Happy Friday! Most of us have sedentary jobs – and we’ve all heard the phrase “sitting is the new smoking.” Personally, I spend a good deal of time sitting while at work and so am constantly trying to make smart choices. For this week’s Friday Five (where the theme is fitness), I thought I’d share five easy ways to make healthy choices at work. Considering we spend so much time at work, this really does matter! Don’t forget to check out Cynthia and Mar and some of the other folks who link up with us – and please don’t forget to link to your hosts if you are participating! Have a great weekend!
- Take the stairs. We have an internal staircase in our office and that makes this easy. Unless I’m carrying a lot of items (laptop, phone, notepad, etc.), I pretty much exclusively use the internal staircase rather than the elevator. It gets me up and moving throughout my day!
- Bring your lunch. I try and do this as much as possible. Inevitably what you bring from home is going to be much healthier (and also cheaper!! bonus!) than going out. Also, I really like my own cooking (call it vein, I don’t care :)) and so I’m typically really excited for what I have for lunch on any given day!
- Walk, don’t call. Instead of calling someone, I’ll get up and walk to their office to ask my question. Bonus, if they aren’t there, I just keep walking and then email them later. I don’t do this all the time, but I’m trying to do better about it!
- Get up to read documents. I’ve been doing this a lot lately. If I have a stack of documents to read or review, I will stand up and walk around my office while reading them, instead of just sitting down idle. It’s an easy way to not be sitting down at my desk and also gets me away from my computer, which helps me to be more productive when actually reading through the documents and not get distracted by email coming in.
- Stock your office with healthy snacks! I have a snack drawer that I fill periodically with granola, air popped popcorn, Kind bars, etc. It is great for the afternoon snack urges and makes it much easier to avoid the candy and cakes that often find their way into the office kitchens.
How do you make healthy choices at work?
I work from home, so my life is a little different. But I try to drink a lot of water – we have no bathroom on the main floor, so I have to go up or down to pee LOL. I also have been known to walk on the treadmill or ride my exercise bike when on a conference call. But on the down side, my entire kitchen is available to me at all times, sigh.
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When I worked from home, it helped that the kitchen was downstairs and my office was upstairs. 🙂
Since I work in a restaurant I am always around food. It is so temping to grab food that is available there. I need to learn to start bringing my own good.
Oh yeah working around food so often is definitely challenging!
Ha I could have used this post yesterday at work. I think planning is one of the most beneficial ways to eat healthy at work. If you have a plan, it’s a lot easier to eat well.
Planning is key, I think!
I don’t work (at least, not formally), but I have my vivoactive to remind me when I’ve been inactive too long. If I actually move when it tells me to . . . lately when it reminds me I’ve been sitting too long, I get up & do some backwards walking & side foot crosses (kind of a grapevine) so I can work in some hip strengthening very easily into my day.
That’s good that you actually get up and move when it tells you to!
I’m pretty lucky to have a job that keeps me on my feet most of the day. BUT there is food and candy everywhere! The struggle is real.
Ah – yes being surrounded by treats can be SO tough!
When I worked in an office (way before fitbits LOL) I used to always take the stairs people thought it very odd! I also used to pace around while on the phone it helps! Thanks for the link up
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I like standing while on calls or reading docs – definitely helps me!
I love #3 and try to do that when I am in the office. Since I work from home the majority of the time, I have taken to walking around or outside when I am on calls where I have to take few notes. I would also say stay out of the break room when there are extra sweets around. Have a good weekend!
I sometimes fall prey to the candy my coworkers keep at their desks, but not all the time. One small Snickers isn’t going to hurt me. Plus peanuts are healthy, right :-p I’ve brought my lunch for years, and it’s such a hassle to deal with parking if I leave campus for lunch, I’d rather stay in and eat what I brought.
These are great tips! I have an alarm set on my phone that reminds me every hour to get up an move. This works well (except if I am in a meeting) and reminds me to stop sitting at my desk all day!
These are all great tips and ones I would use when I last worked in an office. Walking, not calling and emailing was the most important one for me. But now that I’m working in fitness 100%, it’s a little different. I’m on my feet or working out all day with clients so while I don’t have to worry about activity, I do need to pay attention to what I’m eating. I’m starving most of the time and when I get home, I tend to over-indulge because of it. But I’m working on it!
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Helpful tips. I’ve taken to pacing when I’m on conference calls to get some extra steps in. Avoiding snacking on unhealthy things at work is the hardest one for me since they have goodies here so often. But keeping healthy alternatives around is a good start.
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Great suggestions! Some of my coworkers set alarms every hour to remind them to get up and walk around a bit. Another suggestion I heard was to put your garbage bin at someone else’s desk so you have to get up to use it. Someone else suggested using the different bathrooms on the floor instead of just sticking to the one closest to where you sit, LOL. These little things definitely add up over time!!!
when I worked in an office I always opted for stairs and tried to take advantage of walking instead of calling whenever possible. Now that I work from home, I love going out at lunchtime to do my workouts. It breaks up the day and helps me stay active!
I’m doing most o fmy work at WFM, which automatically means I’m making healthy choices…. right???
Great tips! I also put a reminder on my calendar to get up and move… I hit snooze for an hour when I get back.
Bringing your own lunch is key. I also actually like wearing my fitness tracker because it reminds me to get up and walk around more, especially on days that I spend a lot of time in front of the computer.
I’m all about bringing my own lunch! Sometimes it’s nice to get out and go to lunch, but I only do that maybe once every other week or so just to get out of the office. And I always have healthy snacks on hand!
When I worked in an office, I always packed my lunch. And my husband does, too. A) It’s so much more cost effective and B) it’s so much healthier!
I sit on a stability ball at work. It’s easy to slump over and lean on the desk though, so I have to stay attentive to my posture. I’ve been doing it for a few years now and I can’t comfortably sit in a desk chair anymore. I usually pack my lunch so I eat at my desk and then use some time on my lunch break to go for a walk when the weather’s nice!
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I 100% agree with bringing your own lunch. I’ll often make extra of whatever we’re having for dinner so that I can bring leftovers with me the next day. Takes almost no extra time to do so.
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Do you have any fun lunch packing suggestions? With school starting soon I’m about to have to pack my lunch every day instead of grabbing something out of the fridge. My apple watch goes off every hour if I haven’t stood up which is always a good reminder to get up and move — even if its only for a couple minutes. Since I’m typically chasing around my 14 month old my watch rarely beeps at me.
I work in a running store, so I am on my feet A LOT. However, when I was in the corporate world, I would always take the stairs, bring my lunch most days, and use my actual lunch hour to take a walk around town (if I wanted to get some takeout, this was a good way to do it, too).
Mr. PugRunner sits a lot at work. His office is maybe 6 miles from our house, so I always try to encourage him to ride his bike there and back (he doesn’t get visitors or clients, so no one cares if he’s sweaty).
I have never heard that sitting is the new smoking phrase. It’s brilliant.
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Love these tips! My office is on the 8th floor which makes for ALOT of steps:)
Getting up to read documents is a great idea! That’s one I haven’t implemented before!
I think we use the same strategies. Taking the stairs is a no-brainer because it’s faster too! I will pace the hallways while proof-reading a document. I think the change of pace (!) helps my brain re-focus too.
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