Many of us have stopped the daily commute to the office. Here are some Top Tips for You to Stay Healthy While Working from Home Today.
Getting to work has become simpler and requires less hassle.
It’s as simple as out of bed to the dining room table or spare room in the morning.
Working from home offers greater flexibility, more freedom, and means people don’t need to leave home as much as they used to.
The issue with a lot of people who work from home is finding the motivation to get up and exercise, and having the discipline to eat healthy while working from home.
We’re going to share some straight forward practical tips you can start today to stay healthy while working from home.
Table of Contents
Keeping Work Life and Home Separate
While working from home, it can be challenging to maintain a boundary between work time and your own personal time.
Being disciplined is important, create a line between work and pleasure, it’s essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
It’s all about getting yourself into a solid routine and sticking to your regular working hours.
Try starting at the same time, take time for your lunch break to relax, refocus, make sure to finish on time.
It’s also very possible you may feel under pressure to prove to yourself or a boss that you’re working hard.
You may work longer hours, but longer hours do not necessarily increase your productivity or mean you are working harder.
Many have done this, and I guarantee you’ll end up extremely tired, mentally drained, less focused and very easily distracted.
If you’re unable to setup a home office, turn off computers at the end of each day including weekends.
Our advice it to turn off computers, and move them out of sight during none working hours. If left powered on insight this can be distracting, and encourage you into thinking you need to be working all the time.
The key is to allow yourself to be able to switch off from work to relax, and unwind.
You don’t need the added temptation to log on to reply to emails, or feel stress about uncompleted work.
Without a clear divide between work and personal life, it’s going to feel like you’re working constantly.
The feeling having to work constantly will result in you becoming stressed, unmotivated and eventually burned out.
Sticking to a Healthy Diet
When stressed, unmotivated or burned out your diets going to suffer, this is all down to not having structure.
Snacking throughout the day while working, and eating takeaway for lunch is simple and tempting when you’re feeling low.
In the long run eating the wrong foods will make you feel even worse than you already do.
That sounds like me, but what do I do if I’m eating the wrong type of food?
Here are some tips and advice to help you get back on track:
1. Meal Planning
Try to plan out some meals every week while focusing on eating a balanced diet.
Consider fruit, vegetables, fibre, protein, fats and carbohydrates ensuring your body gets all the goodness it needs to be healthy.
2. Cooking From Scratch
Aim to cook meals yourself from scratch this way you know exactly what’s in your food. A great tip and time saver is to cook bigger quantities and freeze it either for another day or an evening meal after work.
Let’s look at some important vitamins you need:
- Vitamin C: Is important for boosting the immune system, plus it’s an antioxidant helping to reduce premature aging. Try eating more oranges, cherries, red pepper, and kale.
- Vitamin B12: Is good for keeping nerves, and body cells healthy and helps the body convert food into energy. Try eating more beef, chicken, eggs and fish, and some fortified cereals.
- Vitamin D: Is an essential vitamin for keeping bones and teeth healthy, it also helps reduces risk of heart disease. The human body when exposed to sunlight absorbs Vitamin D. It’s found in eggs, fish, salmon, broccoli, and cereals.
- Vitamin A: Is an important vitamin for your immune system and most importantly your eyes and skin. Try eating more spinach, broccoli, carrots and sweet potatoes.
Get into a Good Fitness Routine
When you’re working from home it’s important to understand that fitness levels will drop significantly.
Working from home eliminates the commute to, and from work each day. You’re less likely to be out at lunch times.
Other exercise you will be missing out on is walking around your place of work.
This includes moving around the office speaking to different people, and climbing stars to different floors. This still counts as added exercise over the weeks and months.
When working from home you’ll find yourself sitting at your computer most of the day only moving around a little.
For instance:
Going to the bathroom, into the kitchen to make a drink or lunch, or to the sofa to sit down and relax.
It’s all About Being Disciplined
Now you realise! it’s time to work on discipline, start eating better and add some regular exercise to your working schedule.
Aim to help yourself stay healthy not only physically but mentally as well!
Yes, easier said than done when you’re unmotivated and stressed. But if it was easy everyone would be doing it.
We don’t want to be like everyone else, we want to be different and unique. Let’s make that change today!
The first main step is to realise what needs to change, and by reading this article you already know. Congratulations you have made the first step!
Good starting point – Get up, move away from your desk, take a deep breath, go for a walk outside.
Go for a walk around the block. Continue to do this every day, either before work, or before lunch, or both if you like?
Exercise is not just physical; it will keep you healthy mentally. Allowing you to clear you mind to focus on the rest of the day.
I promise you will feel much better within yourself.
Strolls are Good, But Don’t Forget Cardio
You’re going for regular walks that’s great, don’t forget the importance of cardio exercise.
Cardio exercise seriously boosts fitness levels, it also reduces blood pressure, and strengthens the immune system.
We all could do with more of that!
I know it’s difficult, but once you get into it then it will become second nature to you.
You could try joining a local gym, going before or after work. You could also sign up to a fitness app or plan like the Couch to 5k.
Signing up to a fitness app will help you stick to an achievable goal, keeping you motivated to keep pushing forward, plus the automated reminders are a bonus.
Prefer to do thing with friends?
Why not arrange to go running, cycling, or swimming together on a regular basis. This way you can motivate each other if you’re having an off day.
You’ll be more motivated to keep going if you feel like you will be letting a friend down.
Getting a Good Night’ Sleep
Your body and mind need rest, so make sure you’re getting a good night’s sleep every night.
Working from home allows you to get up later than you would if you had a 9 till 5, but your body still requires between 7 – 9 hours of sleep each night.
Lack of sleep will have serious implications on your mental health, for instance it will
- increase your stress levels
- raise your blood pressure
- affect your focus
- make simple tasks more difficult to manage.
If you’re someone who finds it difficult to fall to sleep naturally then you need to rethink your bedtime routine.
It’s easy to stare at a screen such as a phone, TV or iPad while laid in bed. It’s a fact that bright screens stimulate the brain making it harder for a person to rest and fall to sleep.
I’m sorry to say, but no more late night’s chilling in bad watching Netflix, or scrolling through Instagram on your phone.
We are all guilty but it’s no good for our sleep! Try reading a book or listening to music it’s far more relaxing.
It’s also true that meditation is good in aiding sleep. If you still find yourself struggling to drift off try searching for an App there are quite a few.
Conclusion
It’s difficult to find the motivation to help yourself stay healthy and in good shape, while working from home.
You have already taken he first step, by reading this article you understand what you need to do.
Now you need to push yourself and find that motivation to take action!
Just follow these tips and keep going, you’ll be healthier, happier and more positive while working from home.