BellaOnline Forums Career Small Office/Home Office How do you stay fit and healthy when you WAH?

Hi everyone

Have any of you got any tips for keeping fit and healthy whilst working from home? Mentally and physically?

I work from home as a Virtual Assistant and often I don't see many people at all! Also, sometimes I am at the computer for most of my waking hours. I do love running and exercising though, but I have to make time for it. I have noticed that it's getting harder to keep the weight off if I sit at home all day.

What kind of issues do you have keeping fit and losing weight when working for yourselves? I thought this would be a great discussion for us to have.

On the one hand, it's harder to keep fit and lose weight because alot of us tend to sit on the computer all day. On the other hand, it's easier because we can more easily choose what to have in our fridges instead of being around office snacks/sweets etc.

The other thing is keeping fit mentally - how do you strike the right balance when working from home and sometimes not seeing many people? Personally, I try to schedule at least one face to face meeting a week.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

Best wishes

Lisa

Great topic! The whole "tied to the computer" thing is something I always struggle with.

I'm actually working on an article for exercise when you work at home, so I'll be very interested in any tips anyone posts.

I think part of the problem is that we never think about those missed steps -- from getting ready in the mornings to walking to/from the car or whatever transportation we use, walking around at work, and so on. My bathroom is like 15 steps from my computer now and when I worked in an office it was 10 times that! Same goes for everything else--I can eat, get a soda or water, even do a load of laundry in just a few steps. Maybe we have to walk for 30 minutes just to make up for working at home. Then, we have to add in our "exercise"!?

I am a management consultant. So I actually lose weight if I work from home more.

1. Dress up but casual.
I find that the biggest advantage to working from home is that I don't have to wear heels or a suit which in effect means I can get comfy and as active as I want through out the day. But I never feel positive or energetic on days when I don't wake up with a shower and still do the whole dressing-up routine. In my dressing-up routine, I play the morning radio to get into the wake-up mood with the rest of the city. This get-up feel good routine sets a faster tempo /metabolism rate for the rest of the day. It makes me feel unsloppy working at home.

2. Move about a lot and express myself. One of the other advantage of working at home is that you're in the privacy of your own home. So I walk about or do push ups, stretches when I am working on an idea in my head.

3. Buy groceries by small amounts. Everyday when I work at home, I would take a 15 min break to get lunch and my groceries from around the corner. I walk there and get just milk or just a sandwiche. Then I walk back. It's my excuse to get out...and I am more motivated to do this given step 1 is done!

4. Talking about small portions...beign at home makes it possible for me to eat many small meals a day, gives me more chances for picking good food/snack. In the office, we have fruits, coffee and sweet pastries. At home, I eat buckets of strawberries, cherries, and sometimes just some fried garlic with choy sum (chinese veg). And of course, all these from the daily trip I make to the supermarket! Seeing what they have and improvising also helps me feel more in control over what I eat.

5.Sit on a chair with wheels. You'll be amaze how much balancing and rolling around fun one can have!

Like everything important, we need to make time for staying fit and healthy. (I can just hear the groans ;-) I've been struggling with weight gain ever since my offline business moved online. So what I try to do is exercise to DVDs that are specifically geared to the amount of time I have... which like many of you is not alot.

I'm a fan of Denise Austin who has a ton of versatile exercise DVDs. You can find 60 second firming and tightening exercises, 10 minute workouts, as well as longer ones. Also her famous "Fidgetcizing" may seem a little out there, but can be effective if you stick with it.

So I suggest you find a fitness expert that you like and who offers short exercise programs, pop in a DVD at a certain time day and keep more fit that way.

Hope that helps someone!

Great ideas!

Does anyone use a stand-up desk? I've always been intrigued by the idea as I get so worn out sitting!

I pretty much live on the South Beach Diet - watching carbs is the key to controlling weight for me. In the warm weather, my husband and I take a 2 mile walk every evening; in the cold weather, I do a walking exercise video at home.

Sitting at the computer is bad for the hips! And I'm guilty of it.

I like the South Beach diet too and follow it loosly. I also walk my dogs for one hour each am. I get up early, work for about 2 hours and then walk for an hour and go back to work at the computer. This gives me a good break from sitting.

I also try and do a yoga video later in the day.

Great tips, everyone!

How is South Beach different from Atkins?

I never did Adkins but South Beach advocates protein with every meal, 5 smaller meals a day and balancing your blood sugar using the glycemic index. It cuts out processed foods and sugars. My husband's doctor told him to go on it when he got high blood sugar. The diet seemed to fix the problem as his blood sugar was normal last visit.