Summary:
Keep your commute by working out instead.
Create a meal schedule.
Schedule breaks.
Brush your teeth after meals.
Invest in straighter or whiter teeth.
Remote work made weight loss challenging.
I’ve found that working remotely has affected my weight loss journey in more ways than I thought. While confined to my home during the pandemic, I didn’t realize it, but I developed lousy health habits. I was moving less, eating more, and every day became a free for all without structure or consistency.
I was moving less.
I move less now that my home and office share the same address. I sit in front of a computer all day, sit at the dinner table, and sit on the couch. All of this sitting has been detrimental because I do not get those random steps I used to get working in an office. Walking to and from my car, to the restroom, down the hall to meetings, up the stairs to my office, and around the corner to chat with a coworker. All of the steps that were naturally occurring in my day were gone. Looking back at my office days, I got at least 3,000-5,000 steps daily. Now, when I do not leave home, I get around 500 steps.
My eating habits became trash.
When working from home, I found that without my commute, I had more time to lounge in bed before work. I didn’t use my newfound freedom to make elaborate breakfasts or exercise. Nope, I slept in and decided my breakfast would be cereal, the sugary kind. Then since I was at home, I’d go to the kitchen an hour later for a snack. Any snack. Then lunch, then another snack, then another snack, and then dinner. Oh yeah, don't forget another snack before supper. I was basically on the Hobbit eating schedule and meal plan. Eating became entertainment and, even more dangerous, a stress reliever. Since I had no outside stimuli for my brain, food became exciting. It was a way to escape from my desk and do something else. It provided that dopamine boost when I was having a hard morning. Or a pick-me-up after a stressful meeting.
I had no consistency or routine.
When I was in office, I at least held myself to some form of routine or standard. With remote work, not so much. My eating habits were all over the place. I lacked the discipline. I also lacked the routine of a regular working schedule. Suddenly coworkers and clients were scheduling more virtual meetings, and my calendar filled out. I ate whenever I had a break because who knows what meeting would be thrown over my lunch. I worked on reports until 6 or 7 pm because I had no time during the day (because of the meetings). So I was eating at work and working while eating. I had no mental break in between, so it was eating time whenever I was at the computer.
Now I am taking control
I am taking control of my life and weight loss/management journey. I have gone through enough peaks and valleys to compile a list of tricks that help me when working from home and ugly old habits rear their heads. I compiled these tips and tricks to help me along my weight management journey, and I hope they help you as well.
Weight management for remote workers
1. Keep the commute. Each work day, even though I do not have to walk more than 6ft to my workspace, I wake up as if I still had my 40-60 minute commute into the office. I use the 45 minutes I would have been in a car as 45-60 minutes to ride on my Peloton bike. This gives me a solid hour of movement every day. I prefer to carve this time out in the morning to get it out of the way. I can do this in the afternoon as well. If I feel super ambitious, I keep my morning and afternoon commute! Also, I prefer to spend this time cycling, but this can be any form of movement. Go for a walk, do a YouTube exercise video, whatever. Just commit to moving around and treat it as a non-negotiable, must-do part of your work routine. And since you are working virtually, showering is optional but strongly recommended.
2. Schedule meals. Create a schedule for when you will eat and stick to it. Compartmentalize your eating during your workday. This has helped with my eating but also helped me mentally. I set aside time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that isn’t attached to my work desk. I eat away from the computer at my table and let my brain focus on my meal, not emails or reports.
3. Schedule breaks. Scheduling breaks “breaks” up the boredom. I mentioned earlier that eating had slowly become my entertainment and stress relief. Now, my workday breaks are for that. I schedule 3 15-minute breaks to get up and walk away from the computer. And I do not eat during these breaks. I watch a 15-minute YouTube video. I go to the mailbox to get the mail. I walk around my apartment complex or call my sisters to check in. The point is to break up the day with the punctuation of excitement to stop my boredom eating.
4. Brush your teeth after meals. I consulted a dentist on this one, but feel free to ask your healthcare provider, as they know what is best for your teeth. But brushing my teeth post-meal helped me compartmentalize in my brain that meal time (and snack time) was over. I wait 30 minutes, as recommended by my dentist, and then brush and floss after my meal. Usually, after my lunchtime meal since this was when I am most prone to snacking. Brushing my teeth signals to my brain that I’m done eating, and it leaves my breath minty fresh. With freshly brushed teeth, I am less likely to want to keep eating and can get my brain to focus on other things.
5. Invest in straighter or whiter teeth. So this is a trick if there ever was one. Have you ever thought about straightening your teeth or getting an invisible retainer? Now is the time. Let me explain. I got my braces as an adult and opted for invisible ones. For invisible braces to work, you must always wear them, only removing them to eat. This forced my eating habits into boundaries since I had to wear braces. With braces covering my teeth, I found it hard to snack, as there was a literal barrier in my way. I was even turning down snacking because it wasn’t practical to go to the bathroom, wash my hands, take out the braces, rinse the braces, place them in their container with liquid, eat, then go back to repeat the process to put my braces back in. Plus, my teeth HURT. I was turning down the random office donut or bag of chips to avoid dealing with the hassle. I finished the regimen a few years ago but still wear a retainer to keep my teeth in line. A little bit into my weight loss journey, I could just keep wearing my retainer all day as a trick to stop my random snacking. I have now incorporated designated days where I whiten my teeth using the retainer, and it always keeps me from snacking.
Conclusion So there you have five tips and tricks to help remote workers on your weight management journey. I hope these tips and tricks help you along your journey. Please share any tips or tricks to share with me or others struggling with a work-from-home routine below!
Here’s to the journey!
-Yael
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