Working from home may sound like a dream – avoiding rush hour, taking calls from the couch – However, it is also important to address the psychological and social challenges of remote working, such as loneliness and blurred lines between a person’s job and home life. It may take some creative thinking and self-discipline, but it’s important for both your physical and mental health to remain active even when working from home, such as eating a nutritious diet and getting regular exercise. In this article, we explore how to stay fit pyhsically and mentally while working from home.
1. Eat a healthy diet
A healthy diet is one that emphasizes nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low fat dairy products. In the list it is included eggs, beans, nuts, fish, poultry, and lean meat while limiting foods high in sugar and salt. A healthy diet also limits foods high in saturated fat, such as fatty cuts of red meat, and trans fat, such as processed foods.
Medical experts recommend not skipping any meals, including breakfast. People with few distractions at home may find that they are more aware of hunger than they would be at a workplace. These individuals can keep healthy snacks, such as fruits, on hand to avoid snacking on chips.
2. Keep hydrated
Drinking enough fluids is essential for preventing dehydration, a condition that can lead to constipation and mood swings. Water is the best beverage choice, but drinking moderate amounts of coffee and tea is also acceptable. It is best to avoid sugary beverages, such as sodas, energy drinks, and fruit drinks.
3. Schedule regular exercise
Exercise has both physical and psychological benefits. The first suggestion for you would be to consider replacing the time you would have spent commuting with working out. For instance, taking a brisk walk in your local area or exercise with a fitness video or mobile app.
Aside from exercise sessions, we advise incorporating physical activity into the workday. Schedule time for working out. When you work at home it's so easy to work around the clock. To help avoid this think of yourself as having a traditional "office job". In most "office jobs" when you go home for the night you leave work behind and concentrate on personal things. Even though going home for you may simply be walking down the hall, you need to set boundaries in order to find time for you.
During working hours, take several 5-10 minute breaks and run up and down the stairs (or even just walk). This will also help rejuvenate your mind. It's not necessary for you to find 30 continuous minutes for working out. You'll get just as much benefit if you break your exercise into small chunks. Try 10 minutes before you start work, 10 minutes at lunch and 10 minutes after work.
If you don't won't to spend a lot of time in the kitchen but still want to eat healthy, cook large portion meals on the weekend that you can freeze. Then simply defrost and warm for dinners during the week. This saves you the time of having to make dinner and you don't have to compromise calories as you would if you instead opted for take-out.
One great advantage of working at home is that you can workout over your lunch hour while never leaving your office plus you don't have to pack your workout clothes and toiletries to take with you to work. This saves you travel time, which you can instead spend on grabbing a healthy bite to eat. And, if you don't have any face-to-face meetings scheduled, then you don't have to worry about looking perfect after your workout.
If you haven't already done so, invest in a good hands-free headset for your phone. This is a great way to multi-task because your hands are free to do other things while you concentrate on your conference call. You can even do some simple (but worthwhile) exercise moves. Some good choices are squats, tricep dips, lunges, wall push-ups, etc. Click HERE for more happyard exercises ideas.
Keep healthy snacks available for when you need an energy boost or simply just need something to chew on to help you get through some tough work. Don't forget to keep water on hand and sip some all throughout your day.
Don't forget the importance of stretching. Take a couple of minutes every hour to stand up and stretch your entire body.
4. Set up the home office for optimal posture and comfort
Setting up a home office in a way that promotes good posture can prevent back pain. The optimal place for a computer monitor is an arm’s length away, with the top of the monitor at or below eye level. Increasing the font size as necessary can reduce eyestrain.
Our happyard standing desks are ideal for this. You can easily set them up at your heigtht and as well for your exercise session during the day.
5. Stick to a daily routine
We also recommend sticking to a daily life routine outside of work, saying that this may help you reduce feelings of stress. This routine includes going to bed and getting up in the morning at the same time every day.
Fit and Fabulous
As you can see, exercise offers huge benefits even with just a small amount of effort. Talk about work-life balance!
Take the tour thorugh our website and learn which standing desk is more suitable for your work-life and get that life changing started!