Start Your New Year by Following these 6 Effective Tips to Manage your Health While at Work

Working for long hours in office, sitting on the chair for more than 8 hours and sedentary lifestyle can take a toll on your body. We cannot avoid the working conditions in the office, but following some simple tips, we can definitely avoid the damage to our health.

Let us look at some simple tips, that one can easily follow while in office. These simple acts can bring a huge difference in our health and lifestyle.

1# Keep Yourself Hydrated

Yes, you must have heard a lot that we should drink at least 8 glasses of water during the day. But while in office, we generally tend to forget this rule and end up drinking not even a glass of water while in the office.

To avoid this, always keep a bottle of water on your desk and make a point to finish it by the first half and then refill it again for the second half. You can even download apps/or set an alarm on your mobile/computer that reminds you every hour to drink water.

2# Eat Healthy Food

Food is one of the key factor that affects the health. At office, you will find lot of options in the cafeteria/colleague’s desks to munch on some unhealthy snacks especially sugary items or fried stuff. Such food cause to gain some extra pounds of weight, if consumed daily, and affect your health.

Avoid this practice and switch to healthy food options. Always carry a fruit in your office bag along with a handful of nuts. Whenever you feel hungry, munch on these nuts or eat a fruit.

In the cafeteria, always look for a counter serving fruit salad or juices. Stay away from the fried and sweet snacks.

3# Watch Out Your Meal Portions

It is not always the unhealthy food that is a culprit, but also the portion of your meal. Having one large meal for lunch and then sitting on the desk for the whole day, will lead to accumulation of extra calories. Also, after eating too much, your body feels lethargic and affects your concentration.

So, make a practice to have a small or moderate portion of food. It will not only avoid you feeling lazy, but also increase your productivity.

4# Keep Moving

Always find an opportunity to walk a few steps in the office. These small steps will help you to burn some calories and also keep your muscles working.

• Instead of using telephone, walk down to the person to have a discussion.
• Park your car a bit farther, and then walk down to your office.
• Instead of elevators, try to take the stairs and walk at least up to 3-4 floors.
• Walk to the farthest restrooms instead of choosing the nearest one.
• If time permits, take a 10-15 min walk after having the lunch.

Such small and simple activities will prove to be a boon to your health in future.

5# Watch Your Caffeine Intake

In the stressful office environment, people tend to drink more than 2-3 cups of tea and coffee throughout the day. This is a very unhealthy practice. Too much of caffeine intake is dangerous to health, plus your sugar intake keeps on counting with every cup.

Caffeine can be consumed, but in moderation. Instead of tea and coffee, switch to healthy options like green tea. Nowadays green tea comes in a variety of flavors, you can experiment with the flavors. Green tea not only helps in flushing out the toxins from the body, but also helps to energize.

6# Good Posture and Computer Habits

When sitting on the chair for the whole day, it is important to give attention to your posture. A bad posture will lead to various problems like back pain, neck pain, headache or even lead to slip disc. To avoid such problems, follow these tips:

1. Try to sit with a straight posture and avoid bending your back.
2. Some people tend to crane their neck in front of the screen. This causes a strain in the neck and the back. One needs to avoid this habit.
3. Follow some neck exercises like neck retractions, making a double chin etc., during the breaks.
4. People talking for long hours on telephone can suffer from a tension neck syndrome. To avoid this, use headsets or speakerphone for long conversations.
5. Always keep your computer screen an arm length away from the eyes. Keeping your eyes closer to the computer screen can cause strain to the eyes and headaches.
6. Reduce the brightness of your computer screen.

Lastly, for a healthy body and soul, one needs to keep the health over and above everything. Nothing is more important than your own health. Be happy, enjoy your work, keep away from stress and importantly, take at least one vacation in a year and enjoy with friends and family, this will not only recharge your batteries but will also give a boost to your health.

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