Healthy Hints for Busy Working Days
Did you know that Griffen Fitness offers Corporate fitness sessions? We travel to Edinburgh workplaces and offer bespoke workouts especially designed for each office.
Here’s some hints I put together for Flavours Holidays, who I will be helping prepare for their KiltWalk challenge this year:
Having a desk-based job needn’t be a barrier to being fit. Here are seven handy hints to make your working day more healthy, and hopefully also more enjoyable!
1. Eat Well Early in the Day: We often forget that our brain is 2% of our mass, but uses 20% of our energy. This means your brain needs fuel, and eating low GI (slow burning) food early in the day will stabilise your blood sugar levels, making it easy to concentrate and deeply focus on tasks. Have healthy snacks ready, place them near your computer where you can see them.
2. Stand up more: Your body was made to move, we’re not designed to sit for long periods of time. Being seated burns very few calories, and excessive sitting can increase your chance of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and lower back pain.
3. Schedule exercise in your diary: whether it’s getting out for a lunchtime walk to blow away the cobwebs, or attending a yoga class at the end of your day, schedule your workouts into your work diary – this way, you not only receive a reminder, but your time is already blocked out (to yourself and others).
4. For every coffee, have a glass of water: Go to any cafe in Italy, and when you order a coffee, it automatically comes with a glass of water. It’s also good to sip on herbal tea throughout the day. Invest in an attractive flask to have on your desk and fill it with mint tea in the morning to sip on all day – also saves time and electricity.
5. Try a walking meeting: You might find you generate new, better ideas and solve niggling problems. Meet somewhere indoors, grab what you need and try for 30 minutes walking at a comfortable pace.
6. Stretch: If working to deadline, it can be tempting to “bash on through” and work for hours without a break. You will work better if you give yourself microbreaks, and stand up and stretch for a few minutes every hour. Set an hourly alarm to remind you. Deep breathing will oxygenate your system and help you work more effectively. Work smarter, not harder.
7. Have a switch-off time. More and more work seems to be 24/7, we may feel we need to be constantly available. This can be exhausting, so set clear working times. Most modern devices have a night time / sleep schedule, for instance the screen goes to black and white, which is a reminder to switch off. We all need to sleep well to work well and feel refreshed. Enjoy!
