If you’ve read my earlier posts, you would know already that I used to be extremely active without even noticing it. Then I started university and working in an office, and didn’t understand why I wasn’t just staying skinny.
It’s not fair that you have such a high metabolism and copious amounts of energy as a kid and teenager, then all of a sudden, without warning, it all goes away, and to top it off, you’re stuck sitting at a desk all day, doing no physical activity. Well, life’s not fair, and it’s up to us to make our lives what we want them to be.
The office seems to be this magical vortex that sucks all of your energy away, leaving you feeling sluggish and lazy, well, that’s how it makes me feel anyway. In this blog post I’m going to go through things I’ve found that help keep me more active throughout the day.
- Arrive 30 minutes early and spend that time walking or running before you have to start. This is a great way to start your day, and you can easily get in 3000-4000 steps, burning 250 calories.
- Drink lots of water. This will not only make you get up often to refill you glass or water bottle, but will also make you have to use the washroom more frequently, again, getting up and walking more often. Which brings me to my next point:
- Use the bathroom that’s farthest away. If your office has more than one washroom, try to use the one farthest away from your desk. You’ll get slightly more exercise walking a little further (and a longer break from your work to refresh your mind). Same goes for use of the kitchen.
- Pack a small lunch with snacks. If you can pack something that can be eaten faster, than you can spend the remainder of your lunch break going for a walk. Walk around the block, or better yet, bring your lunch to the park, and eat it there. The fresh air will perk you up for the afternoon and you’ll get a little exercise in too. If you’re going to pack a small lunch though, make sure you bring snacks that you can eat at your desk so you don’t starve.
- Convert your workstation to a standing one. This one may not be suitable for all offices, but the amount of extra calories you could be burning is huge! Livestrong.com suggests that depending on your weight, you could burn an extra 20-50 calories an hour by standing. That means for an 8 hour work day, you could up your calorie burn an extra 160-400 calories. That’s an extra 800-2000 calories burned for the week!
All of these ways to squeeze more exercise in are easy to incorporate into your workday, and will all add up to a much higher daily calorie burn, helping you to make up for the rest of your day when your eyes are glued to your computer screen! Give them a try and see if you notice a difference. I know I feel much more active and less lazy when I’ve been incorporating these office hacks into my day!
Image from: flickrhivemind.net
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