How To Work From Home Without Getting Fat
So you’re stuck at home – either working remotely or waiting for this quarantine time to pass so you can resume your normal job. And by this point the whole “newness” of the transition has worn off. Zoom is second nature, you’re getting irritated with your family, and you desperately want to have an excuse to leave – even if it means going to the gym!
And, if you’re not careful, this is the time where you really start to feel the extra pounds coming back to your midsection. Or you’ll start to notice that your cardio and strength have taken a hit. But what can you do about it? I mean, the gyms are closed… So basically, you’re kind of stuck until this whole thing passes over and you can get back to normal… right?
NOT SO FAST!
A lot of things have changed during this time of pandemic, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the laws of energy balance and thermodynamics!
Here is the thing – no one is forcing you to eat. No one is putting a gun to your head to keep you from working out. No one is chaining you to the couch and gluing your eyes open watching Netflix and staying up too late. Those are all your decisions.
In a very interesting turn of events the pandemic has taken away a huge outlet for the poor decisions and lack of structure we routinely have in our life. Many people head to the gym for an “intense” workout to try and outwork a bad diet or to make up for the fact that they sat 10 hours straight that day at work.
But without the gym, that old pattern doesn’t cut it anymore! The beauty of this situation is that you are truly faced with having to take ownership and responsibility of your actions and decisions.
You have to be the one to set your structure. You have to be the one to set your boundaries. You have to decide when and how much to eat. You have to decide to get up and move often. You have to be the one to turn off the TV and get to bed at a consistent hour! Because if you don’t, you will continue to slide up the scale in weight and down the ranks in productivity and health.
The ironic thing is that this is not a new reality. These decisions have been yours to make all along. The only thing that has changed is that you no longer have the old crutches and excuses to subsidize your bad decisions anymore. That means that you will see the cracks start to show much more quickly when you don’t make time and prioritize the important stuff.
But rest assured, I’ve got you covered. To get you rolling on the right path, here are the best work from home guidelines that will help you actually improve your health, fitness, and weight to come out of this thing better than before!
1) Set a structure/schedule ahead of time – As the old Benjamin Franklin quote goes “Fail to plan, plan to fail”. The most important thing you can do is to look forward at the week to come. Identify what challenges will most likely present, what time constraints you will have, what obligations have you signed up for, and where you have negotiable time that you can carve out for important things.
This is the time that you create a plan for how you will operate as the week unfolds. What you specifically decide to do with each day or how you allot your time is secondary to the act of making that delineation ahead of time. The simple fact is that you’ll never find time to do anything. Events and tasks in life expand to fill the time we have available much like gas expands to fill the vacuum it exists in.
So think ahead to the week and make a specific plan for when and how you will eat, exercise, sleep, work, spend time with your family, partner, kids, work on hobbies, decompress, read, or do any other task that you deem important. If you don’t set aside the time for it and actually do it, it won’t happen.
2) Start your day with movement – I get it, for many people once the workday starts, it can feel like you’ve been sucked into a vortex and spit out at the other side at the end. Meetings, video conferences, phone calls, unexpected emails, and difficult work colleagues can make your day seem utterly out of your control. And before you know it, that well-intentioned break at lunch you were planning for a workout got taken over by a problem that popped up last minute or a boss that talks too much.
The fix to this is to knock out movement right off the bat. Instead of hoping that the day will line up magically with your family or other obligations, take responsibility and ownership for the important stuff up front by scheduling a nonnegotiable time as soon as you get out of bed to get your blood flowing.
It could be a Daily 10 routine, a 20 minute walk outside, a quick HIIT workout, weight routine, or playing with your kids or dogs. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as you make it happen. Now this does not negate your responsibility to continue moving throughout the day and getting your exercise in, but it does at least give you the mental comfort of knowing that you’ve got something done even if the rest of the day goes off the rails.
3) Take your work outside – More than just getting movement in, being out in the sunlight and breathing in some fresh air have tremendous benefits for our brain, bodies, and stress levels. Taking calls outside on a walk or doing any writing, journaling, or thinking out in nature can be great ways to accomplish this while still being productive.
Look at your schedule to see what you have to do in front of a computer and what you can do anywhere. Adding in a 20-40 minute call on a walk is about the best version of multitasking that I can think of. You’re getting increased blood flow to your brain to think more clearly and you’re opening up the space around you to breathe in and manage the stressful day!
