing when you asked them such a ridiculous question with a straight face. If I was your cube neighbor and you did that I would stab you. Like legit....I would take a knife and stab you.

One trick is that you don't have to kill yourself exercising to lose weight. You want your heart rate to be in a target zone, which is surprisingly not that hard to maintain. You won't lose weight faster by killing yourself going balls-to-the-wall. Find out what your target heart rate for weight loss should be and arrange to be in that target zone for an hour at least three times a week, or more if you insist on cramming that sludge into your body. I recommend swimming, it is unbelievable exercise and easy to stay in the weight loss zone.

The other thing is to weigh yourself all the time. Weigh yourself in the morning and at night. You will start to understand what you can and cannot do. You will start to understand how much exercise you need and how much you can eat.

It's not as hard as you think, but there are no shortcuts. Sack up and do it. You'll be glad you did. Life is better when you're thin.

There's a limited amount you can do at work

[KMSelf]

Assuming a standard office layout, there are a few things you can do to tweak your fitness quotient a bit, but it's mostly through harm reduction rather than positive benefits. Don't smoke, avoid junk food, stand and walk around. Consider a standing desk, use stairs, manage your stress, work sensible hours, walk somewhere for lunch. Incorporate walking in your commute, consider moving to where a healthier lifestyle is a matter of course, not a decision to be made daily.

But the realities of human physiological response to training stimulus means that intensity matters, and you're simply not going to reach appropriate levels of stimulation at the office without radically changing your workspace and creating a considerable distraction and disruption for those around you.

The good news is that an effective workout can be packed into a short time -- 20 - 60 minutes -- and a few workouts a week can make a significant difference in health and appearance. The biggest hurdle for most people is sorting out good information from bad on diet, exercise, and lifestyle. Pointers I like to put in front of folks include Liam Rosen's "Beginners' Health & Fitness Guide, the Reddit Fitness FAQ, and books such as The New Rules of Lifting. A healthy diet and a solid 8 hours of nightly sleep are your foundation. A good a strength training routine, and HIIT cardio can fit inside a 20-60 minute workout period.

The best tools are relatively simple: a barbell, plates, rack stand or power cage, and a basic piece of cardio: your body, a barbell, kettlebells, a jump rope, a rowing machine (and if you're going to row, that's among the best technique videos out there).

That said, few offices are optimized for deadlifts, kettlebell swings, Oly lifting, or Tabata erging sessions. Whether you build it or buy it, a gym is a worthwhile investment. Consider it a workshop for improving and sustaining your body.

Take the time.

[DaveAtFraud]

There. Fixed that subject for you.

To the OP: Your health is THE most valuable thing you have. If you're too sick to work, the work doesn't get done. Dead being the most extreme form of too sick to work.

As much as I am not a morning person, I take my exercise time "off the top." I get up and, in my case, work out on a NordicTrak classic before I go to work. Find a machine that's right for you and set aside 15 minutes to half an hour in your morning routine to work out. You may need to get up earlier. Start with 15 minutes and build from there. You'll find that getting some physical exercise means you sleep better so don't be surprised if the getting up earlier balances out.

Working out in the morning on a machine means:

- No one can take it away from you because some late day panic came up or some crisis came up at home.
- It's efficient since you have to take a shower anyway (we hope). One shower takes care of both the "get ready for work" and the "sweaty from a workout" need.
- You'll find it helps wake you up so you "hit the ground running." (This helps with making time)
- Running and bicycling are nice but weather can interfere. Doing a machine workout inside means the weather doesn't matter.
- It becomes part of your routine as opposed to something you try to fit in.

Cheers,
Dave

Reading peoples advice here making me insane.

[Buzz_Litebeer]

Weight loss is a function of calories, you are almost never going to be able to run off calories you eat very easily.

So eat less if you want to lose weight.

If you want to be strong, exercise several times a week.

If you exercise to lose weight, and you were gaining weight before you started exercising, your probably just going to lose your water weight initially (OMG MOM I LOST 10lbs!) then you are going to stall, because you are really just exercising off the excess (if you can even do that).

I have lost 130lbs, and kept it off for several years now, I have track everything. Anyone coming on asking for quick tips on losing weight is having a losing game already.

If you are a software dev, make a spreadsheet, and do a workup on yourself. It takes time, but you can find out what your body burns every day, and you can find out how many calories you need to eat to lose weight, and you can even track when you start getting thinner how many fewer calories you burn

Here is how I do it.

http://themobilefieldbasehealth.blogspot.com/2013/02/how-do-i-manage-weight-loss.html

If you don't want to use the self guided programmer method, and keep track of calories in calories out using a spreadsheet....

Download MyFitness Pal to track your calories and estimate your calorie needs, and do fitocracy to motivate you and read their guides on health.

