Don’t Let Your Sedentary Job Kill You
I’ve recently become truly interested in making my lifestyle healthier. It wasn’t because of any health problems, I was just curious about habits that could help me avoid any future health issues.
The world of health advice can be a very confusing place. If you ask ten experts about a health topic, all ten of them may have completely opposite opinions. My goal was to find advice that most health experts agree on and make a guide that I wish I had found when I started exploring how to become healthier.
Disclaimer 1: I’ve put a lot of effort into verifying all the information and sources, but I’m not an expert on nutrition or exercise. If you have any health conditions, please consult them with your doctor, nutritionist or physiotherapist. Do use your common sense to judge everything in this article (and everywhere else too for that matter).
Disclaimer 2: I'm publishing this article in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. If any advice seems to go against what your local health authorities say, listen to the authorities and always stay safe!
How To Use This Guide
This guide contains 9 chapters. Each one focuses on a single topic and explains why it’s important and suggests some good habits. As extra motivation, some chapters have a challenge to complete. It’s up to you how fast you go through the guide, but I would recommend spending one week on each chapter to adopt the new healthy habits.
Moreover, this guide focuses on people with sedentary jobs because most of us work in offices (programmers, designers, accountants and other hackers 😃) and most suggested exercises can be safely performed at work unless you have a crazy boss who would fire you for running up and down the stairs.
Week 1: Move
According to studies, even regular exercise can’t completely offset the negative effects of sitting all day. The good news is that changing positions and little doses of exercise throughout the day can go a long way.
- Our bodies are built for movement and the best position is the one you aren’t in right now. Sitting on a chair in the morning? Try stretching out on a couch in the afternoon. Or try standing in a meeting or when talking to coworkers. If you happen to have a standing desk (or you can make an improvised one 😃), alternate between sitting and standing. Don’t just replace sitting with standing — no single static position is good, keep moving.
- Take a break every hour or two to stretch out, walk around, talk to a coworker, get a glass of water or do some yoga 😈.
- Make sure you have a good posture when sitting. Use an external display or position you laptop so that the screen is at eye level.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/why-sitting-is-bad-for-you
- https://www.healthline.com/health/sitting-positions
Week 2: Walk
Walking is a great activity that can help you feel better and fulfill your recommended amount of daily physical activity. It even boosts creative thinking which is a huge benefit for programmers, designers or any other hackers.
Challenge: Make at least 10,000 steps a day.
- Set up Apple Health or Google Fit to count your steps. Studies recommend making at least 10,000 steps a day. How many steps will you make today?
- Look for opportunities to walk in the office. Whenever you’re on a phone call, stand up and walk around. Rather than emailing your co-workers in the same office, talk to them in person by making those extra steps to walk over to their desks. Every step counts!
- Park your car further away from the office building and walk down to the office. When using public transport, get off on a stop further away to make more steps on the way to work. You can increase the walking distance as your fitness level improves.
- Take the stairs rather than the elevator. If your office is on the 10th floor and it’s too difficult for you, take the elevator up to the 8th floor to climb up only 2 floors. You can increase the number of climbed floors as your fitness level improves.
- Make a daily habit of walking outside at midday because it has an extra benefit of exposure to sunlight rich in UV-B rays which helps your body produce vitamin D.
- Make a daily habit of a 30 to 60-minute walk after work or whenever it suits your schedule.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/health/benefits-of-walking
- https://www.healthline.com/health/how-many-steps-a-day
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-increase-vitamin-d
Week 3: Stay Hydrated
Drinking enough water improves mood, prevents headaches and even makes you think and focus better. There’s no universal advice on how much water is enough, just drink whenever you feel thirsty. If you find yourself running to the toilet too often, you can drink less.
- Fill up a big jar with water first thing in the office and drink it throughout the day.
- Place a glass of water on your desk. Even when you finish it, an empty glass on your desk will serve as a reminder to drink.
- Green, black and herbal tea and good-quality coffee are all great alternatives to clean plain water.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/7-health-benefits-of-water
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-much-water-should-you-drink-per-day
Week 4: Choose Healthy Drinks
Sugar is the worst ingredient in our diet that’s linked to every disease you can imagine 😃. Avoiding sweetened drinks is the first step to reduce sugar intake.
Challenge: Avoid all drinks with sugar.
- Make some healthy delicious drinks to replace sugary drinks. For example, sparkling water with lemon, lemonade from fresh fruits, ginger tea with honey or organic coffee. Get creative with your beverages. Find something you like and make it without sugar.
- Hide all sweetened drinks from your sight. Throw them away or lock them in a secret cupboard. Make one day of the week a cheat day. That’s when you can open the secret cupboard and indulge in everything you find there.
- Watch out for coffee in coffee shop chains. Ask the waiter how much sugar syrup they put inside and ask for a coffee with no (or less) syrup.
- If you miss the sweet taste, add some sugar, but gradually decrease its amount. Coffee with one or two spoons of sugar is still better than a can of coke.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/4-healthy-natural-sweeteners
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/56-different-names-for-sugar
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-much-sugar-per-day
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/too-much-sugar
Week 5: Choose Healthy Snacks
Most sweet treats including muesli bars or cereals marketed as “healthy” aren’t the best fuel for your body because they’re full of refined flour, sugar, and other artificial ingredients.