4) Add movement into your day – While walking during calls can be great, sometimes it’s not feasible if your tasks don’t allow that type of movement or if the weather is not pristine. But worry not, you still have endless options to get movement in during the day!
With all of the emphasis on ergonomic everything it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that we as humans are not built to sit still for long periods of time. We fidget, wiggle, and constantly shift around. That is until we’ve trained our bodies into submission in the “most ideal, supportive, and comfortable” chair that money can buy at office depot. The issue is that this technology can disguise our discomfort and keep our bodies stiff from long sedentary days.
You can fix this by creating situations that force you to move and get in different shapes throughout the day. Standing desks, sitting on the ground, or my personal favorite, sliding one cheek off the chair and sitting in a half kneeling position with that knee on the ground are all options. By shifting to different positions, fidgeting, and standing up throughout the day you can constantly keep your body moving, even if you’re stuck at a desk.
5) Get rid of snackable foods or put them out of reach – One of the worst things people can do is set out a jar of snackable candy on their desk. Numerous studies have demonstrated that people will eat far more candy if it’s out in the open than if that same jar were to be put in a drawer, out of sight. The old adage “Out of sight, out of mind” is very true here.
What this means for you is that while you are home, you’re going to have access to a full pantry that you wouldn’t otherwise be thinking about. Those crackers, chips, snacks for the kids, the bag of pretzels… they are all calling your name and the temptation can be more than you want to deal with – especially in the midst of a stressful workday.
The fix to this is to get rid of the junk food or at least put it out of your reach. Take a look at your food options and be honest – why in the world do you have all that crap? And don’t say it’s for the kids. They don’t need to be eating that stuff! This is a great time to clean out the old food that’s better off in the trash than on your hips. And if you feel bad about throwing it away, then donate it. Someone out there needs the calories far more than you do.
If that’s not an option, then set up a system to keep things out of your reach. Put a lock on the pantry that you don’t have the code to. Have your partner hide the junk food. It doesn’t matter what you do, but the simple act of making the acquisition of calories harder can prevent a whole lot of unnecessary eating.
As John Berardi says “If a food is in your possession or located in your residence, either you, someone you love, or someone you marginally tolerate will eventually eat it. In other words, keep only food or drinks that you should actually consume.”
6) Create a space that is ONLY for work – Working from home, especially in the time of quarantine, can have the unintended side effect of making the days blend together. The individual days tend to lose their reputation and it can be easy to feel like you aren’t ever really shutting off from work mode. When your new “office” is 20 feet from your bedroom, the commute and separation factor tends to lose it’s effectiveness.
To fix that, you have to set boundaries for where, when, and how you will work. Create a space in your home that is designed to be the work zone. Many people have an office space already, but if you now have to share that with your partner or if you’re new to a work from home set up, you might find yourself operating from the kitchen table. Find a quiet(ish) space that you can designate for the sole purpose of being on the job and don’t bring other parts of your life in there.
7) Set boundaries for when you will stop or start work – Be mindful of clocking in and out of work mode. With everyone switching to video calls and time zones stretching the normal work hours, it can be easy to lose sense of a structure for your work day. Of course, this doesn’t have to be a fixed 9-5 each day, but there needs to be some form of ritual or practice that signals a start and end to your time at work. Remember, just because you can go check your work email or respond to an unexpected problem because your office is 20 feet away, doesn’t mean you should.
With all of the advances in modern day technology and communication, one thing that has been lost is the ability to turn off and put the work away. When your boss knows they can reach you all the time, it can be easy to slowly get caught in a reality where it’s expected that you check your work email on the weekends.
Now I’m not delineating how you should make that choice for managing boundaries with work, I’m just pointing out that the separation between work and life has become really fuzzy. From my perspective, people who don’t have healthy boundaries around protecting their free time and saying no to work requests tend to be much more stressed and unhappy. I think the saying “Good fences make good neighbors” applies well to this setting too.
8) Be mindful or your eating times/patterns – When it comes to eating patterns, consistency is the most important thing. It’s easy to sit at your computer first thing in the morning and work the day away, falling out of your normal eating schedule and routine.
To counter this, it’s important to set a schedule for when and what you’ll eat each day. Just because you’re not going into the office does not mean you don’t have to plan ahead for lunch. The reality is that most people haven’t really made this a priority before, relying instead on running to a nearby restaurant to get something quick. And when this isn’t an option, it’s easy to turn to snacking and grazing throughout the day instead of eating actual food.
