Have you ever thought about how you can stay fit and healthy while working from home remotely? As the saying goes “Time and health are precious assets that you don’t recognize, appreciate and value until they have been depleted or lost”
With remote work trending nowadays, especially after the pandemic, keeping up with our health is a new challenge for everyone, but one that we can all be successful at. Here are a few steps to staying healthy while working remotely.
By Syeda Juveria Afreen | SJA
You should first make the plan and then take the initiative. Remember the saying by Robert Urich that “A healthy outside starts from the inside”.
Nowadays, working remotely is becoming the number one choice for employees. But it also means that people get in the habit of forgetting about their health and this is one of the reasons it’s becoming an issue nowadays.
Stay Active
When it comes to working from your home, it is easy to find yourself moving less than if you would working from an office, you aren’t running to catch the train or walking from the car park to the office building, in general, we find ourselves moving around less during our working day. Therefore, it’s important to maintain our active health when working remotely.
Our physical fitness should definitely be considered when thinking of our overall health. Keeping active during our work day to avoid weight gain. And it is easy to maintain our physical fitness and improve our lifestyle through physical exercises like yoga, HIIT, aerobics, strength training exercises, abs workouts, full body workouts, dancing, walking, etc. all of which can be carried out before we start work.
A fit body and a calm mind are things that cannot be bought instead must be earned.
Even if you don’t work remotely, most of us spend hours each day at our homes in front of computers, laptops or iPads. But no matter what job you have, it’s most likely that you have to attend calls. Whilst on a call, try standing and taking a walk, this improves blood circulation and builds up concentration. You could also consider taking a 10-minute break each hour while working and going for a walk, improving your fitness and relaxing your muscles, as well as giving your mind a break too.
You could also try dancing to your favourite song when you are stressed which boosts your serotonin and helps with your fitness which will help you stay fit. You can also set a recurring timer to stretch every 2 hours to help maintain correct posture. Some smartwatches will tell you to get moving too.
Going to the gym might not be possible for everyone because of a hectic schedule but if you can then it will be great. You can download workout apps as many don’t need any equipment and are easy to do at home. You can be healthy, active and extremely strong with these exercises as they are highly effective.
Watch what you eat
For your nutritional health, it’s important to keep track of your diet, whilst working remotely may mean you are less physically active than if you were in a regular workplace, it does offer you the flexibility of time to prepare healthy breakfast, lunch and dinner options, rather than grabbing something on the run during our rushed commute.
Healthy food choices will make you feel lighter and provide more energy throughout the working day. Avoid having fried foods, sitting for long hours and don’t forget to make sure to have plenty of water to maintain a good level of hydration.
Make sure to have some healthy snacks in the kitchen to have while working, which will help with an energy boost. Don’t have chips, popcorn or cakes and avoid keeping any snacks near you, that can be hugely tempting, and provide a quick energy boost but are often high in calories. By keeping snacks in the kitchen, the walk is a great way to make up some steps during the day.
You would have definitely heard that having 8 glasses of water is important to stay hydrated. But do you know drinking enough water also helps if you are looking to lose weight and will keep you healthy in the long run?
You should have at least 3.5 litres of water each day at a minimum and this doesn’t only mean drinking water but you can include milk, fruit juices even raw fruits and vegetables in your diet.
It is easy when sitting at your desk all day focusing on different tasks like work-related, studies etc to forget to keep yourself hydrated. You can help this by placing a water bottle at your desk to remind yourself to drink up. There are also apps which will remind you to have water during the day. There are plenty of water reminder apps on the App Store or Google Play Store.
Maintain your mental wellness
While the right exercise and eating healthily help us stay physically fit, let’s not forget about being mentally fit too. Although working at home can be significantly less stressful than working in regular workplace, that doesn’t mean it’s entirely stress-free as the work problems you will encounter may still be the same.
When it comes to your mental health, meditation will go a way to improve your productivity at work. Deep breathing exercises will help you to concentrate more at work and may help you come up with those brilliant ideas!
Getting a good night sleep is also a good way to maintain your mental health, I personally prefer to get 8 hours of sleep every night which helps to keep me energised and focused during my working day.
Taking time out is also incredibly important, try to read some books in your free time that will keep your brain active but not focussed on your work. You could also try going out for some fresh air like shopping, a park, or a place where you love travelling. There are many benefits to getting out in nature for our mental wellbeing.
What else should you consider to maintain your health whilst working remotely?
While exercising and eating right are important to maintaining your physical health, so too is setting up the correct home office.
Instead of sitting at the dining room table or on the couch, make sure to invest in a proper desk and chair that supports your posture and reduces muscle strain. Place your monitor, keyboard, and mouse in the right places too as it plays an important role in how you sit. You may even benefit from using a standing desk, and what’s great about these is you can fit a small treadmill beneath them to help with that physical fitness too!
These are all small changes that you can implement to keep yourself healthy while working from home.
“About me”
Hi, SJA here. I am Motivational Content Creator | Co-founder & CTO | Senior Software Engineer | Content Writer. To know more about me or read motivational content do follow me on Linkedin: sja-thedude
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