Working in a corporate environment isn’t easy. Sitting behind a desk for 6-10 hours a day, in and out of meetings or even on the road for hours of the day can often put health as the last priority.
We are all creatures of habit, some habits are good and some are bad.
Bad habits can include eating out and making poor food choices, drinking too much coffee, binging on your favourite lollies, nuts, chips and biscuits throughout the day, staying up late to watch TV and then hitting the snooze button 5 times before getting out of bed the next morning.
Is this sounding familiar at all? If so keep reading.
Many corporate workers fall into the trap of being so busy that they do things like skipping breakfast, then once at work going to the local café to grab that $5 latte and muffin deal. It is quite common for corporate people to undereat during work hours because they just can’t seem to find the time to eat, or they are stressed out so badly that they aren’t hungry.
Once at home and in a relaxed place they tend to binge on foods like chips, cheese, biscuits and dip and other nasty high sugar and fat foods. This is certainly going to increase your weight and make you feel more sluggish each time you do this.
Working office jobs can be tough to stay on top of your health. But there are many strategies you can put in place to help you lose fat and stay on top of your health.
What are 5 things you can do right now as an office worker to make sure you’re moving in the right direction to look and feel better?
I feel like sleep is underrated for a lot of people. If you’re not getting good quality and enough sleep then your not recovering from the previous day’s stresses.
Some questions you may want to ask yourself… Are you getting to sleep within 5 minutes after laying down? Are you waking up before your alarm? Are you waking up energised? Do you sleep through the whole night without waking up? If no is the answer to any of these then your sleep is not good.
What can you do to get good sleep?
Getting into a good routine where you begin to switch off your body at least an hour before bed can make a huge difference to your sleep patterns.
Having the lights on at night is telling your body not to release melatonin (your sleep hormone). At least 1 hour before bed you will want to either dim the lights in your house or switch as many of them off as possible to decrease the brightness in your home. Stop the blue light stimulants like the TV, laptop and your phone. Have some pre-bed rituals like meditation, reading a book or just talking to your partner. If you find after trying all this you still can’t sleep then there are some supplements to help with sleep. Melatonin, passion flower, phenibut and 5-HTP are very popular and for good reason, they work!!
Too many people in the corporate world are eating too many high sugar foods. Common café foods like pasta, muffins, bread rolls along with a bottle of coke or iced tea are crazy high in sugar. These foods are going to create an imbalance to your blood sugar and will produce unwanted hormonal imbalances. I like the saying “you are what you eat” because what you eat is going to become apart of you. So eating muffins all day long will legitimately provide you with a muffin top!
Breaking down the fats, proteins and carbohydrates from the food we’ve eaten have fundamental vitamins, minerals and other nutrients so that the body can do the required functions it needs to survive. If you aren’t feeding your body nutritious foods, you will find all bodily functions will not run very well.
You might find yourself wondering why you are crashing in energy all the time, having sugar cravings, needing more sleep, can’t think straight, have no energy, panic attacks, anxiety, dizziness, getting sick regularly and getting fat.
These are some of the symptoms you get from poor food choices and creating digestive stress!
Eat foods that the body will nourish from and give you more energy, make you more productive, feel better and less fat! Also drink more water… too many people don’t drink enough water. You must realise that the body is made of 60% water, so many of the reactions taking place in your body will be get reduced, slowing you down psychologically and physiologically, and in terms of performance, dehydration alone will result in 10% less strength!
Fat loss can be easy for some people, but for a lot of others, they can find it really hard.
What are most people doing wrong when trying to lose weight?
Most people eat too much food to start off with and most people know that if you eat less food, you will lose weight. Simple right? What a lot of people end up doing is starving themselves for an extended period of time, they then start to rely on stimulants like coffee or pre-workouts to get them through the day.
They lose some weight and think this a winning formula that will work forever, however eventually after long exposure to a high-calorie deficit this method will not work.
Let me ask you this… How does the body get the energy to do all of the complex and required tasks to keep you alive? If you don’t know the answer to this, the answer is FOOD & WATER.
The body will prevent weight loss when dieting by lowering metabolism and down-regulating hormone production.
This is a survival mechanism that was helpful for our ancestors when food was scarce. If metabolism slows down you will start to move less and think less, this is because these processes have a cost. This can be quite tricky for some to understand, but the key is to increase calories very carefully so that your metabolism starts to increase
A corporate job as discussed can be highly stressful, so going to the gym working out for 2 or 3 hours at a time, 4-6 times a week may not have long-lasting weight loss effects.
Anaerobic exercise is a huge physical stress to the body, so you need to be aware of your body’s biofeedback markers and give your body time adequate time to repair.
Quite commonly, beginners that start doing group fitness are most likely to be doing H.I.I.T (high-intensity interval training). This is a good thing if you are already aerobically fit. If not, this is going to be a very painful experience and most likely another unsuccessful attempt for you. H.I.I.T builds up lots of lactate; it is a very exhausting and an inefficient energy system for your body to use IF you aren’t aerobically fit. H.I.I.T is GREAT if you are set up for it. So let’s start with some L.I.S.S (low-intensity steady state) by walking, light jogging, cycling, swimming etc. to increase your aerobic base before jumping into the deep end. Aerobics help to increase mitochondrial density through mitochondrial biogenesis, the more mitochondria you have, the more energy you will have and the better you will be able to handle stress.
Weight loss should not have to be such a difficult task, so set yourself up for success making sure the foundation is set strong before you go knocking down the walls.
This is ultimately one of the most important factors you need to do when trying to lose weight, gain muscle or just maintain. My recommendation is to be consistent by picking a day in the week where you can go to the supermarket, buy your groceries and cook all your meals for the week, if not at least for a few days ahead.
At bodyseek, our favourite and most common food prep method is to prep on the Sunday and Wednesday of each week for the next few days.
If you have all the food at home there is no need for you to go out to eat. If you are eating out then go online and check the restaurant’s menu so you can choose ahead something that fits your meal plan.
Most restaurants will let you change food to suit your dietary requirements. For example, you can get some rice or salad as a side to replace the chips.
Just remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail
The 5 strategies I just mentioned can be used by anyone in any work environment, add them into your daily routine and find it easier to achieve your fitness goals, your health and quality of life.
Article Written by
Mitchell Potts
Stress Management, Transformations