Look at it this way – you have literally no reason to not eat well, at every meal. No travel, no lunch meetings, no eating out. So take advantage of that, get to the food store before the week starts, and make sure you have what you need for each meal ahead of time! Boring but consistent meals work best, so this is not the time to put on your chef hat and get caught up in complicated preparation which will end up being the excuse for why you never made any food. A big salad is your safest go-to option!
Also, don’t eat and work. Make time for your lunch, away from work and screens. Take your time when you eat, breathe, drink water, be mindful about how you are eating. Having this break in the middle of the day will help you return to work refreshed. AND, if you’re really invested in becoming your best self, make time for a 10 minute walk after you eat. This helps the mitigate the insulin rush during digestion. Your body will thank you.
9) Make exercise a priority – Just like you schedule everything else, make time for exercise. This can be before work, during the day, or after. Just make it a priority! There is no rule book for how it needs to be done – weights, calisthenics, HIIT, running, walking, sports, play, yardwork, or any other option is fine! Just do something that gets your heart rate up and makes you sweat at least once each day.
I hear people use the excuse that they don’t have enough time to exercise. This is often accompanied with the reasoning that exercise takes time to go to the gym, change, workout, travel back home.. etc. The thing is that none of that is actually a requirement. You can literally step outside or in your living room and do squats, pushups, or jumping jacks for 5 minutes and call it a day.
The beauty of this whole situation is that all of the old excuses don’t work anymore. Be honest with yourself – if you don’t exercise, say it was because you didn’t want to and you didn’t value it. Don’t lie and say you don’t have time because that’s just not true.
10) Use the surroundings to your advantage – Building off of the last point, take this time without gyms to get out and workout in your unique surroundings! If you live near water that’s swimmable, go swim! Go out and find a hill to do sprints on. Go to a high school track to run laps at. I live near UNC Chapel Hill’s campus, so I go out there to do running and athletic drills. If you live in the city or in an apartment, start running up and down the stairs…
The point is that it doesn’t matter what you do, where you do it, or when you do it. Just start thinking outside the box and go do it! Instead of crying about not being able to go to the gym, realize that the world is your gym. Unlimited possibilities!
11) Get to bed consistently – At the end of the day, it’s fun to sit down and watch TV. Now with Netflix and other streaming services, the options are endless. And without a morning commute, you may find that you have a bit more time to sleep in. So what happens? You end up watching an extra episode or two of the latest TV show and going to bed later.
The problem here is that you are either going to lose sleep by getting up at the same time, or you’ll lose valuable hours in the day by watching more TV than you typically would.
So don’t do it! Set a cut off time for the TV and get to bed at a consistent time. Use any extra time for mindfulness, exercise, sleep, reading, or spending better quality time with your loved ones. The goal here is to avoid the strong pull toward slothfulness and build structure that allows you to actually start to improve as a human. No one is giving out points for how many TV shows you watch. AND, you absolutely need to get 7.5 hours of sleep each night at the minimum. Your body needs it, your brain needs it. So do it.
12) Schedule down time to process and plan – Lastly, in order to not get caught up working in our lives, it’s incredibly important that we schedule time to work on our lives. Think of this as taking a bird’s eye view to see things from a bigger perspective. If we don’t take time to step out of our rush and busyness, we can easily feel overwhelmed with the constant stream of obligation that we feel to always be cooking dinner, taking care of the house and family, doing work, checking email, or doing social events.
Without pausing to find clarity, the overwhelm can creep up and drain us of our energy and enthusiasm for life. To fix that, set aside a few hours once each week to sit down and think. I take 1-4 hours each Sunday morning to journal, process last week, and plan for the vision of what I am working toward in my life.
I’m sure you will say “I don’t have the time!” But let’s face it, if you took all the wasted time from your week and repurposed it, you have more than enough time. If the most successful (and busiest) people in the world make time for this each week, you have no reason not to. Besides, you’ll be a much better version of yourself if you actually spend time being mindful about your life.
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Working from home can be tough. But if you take the time to be intentional about how you go about it, working from home (even in this quarantine situation) can present you with a tremendous opportunity to have more autonomy of your life, health, time, energy, and productivity.
Anything you think I missed? Let me know in the comments below!
