I read this article in one of my HP oriented e-mail blasts I get from them and thought it was worth sharing with the rest of you.

Unless youre a professional athlete, chances are that you spend a fair portion of your day sitting at a desk. The average American works about 40 hours a week, and many spend a large portion of that time sitting at a desk. Unfortunately for desk-bound workers, research has shown that these people are likely to suffer from weight gain, decreased muscle tone, back pain and increased stress. Despite your best intentions, it can be difficult to balance exercise with the rest of your life. However, employees with desk jobs can find ways to incorporate healthy habits into our daily routine that will help alleviate the negative impact of sedentary work.

1. Skip the coffee and take a walk instead. If youre looking for an energy boost, walk straight past the coffee machine and just keep on walking. Taking a 15- to 20-minute walk will make you feel more alert, get your heart pumping and help you relieve stress without caffeine or sugar!

2. Avoid the snack machine.Many businesses have vending machines that dispense any number of tempting snacks such as chips and candy. To beat the temptation to indulge in these unhealthy items, try to keep some healthy, tasty treats nearby. Good choices include fruit, chopped vegetables, yogurt, nuts or low-fat cheese.

3. Enjoy a healthy lunch.Even if you manage to bypass the snack machine, there are still other food-related pitfalls at the office. One culprit could be frozen or take-out lunches, which are often high in calories. Specialty coffee drinks can also pack a punch sometimes upwards of 400 calories each! So whenever possible, try to bring a healthy lunch from home. This helps you control portions and is less expensive, too. If you must go out for lunch, choose a lighter option from the menu, like a salad. Trade your morning café mocha for a green tea, and be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day.

4. Pretend the elevator is broken.If you work in a multi-story building, take the stairs as often as you can. About 10 minutes of stair-climbing burns approximately 50 calories, so the next time you need to take a report upstairs to the boss or go down to check on the fax machine, take the stairs rather than the elevator.

5. Get fit while you sit. Stuck at your desk waiting for an important call? If you can't get up, dont do a few exercises while you sit. Try push-ups: hold on to the armrests of your chair, and push up until arms are fully extended. Next, lower your body until youre almost seated, then push up again. Alternatively, do stretches at your desk. Place your hands behind your lower back while sitting up straight. Move your right ear toward your right shoulder and then slowly move your left ear toward your left shoulder. Then, look down at your desk while pulling in your stomach muscles and straighten your back. Then look up at the ceiling. These and other stretches can help protect your back during the work day.

6. Bike or walk to work.If possible, leave your car at home and walk or cycle to the office. You might be amazed how invigorating it is to start your day in the fresh air, or how relaxing it is to decompress and think over the days events as you stroll home in the sunshine. It saves on gas money and can provide you with a days recommended amount of exercise.

These are just a few of the many ways you can keep your desk job from negatively impacting your weight and health.

Back on Track with healthy choices

Six weeks ago when we moved from Goose Creek to Johns Island I determined that I would take advantage of having a safe place to walk and get more exercise. My goal was and still is to lose a minimum of 1 lb per week. As of today I have lost 5 lbs and while I have not kept my goal of 1 lb pe week I am going to be happy about the weight loss. I have discovered that as I increase my exercise levels the better I feel and I have more energy. I am also finding that the increased activity has helped me to manage stress during the week as well. As the hashtag in Twitter #backontrack suggests I am “back on track” with my health related goals and seeing some small but marked improvements. Every day I have a choice to “start over”. Every day I have to choose to make healthy choices when it comes to my body. I can eat garbage and not do those things that I know I need to do or I can educate myself about the things I do need to do and DO IT. You know the saying, “JUST DO IT!!!!”

One of the things I have been doing is going to www.calorie-count.com and logging all of my calories each day. Every time I eat a meal or snack I try to remember to go there and log what I am eating. If I forget to do it one day I go back and think about what I ate and add it to the list for the previous day. I also log my exercise and weight there as well. Keeping track of all my calories makes me aware of exactly what I am putting in my mouth and it keeps me from eating emotionally. I read the other day that my mindset about eating should not be that of entertainment but rather to think of eating as using food as fuel. I am eating because I am hungry and I am eating the right things so that I can give my body the fuels it needs to burn calories. One of the pitfalls of eating because it is entertaining is that I get into the habit of thinking “I am sitting in front of the TV so I must have a snack”.

I have found that it is too easy to use eating as a way to make me feel better when I find myself suffering from situational depression. I might be upset about this or that or a circumstance out of my control so I will go rummage around in the refrigerator and look for something to eat that I “like”. When I am doing this I am redirecting my attention away from that thing that has me depressed or angry and I am focusing on food instead. The only problem with emotional eating is that I am doing myself a disservice by packing in the calories and pounds when I do this. I am happy to say that my wife Katy has hopped on the #backontrack band wagon with me and she has the same goal as I do, to lose weight and be more healthy. I think that she realizes that I am serious about “JUST DO IT” and that her being a partner with me will give me the added encouragement that I need to keep on keeping on. We can encourage on another and have the same goals. There is nothing like having an accountability partner that can help you stay on track.

One of the struggles with losing weight is to change how I think about eating but also to change what I eat. One of the low country bloggers mentioned to me in a comment on my blog that we should not have junk food in the house. If you do not have it you will not eat it. There is a lot of wisdom in that thought process and thanks to our budget being as lean as it is we have not had a problem with having a bunch of junk around the house. We have found some low calorie ice cream that we like so we get some of that from time to time to share. We have been eating more salad and baked chicken and boiled eggs as well. I know that we need to get better about drinking more water. We have been drinking tea with splenda and diet Dr Pepper. Katy has actually slacked off of drinking regular Coke and I am proud of her choice to sacrifice the sugar and calories that comes with drinking that.

My goal this week is to walk each day for at least an hour and to eat less than 2200 calories per day. Thus far I am averaging around 1850 calories per day and I am burning somewhere around 450 to 650 calories with exercise. Hopefully if I can keep this up and not let anything discourage me from this then I can stay #backontrack with the rest of you good folks out there that are doing the same thing. We will only be better off and healthier because of good choices.

James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
chiefpropellerhead@comcast.net