The one true way

[Auldclootie]

Vigorous uninhibited intercourse with your workmates is guaranteed to keep you fit - providing it is regular. Certainly seems to work in my job....

Re:A couple simple rules

[chilvence]

I know its not going to sell it to anyone, but sometimes, I actually really like cycling in freezing rain. Since it makes it impossible to overheat, you can really push yourself as far as you can go, and the experience is quite bracing.

Traffic on the other hand really is a problem in some places. You may be able to trust 99% of drivers, but it only takes one fuckwit to turn you into a crunchy paste on the asphalt, and that is really 1% too many. There is no reason anyone should have that nagging fear in the back of their mind just when going back and forth to work. It makes about as much sense as having to worry that hyenas might suddenly appear out of nowhere and chew your fucking balls off while you are walking to the shopping centre to get an ice cream. The world is flat out hostile to road cyclists, because drivers will always look at them like turds that don't belong, and aren't entitled to use the roads that were built just for their own precious selves. I have no idea how modern society can tolerate it, but it certainly does and I don't find it very fucking funny. I don't think anyone should be allowed a driving licence until they have been forced to log a couple of hundred road cycling hours, so they can see what type of fucking morons drive around everywhere.

Re:Exercise

[dlingman]

And you'll be ready for the zombie apocalypse. And won't run out of ammo either...

Take short breaks to exercise

[m1chae1cha$e]

http://www.fastcompany.com/3006933/innovation-agents/companys-hourly-exercise-breaks-make-it-more-fit-sure-also-more-successful It really helps me keep the energy and enthusiasm. I have powerbands and use https://play.google.com/store/search?q=sworkit+pro on my phone.

Just go out there and run ... or walk

[yvesm]

Assuming you're not too far from the great outdoors, you can just get yourself off your screen reading Slashdot entries over lunch and go out running or walking at a fast pace for a half hour. I found running or walking is just about the simplest thing you can do : no need for a gym or for sophisticated equipment,except good shoes and proper clothing. I started doing that 2 years ago (I run 4-5 km 3 times a week at lunch) and it does a LOT of difference. You need to set a few things straight though. The first things is : *always* fit your schedule to avoid being refrained from doing your noon jogging periods. You will always find a good reason to skip a training session if you don't do that. When I have people to take care of on a day I'm supposed to run, I politely let them go have lunch by themselves while I do my thing. I found it's probably as good NOT to go to lunch to do more of the same thing (e.g. talk about work) than to impose a mutual break. Just make sure you have a good deodorant if you can't take a shower though ;-) I'm not running today because I was sick last night. Otherwise,I wouldn't be commenting :-) Oh and if you do run : do NOT forget to stretch after. Good luck !

Re: How Do You Stay Fit At Work?

[elisabethrobson]

1) go for a walk. If you do fast/slow/fast/slow... interval walking you can get a good workout in a short time. Do you have a private spot you can do some exercises? If so... Alternating weight-bearing with cardio exercises in short bursts. Do 5 minutes an hour and by the end of the day you've done 30+ minutes of workout: 2) Squats in different varieties. With no weight you want to do fairly high reps. If you have a medicine ball (just a couple of pounds will make a difference), you can add that when you're ready. Just make sure you're sticking your butt out and don't let your knees come out too far over your toes, and tighten up your abs. Work up to 40 in a row. You can vary this by raising your arms a bit when you squat (balance), touching the ground at the bottom of the move, etc. 3) Jumping jacks. 4) Lunges. I like to lunge back, rather than forward, easier on the knees. 5) Toe touches. Keep your legs straight and don't go too fast. This is cardio + core. 6) Push ups. Keep your core tight!! 7) Groiners. Get into a push up starting position, then put one foot up by your hand (on the outside), then switch legs. Do this for 30 seconds and you'll be breathing hard! 8) Bicycle crunches 9) Burpees with or without a pushup. Start in pushup position. Do the pushup (if you're doing them), then jump legs up to about a foot behind your hands, jump up. Then reverse. Start with a few and work up to a minute. Great all around exercise. 10) Stretching to finish up.

"I have two doctors, my left leg and my right."

[SST-206]

Some quotes on why walking rocks : )

Small changes

[KMGeneral]

I used to find this an issue and frankly I still do to a point, but I have found that small changes to the way that you do things can make a big difference. It all adds up in the end. For instance:
- Park further away from work so you get a bit of a walk in the morning and afternoon (not overly far, but say about 1-2km), it adds about 15 - 20 min to your day and helps to wake you up pre and post work.
- Change shopping habits, personally I live reasonably close to my local shops (about 500m), I have taken to buying long life things like soap and toilet paper in bulk using the car but walking to the shops every couple of days for food (and beer) and then only buying what I can carry back myself. This obviously will not work if you live far away from the shops but you get the idea.
- As others have said, changes in what and when you eat can help a lot. I moved from the usual fast food and high sugar diet to one that was a lot more balanced. So muesli in the morning instead of high sugar cereal or a bacon and egg roll, switching from soda and energy drinks to tea, coffee, or just water. In general just switching to less energy dense foods.
I've been working things like these into my life for a couple of years now and whilst I do slip up from time to time in general I stick to it. I wouldn't say that I'm fit but I'm in a lot better shape than I have been in years.

