It may not be immediately evident but your workplace just might be the reason why those regular gym routines are not working out and why you are gaining weight. If you’re thinking stress should have cut an inch or two from your waist by now, you’d be surprised to know that sometimes, stress causes weight gain too.
Here are other reasons why you could be putting on some more weight because of where you work.
Sedentary Lifestyles Add to the Scale
One of the main reasons why stress is rampant in offices where desks outnumber the people working there is because almost every employee is exposed to dangerous sedentary lifestyles. It is understood that when you are sedentary, you move less, or you are stationary most of the time. Naturally, this lack of movement means you are not working your muscles nor are you burning fat. While the whole sitting lifestyle might look comfortable from afar, in reality, it is actually very unhealthy and not only does it influence weight gain, it can affect your musculoskeletal system, as well.
Changing your work positions or maintaining a comfortable posture while you work can do wonders for your body, morale, and performance. If you want arrest the first and most common cause of weight gain, let go of your sedentary lifestyle and welcome a sit-and-stand ergonomic desk into your office so you can easily switch up your work positions whenever sitting has become too uncomfortable for you.
To achieve the best results, make sure to minimize your sitting time to at least 2 or 3 hours. After which, adjust the heights on your ergonomic desk and consider working while standing up for the next hour or two. Changing your position regularly will allow you to stretch your tendons and muscles, and promote better blood and oxygen distribution throughout your body-- a process which is often disrupted when you are seated.
Schedule Your Meals Properly
When you are too engrossed in your work, you may not realize that you have not eaten for sometime, but in some cases, you may not notice you’ve eaten twice in a span of an hour or two. Sometimes, stress can affect the way we perceive time or we might find ourselves meeting with new prospects over some cake and coffee a little too frequently. Being around food most of the time might seem like a lot of fun, but if you aren’t paying attention, you could be adding inches upon inches to your waistline.
You could be gaining weight because of irregular eating schedules, but you can always circumvent this by setting alarms for your chow time. Make sure to space your meals properly, and if you find yourself obligated to meet with a prospect in a cafe, order liquids without sugar rather than food.
You Can’t Eat Stress Away
People deal with stress in a variety of ways. Some might run to the gym in a dire attempt to avoid their deadlines but still get their “gainz.” Others might fret and proceed to cry in the office toilet. Some people, on the other hand, might run to the comforts of their favorite chips and drinks, and go as far as binge eat while they work. There are a million ways to deal with stress, but stress-eating isn’t one of them.
If anything, stress-eating is unhealthy, costly (since you would have to buy all that food), and overall counterproductive. Why spend more time munching when you can just focus on the work before you? Why munch at all, when you have something bigger to crunch?
Stress-eating is a defense mechanism employed by many people who have always seen food as a source of comfort rather than as a source of nourishment. If this describes you, you can always deal with your uncontrollable food cravings by replacing your junk food and chips with fruits, nuts, and greens with stalks, and your cold beverage with hot green tea and other warm drinks. Alternatively, munch on cereal bars and other edible energy-supplements so you can feed your energy levels at the same time you feed your stomach.
Let Management Know if Unhealthy Food is All You Have
Legislators are trying their hardest to get unhealthy food outside of school cafeterias across North America; encourage your management to do the same in your workplace too. If you are one of the lucky ones whose offices and workplace corridors are dotted with vending machines, or a full cafeteria that offers chips and cool beverages alongside one or two free meals a day, you may be more susceptible to obesity because of poor food choices available in your office. That being said, encourage your management to stock your vending machines and cafeteria with healthy food options to promote better physical and mental health among your colleagues and to help you and your weight-watching coworkers with your personal weight maintenance or loss goals.
If necessary, you may have to let management know at some point that your company cafeteria or vending machines offer food that are counterproductive to every company’s mission of keeping their workforce healthy and happy.
