Is Your Workplace Making You Gain Weight?

• Does your body sit idle while your brain works hard on the job the entire day? (Yes/No)
• Do you feel it difficult to put fitness into your everyday routine? ( Yes/No)
• Are your co-workers and you spilling out of seats? (Yes/No)
• Do you think obesity is the major health issue in your workplace? (Yes/No)

There actually is a big obesity problem in India that is hugely affecting the bottom line of businesses, our economy, and the health system.

The average city workers have access to a variety of healthy choices. Still, there are biscuits in the lunchroom, lollies at the desk, pastries and cakes at meetings, and unhealthy refreshments in the vending machines.

There are different levels of obesity In the workplace and it does vary depending on the occupation and industry. The worst kind of jobs for the waistline are workers in the sedentary office where you work on a computer, high-stress jobs like call centres, law, and transport companies.

And it is not the end yet. Our FATNESS is greatly contributing to the increasing costs of living as well.

The millions are lost to absenteeism because of poor health or sickness and a huge drop in productivity is also observed where employees are at work physically but absent mentally.

Our hospitals are obligated to spend a large section of their money on wider doors, reinforced beds, and buy all kind of equipment to accommodate the rising trend of diseases related to obesity. A great loss in money is clearly observed here as a huge sum of money is being spent out on what could be prevented with some efforts rather than treating things that cannot.

Being overweight has become a lifestyle choice for the majority of people who are overweight. The pain of being overweight is up to a great extent outweighed by the contentment of eating. We all agree to the fact that the skinny stick models are equally unhealthy, but living within the ideal weight range with perfectly toned muscles is crucial for living an optimum healthy lifestyle.

We absolutely know what to do, but due to our ignorance and irresponsible behaviour in our eating habits, we constantly gain weight.

It is not rocket science,

• Energy in should always be greater than Energy out.
• The energy in – Can be described as whatever you eat on an entire day.
• Energy out – The amount of activity you do on an entire day.

Hence, if you desire to lose weight, you must eat a little less and walk a little more.

Now, if you want to begin a momentum at your workplace and start to trim your waistlines as well as boost the end result of your businesses, economy and health system, you must follow the below-mentioned strategies in your workday.

• Initiate a group fitness workout after work or at lunchtime to fight obesity at the workplace.
• Conduct your team meetings on outside walking sessions. Learn more about walking meetings.
• Go to the restroom that is at the longest distance from your desk.
• Start wearing a pedometer to track your footsteps and calculate how much you walk in the entire day.
• Talk to your HR department to hire a Personal Trainer and start the fitness classes in your organization.
• Start taking stairs instead of the lift during tea breaks and lunchtime.
• If you wish to give a message, walk to the end of the building instead of sending it in the mail.
• Walk to your office, if your home is nearby, else park your car at a little distance from the office building or leave the bus a few blocks earlier.
• Replace unhealthy snacks and cookies with fresh fruits and juices.
• Don’t sit while talking on the phone, get up and roam around whenever you’re on a phone call.

As you can notice, it is not necessary to go for fun-run every lunch hour.  All you need to do is to look for little opportunities to move around in the office during the course of the day and watch what you eat, it will help you in dealing with obesity at the workplace.

We can considerably reverse the increasing trend of workplace waistlines if start to take responsibility for our own health.