From overtime hours to office birthday cakes, the working life can take a serious toll on your fitness if you let it. But it doesn’t have to. Here are five ways to keep work from ruining your workouts.
1. Get up and walk around whenever you can
I know you’re tired of hearing about how bad it is to sit but it’s true, so get up and walk around as often as you can during your work day. Walk down to the finance department instead of sending an email. Offer to go and grab those copies from the printer. Hold walking meetings instead of sitting in the boardroom. Stand up when you’re on the phone. Do whatever you can to get in those extra steps throughout the day, even if it’s just to fix your lipstick in the bathroom instead of at your desk.
2. Stay away from unhealthy office snacks
Just because someone brought in cookies or your boss showed up to the meeting with coffee and donuts, doesn’t mean you need to eat them. If you want to, go for it”sometimes you do just need a sweet treat! But don’t eat them just because they’re there or because everybody else is. Instead, have a stash of healthy snacks at your desk”ones that you actually like”and hit those first before that meeting you know will be packed with candy!
3. Go to the gym straight from the office
You get home from work, get into your yoga pants, grab a snack and put on an episode of Broad City. You tell yourself you’re going to watch one episode and then go the gym, but one episode turns into three and the gym never happens. You know how it goes. Instead, pack your gym stuff in the morning (yes, we realize it’s an extra layer of coordination in the morning or the night before), but you’ll be armed and ready go to the gym on the way home from work and then you’ll have all night to watch as many episodes as you want.
4. Get up an hour earlier to work out before work
If you’d rather not fight for a treadmill with all the other people hitting the gym on their way home from work, make going to the gym part of your morning routine. Not everyone can make this work, but if you can get up a little earlier, start work a little later and shower at the gym, it can be a total game-changer. If you can skip the gym and work out at home instead (there are tons of videos on YouTube), even better.
5. Go for a walk on your lunch hour
Going to the gym, getting changed, working out, showering, doing your hair and makeup and then getting back to the office, all in under an hour, is so much more stress than it’s worth. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little cardio on your lunch hour. It only takes a few minutes to eat lunch (though we don’t recommend rushing), so spend the rest of your lunch hour outside. You can even walk with a friend and do a little lunchtime venting.
