Staying Fit And Healthy When You Work At An Office: 6 Top Tips

Whether you’re still working from home or have plans to go back to the office soon, you might be thinking about ways you can stay fit and healthy while at work- especially with summer just around the corner.

Office jobs generally involve a lot of sitting, with your only exercise being from your fingers on your keyboard (with the occasional bicep curl when you lift up the phone). If you’re looking to lose weight or just live a healthier lifestyle, then it’s down to you to actively make more of an effort to fit in some healthy habits while at work. Here are some top tips for staying fit and healthy in your office job:

1. Use A Standing Desk

Standing desks are a great way to use your leg muscles- and you’d be surprised how much the act of simply standing can cause your legs to feel the burn. Since standing up all day is probably going to be a little too much, most people like to switch between a sitting and a standing desk whenever they feel like it.

Using a standing desk can also help you if you struggle with bad posture, since when you’re stood up, your back is likely to be a lot straighter. So if you’re experiencing any back pain from being sat at your desk all day, then a standing desk could be perfect for you.

2. Prepare Your Meals in Advance

If you haven’t packed any meals for yourself, then by the time 1pm rolls around, you’ll probably be craving just about everything. When you’re hungry, it’s a lot easier to make an unhealthy food choice and stray away from your diet.

Since most of us hate waste, preparing meals from home is a great way to stay on track with your diet- and as a bonus, it works out cheaper than buying your food every day. You want your meals to be healthy but also filling, otherwise you’re just going to be tempted to snack all day.

Chicken and brown rice or, a baked sweet potato with greens are great lunch options- or if you want to lose weight fast, why not try out a meal replacement shake service? Shake That Weight offer a great selection of weight loss diet shakes that can be mixed with water or milk, so they’re really easy to prepare away from home. Made with calcium casein whey protein isolate, these diet shakes digest slowly over 4 hours, meaning you’re less likely to want to reach for a snack while you’re at work.

3. Exercise On Your Lunch Break

After you’ve spent the morning sitting at your desk, your lunch break provides you with the perfect opportunity to get up and move your body. The more committed exercise-lovers might be able to fit in a gym session- but even a simply walk round your office building will be enough to get your blood pumping.

4. Do Some Desk-ercise

There are plenty of different exercises you can do from your desk, with some being more subtle than others. From arm pulses to arm circles, desk push ups and chair squats, there are many ways you can tone your upper body while sitting at your desk.

There are even mini exercise bikes you can buy to exercise your lower body- so you can essentially do a full workout while still remaining at your desk. Naturally, you’re probably going to get some funny looks from others in the office, so why not try involving everybody in your workouts and create an office gym class?

5. Pack Healthy Snacks

In an office job, you may often find yourself daydreaming about food. There’s just something so tempting about reaching for a snack when you’re sitting at your desk. If you’re genuinely hungry, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with snacking- but the healthier the snack, the better.

Great healthy snack options include rice cakes, hummus and carrots, or a piece of fruit. Try to steer clear of processed foods like granola bars, since these can have high sugar levels which actually result in you feeling hungrier afterwards.

6. Walk To Work

During the cold winter months, you can be excused for preferring to drive to work- but now spring is here, it’s time to ditch your car in favour of walking. Obviously, if you live the other side of town, then you’re going to have no choice but to drive. But if your place of work is only around 20 minutes’ walk away, then why not choose to walk instead?

Not only are you saving on petrol money, but since exercise releases serotonin in your body, walking to work can improve your mindset and get you prepared for the day ahead.