Finding it Challenging Staying Fit @ Work? Read and enjoy...

This one is especially for all you office people out there – how many of you feel fatigued, low on energy and slack when at work? Is it because most of us have sitting jobs? Well, if the answer is yes, then you have reached the correct page to find out practical and self-tested ways to feel energetic at work.

“0930 hrs – Lemme quickly prepare my to-do’s list for the day” …and once, we start, the pen goes on and on and on… There is an instant depletion of energy at the sight of this never-ending list. Well, believe it or not, exercising in this scenario keeps you pumped for the day. Did I scare you with this solution? Did you just say, “Oh I just won’t have the time…there’s too much work pressure”? Let me share some simple and workable solutions:

1. Walk as much as you can:
• The moment you get a phone call, get up from your desk and walk out to receive it. This way, you will also not disturb your colleagues and you end up exercising with a 2 minutes walk. You will burn 25% more calories.
• Buy a headset for your phone, so that when you talk while moving you are free to swing your hands as well.
• After lunch, no matter how light or heavy, walk in the parking space of your office, or any other close-by location with flat ground. The food needs to pass through your internal system smoothly. You will also energize physically and mentally.
• In case your printer is located at a distance from your desk, don’t request house-keeping or the office boys to get the print-outs for you, rather, walk up to it and take it yourself.
• Elevators are a much easier option, but remember, short-cuts are often wrong-cuts. In this case, for your health. Take the stairs, rather better than this; you can pump up the intensity by taking 2 stairs at a time.
• Clean / re-set your drawers once a week. This movement makes you lose a fair amount of calories.
• When you have to deliver a presentation, don’t be lazy. Move your lower side, stand and like a thorough professional, use the empty space to deliver your spiel.
• Set an alarm to go off every hour to remind you to stand up and move around. Even if you just swing your arms or take a deep breath, you'll feel more alert.
• Use a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you take. Aim for 6,000 to 10,000 steps a day. This is an android feature and most other phones also have this special trait.
• Wear tennis shoes to work, rather than your stilettos. You may change when at work.
2. Resist
• Guess what! You can work-out your abs sitting at your desk too. Take a 5 minutes break every 1 hour and while sitting upright on your chair, gently lower your torso so that your chest and thighs touch each other. Hold this position for 5 seconds. Repeat this at least 6 to 8 times.
• Keep resistance bands or tubes in your desk drawer. Take 2 minutes of every hour of your work day and complete 1 strength training exercise with the resistance band/tube. Anything you can do with free weights, you can do with a resistance band/tube.
• Bicep Curl: If standing, place tube or band securely under your feet while keeping the abdominals tight to protect your back. Keep palms forward and elbows tucked into the side of your rib cage. Curl the tube or band up toward body and slowly release down returning to start position. If seated, sit on the edge of the chair with your back straight or neutral and repeat as if you were in the standing position.
• Since most of us travel to office by local transport, we understand that you have to wait on the street for quite some time. Here, you can do extra-slow calf raises: let your heels hang off the edge, and contract your calves to lift to tiptoes, 4 seconds up and 4 seconds down. Tighten abs and buttocks to help you balance, so you don't have to grab a sign post.
3. Check your food habits:
• Drinking warm water instead of coffee or the usual cold water helps in burning loads of calories per consumption.
• Eat food which is cooked in ‘Extra Light Olive Oil’.
• The more the vegetables, the better…the less the ‘masala’ the better.
• Have at least 5 meals in a day – breakfast, snacks at 1100 hrs, lunch by 1330 hrs, evening tea / snacks at 1630 hrs and dinner before 2000 hrs.
• Remember no salt post 2000 hrs.
• Green tea is an excellent anti-oxidant. It lowers the risk of cancer, arthritis, dental problems and heart-attacks. Additionally, it raises immunity. 3 cups in a day are good enough.
• Come out of potatoes and ghee. Try it for 21 days, post which it will become a habit.
• Start your meal with a big bowl of salad. By the time you finish, you will already feel a little stuffed and hence, will avoid eating a heavy paratha or rice oriented lunch. 1 to 2 thin chapattis are good enough with a bowl of dal.
• Move to multi-grain flour brown rice / bread.
• Limit rajmah, kadhi, chole and other such rich foods to 1 such dish in a week.

Woooosh! Now this was quite a bit.

Believe me; all of this is practical and self-tested. I practiced most of this and was perfectly fit and away from physical ailments. Now, after 2 years I have got back to this regime…thanks to my husband, Raman Bansal and a dear friend Sunaina Nargis (once you click, scroll down and click on Supplements HT City section page 6), who motivated me to look chic and sleek all over again after 2 years of this gap.

Remember – HEALTH IS WEALTH…What’s the point if the money you earn every month is spent in hospitals and clinics?