Challenge: Avoid all snacks with sugar.
- Buy some whole fruits, nuts, dried fruits or high-percentage dark chocolate. These ingredients are delicious snacks by themselves or you can get creative and mix them.
- If you have a blender, use it to make smoothies. They contain whole fruits and vegetables with all their original healthy nutrients.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-fruit-good-or-bad-for-your-health
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/8-benefits-of-nuts
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/15-health-foods-that-taste-better-than-junk-foods
Week 6: Sleep
Slept well not only makes you feel better but it has been proven to reduce the risks of some diseases and increase immunity. Good sleep improves mood, focus, productivity and even helps programmers make fewer bugs 😃.
Challenge: Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.
- Our bodies have an internal clock inside that keeps us awake during the day and makes us feel sleepy at night. Once we get used to a regular schedule, it becomes easier to fall asleep. You probably already set an alarm in the morning to wake up for work. Try setting another one at 10 PM or 11 PM to remind you that it’s time for bed. If you have an iPhone, check out the bedtime feature in the Clock app.
- The use of screens and artificial lighting at night may trick your brain into thinking it's daytime. The light is composed of many colors (wavelengths) and it has been proven that the blue light is the major culprit for keeping us awake at night. Most devices with a screen can be configured to shift colors to minimize blue light. Look for night shift or night light in screen settings on your phone or computer and try switching to lightbulbs with warm white color temperature.
- Wind down before going to bed. Listen to music, watch a movie, read a book, meditate or practice yoga.
- Avoid caffeine in the afternoon. Coffee is a drink with many health benefits, but too much caffeine in the afternoon can affect your sleep.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-reasons-why-good-sleep-is-important
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/ways-to-fall-asleep
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/block-blue-light-to-sleep-better
Week 7: Exercise
Walking is a great start to regular exercise, but there’s so much more you can do. More intense exercise not only increases energy levels, makes you feel happier, helps with weight loss and prevents all kinds of conditions, but it also makes you smarter and more productive by positively affecting your brain and memory.
Challenge: Do an intense physical activity at least 3 times a week.
- Find activities you like. Running is great for heart health, but what if you find it boring? Go swimming instead, it has similar benefits and is great for your joints and muscles too. Want to grow more muscles? Hit the gym. Do you prefer team sports? Commit to playing basketball or beach volleyball regularly. Choosing an activity that’s fun for you will make it much easier to stick with it.
- Find an exercise buddy and compete with them. Who can run more miles a week? Who wins the next match of squash? This will create a mutual commitment that will motivate both you and them. You’ll inspire your buddy and they’ll motivate you in return to keep up doing what you’re asking of them. You can do this on a larger scale by organizing activities and becoming an ambassador of exercise at your workplace.
Read More
Week 8: Eat More Vegetables
Vegetables are a miracle food full of vitamins, minerals, fibre and other good stuff. Eating vegetables helps prevent all kinds of nasty diseases you don't want to get 😃.
Challenge: Include vegetables in at least 2 meals per day.
- When you eat out, ask for a vegetable salad or soup with every meal.
- Pick smoothies over juices. Most fruit and vegetable juices are just water with sugar and aren’t made from real natural ingredients. Even freshly juiced fruits and vegetables tend to have a lot of nutrients removed. Smoothies, on the other hand, are made of whole fruits and vegetables blended so they contain the most original nutrients.
Read More
Bonus: Healthy Environment
We can't be healthy without a healthy planet to support our needs. First of all, vote for leaders who have environmental issues like climate change or plastic waste in their agenda. With that being said, lifestyle changes made by individuals can also lead to a significant impact.
Challenge: Have at least 1 meatless day a week.
- How many flights do you take per year? Is there a way you could minimize this number? Maybe you could travel by train to a nearby city. Or you could visit more countries in a single trip so that you don’t need to take individual flights later. For example, if you fly to Buenos Aires through São Paulo, visit São Paulo too so that you can cross off both cities from your bucket list.
- Good-quality meat is very nutritious, but it has a major environmental impact. Meat production consumes a lot of water, forests are being turned into land for growing feed and livestock emits green-house gases during digestion. Vegetarian or vegan diets are best for the environment, but even those who love meat can make smart choices. Replace beef with poultry which has a lower environmental impact or just eat less meat.
- Oceans are full of single-use plastic items like straws, bags, bottles, cups or food boxes. Buying a reusable bag, coffee cup and food box will help you produce less waste. If you like ordering food delivery to the office, buy reusable kitchen utensils and tell the delivery service that you don’t need all the plastic stuff they usually bring along.
Read More
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/meat-good-or-bad
- https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/how-your-diet-affects-climate-change
- https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/longform/how-go-green-without-really-trying
Wrapping Up
I hope you had fun reading this guide because staying healthy should be fun and good habits shouldn’t be hard to stick to. Have you learned anything new? Have you adopted any new habits? Did you find challenges easy or difficult? Is there anything missing from the guide that you think should be there? Please leave a comment.