Get into team sports.

[muntis]

Fact that team mates rely on you will build self-discipline. I'm playing ice-hockey for 3 years now. I raised my physical fitness considerably and skipped just a couple tranings a year.

Top Ten Fitness Options for Software Developers

[pfg23]

Many of these have been expressed in other postings, but here's my way of keeping fit. (I'm a 30-year veteran of software development.)

1. Bike to work year round. It's amazing how good technical apparel will keep you dry and warm in extreme weather.
2. Get a standing desk. If your boss won't spring for one, buy a $7 Lack table at Ikea and put it on your desk.
3. Go freelance. Lag time between gigs will give you more time to exercise or do jobs that aren't sedentary, like teaching, construction, etc.
4. Start your own business where you can set your own time.
5. Life your life in 3D. Banish televsion and video games. Minimize the screens in your life.
6. Park at the farthest part of the parking lot.
7. Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
8. Dispense with the nerd stereotype workstyle.
9. Walk around the building at lunch.
10. Take active vacations: skiing, hiking, etc. If you go to a beach, swim. Really swim.
Bonus tips:
11. Become vegan. If that's too hard, vegetarian. If that's too hard, flexitarian.
12. Running is probably the most time-efficient exercise there is. The most fitness bang for your time buck. And it's inexpensive if you run outdoors.

Can you describe the standup desk situation better

[TaxDoktor]

How does the standup desk work? I have not heard of that before. Are you saying your desk is 4-5 feet high and you code standing?

A couple of suggestions

[JimFive]

Check out the exercise portion of The Hacker's Diet. You might also check out something like One Hundred Pushups. Or, take a walk at lunch time and during breaks.
--
JimFive

Excellent idea!

[a-zA-Z0-9$_. !*'(),x]

And your load steadily increases, especially if you have boys!

What I do

[gravis777]

Looks like many other people have said the same thing, but....

Just get up from your desk and stretch evevery half hour for a minute or two

About every two hours, take a brief walk. Walk to the bathroom, walk to the breakroom, walk around the office. Don't think you can justify 5-15 mintues away from your desk? Just say you are going to take your "smoke break" but use it to walk.

Suck it up and go to the gym. I actually found a great program called Fitocracy that also has an Android app. Its basically like a real-life RPG game - as you work out, you level yourself up, there are quests you can go on, etc. Oh, and see if your company will subsidize part of the gym membership - your health should help them keep their insurance costs down, so it is a win for them.

Cut out the Mountain Dew and Monster. If you HAVE to have an energy drink, switch to the Low-Carb drinks. Limit yourself to no more than one a day. I started by making one last throughout the day, and drinking water when I get thirsty and just saving the energy drink for just when the brain really needs the jolt (amazingly, water helps more than the energy drink does - I found out that most of my headaches were coming not from a lack of caffine but from being dehydrated). As I started drinking more and more water, I needed less and less energy drinks, until a Monster lasted me like two days. I then stopped Monster and switched to Coffee. The advantage of coffee is that it is also a great laxitive. I am now down to just one to two cups of coffee a day, and water the rest, and only have Mountain Dew or something once every week or two as a treat. I feel great, and have lost quite a bit of weight.

Change up the diet a bit. I am not saying to go on Atkins or something, just kinda watch what you are putting in your body. MyFitnessPal is a great free website for helping track calories, carbs and fat. I really did not have to cut anything out of my diet, just watch what foods I eat together, and in the same day. Just some common sense stuff - if I grab a Bacon Ultimate Cheeseburger for lunch, it is probably not a good idea to have pizza or fried foods for dinner. Once you learn how your favorite foods and stuff work together, you get to where you need to use the site less and less. I hardly use it anymore - the site helped me learn how to think about what I eat, and now that I kinda have a routine for foods I eat, I rarely need it anymore.

Key thing is, just make a few small changes in your routine. Even if you start going to the gym, you don't need to spend an hour on the treadmeal - work up to stuff. Start with a few things that feel good, lift some weights, spend a bit of time in cardio, but don't kill yourself. Once that starts feeling good, and you can do it without killing yourself, increase the time / reps / sets. Once that starts feeling good, then you can start upping the weight / resistance a little.

Key word is, just start with afew small things, and then work up. Sounds like you are aleady looking at making a change, which is a big starting place. You don't need to do anything dramatic like installing treadmills at your desk or stuff like that, just start with walking around the office a few minutes a day.