Looking for people who have desk/office jobs?

herlittlegreendress

I'm a desk job/morning work out person! There's just too much to do in the evenings and its SO easy to skip exercise when I'm juggling a boyfriend/dog/house/meals/hobbies/friends/family. To make sure I work out, I'm at the gym by 5:30am. I lift for 30 minutes alternating upper and lower every other day, then I come home and walk the dog for 30 minutes. Working out in the morning motivates me to make better choices throughout the day.

One of my biggest issues when I didn't work out in the morning, was not having time/energy to grocery shop and cook healthy meals after work so I got into the habit of going through drive thrus and ordering take out. BAD IDEA. Now I try to pre-plan as much as I can...and when I say pre-plan, I mean, I only plan out the meals for the day ahead of me so that there's still some spontaneity and I'm less likely to stand in front of the fridge with the door open, trying to find something I'm "in the mood for"... aka sweets and lots of cheese and bread.

Another big thing that helped me get back into my morning work outs was that I actually moved closer to work to cut my commute from an hour down to 10 mins though I realize that's not realistic for everyone! I'm at work from 8am - 5pm if not later and then my evening for everything a girl has to get done in a day.

SummerLovin0x

Capt_Apollo wrote: »

SummerLovin0x wrote: »

I'm sure there are plenty of people on here whom have desk jobs or office jobs.. Secretaries? I'm one of those. Who works a long work day, up at 5 am.. 1 1/2 hour drive to work. Be into work for 8:00 am. work 8 hours, home at 5:00, eat supper, do nails, because i'm also a nail technician, finish at 9:30 p.m. Shower / Bed.

How do i find time for working out. Better yet how do you guys find the time? ox

so you wake up at 5am and what do you do that takes 90 minutes before you have to leave for work? i have no idea what you are doing, but i'm going to go on a limb and guess that it involves preparing breakfast and lunch for the day, on top of getting yourself ready in the morning.

save yourself some time by preparing your breakfast and lunch the night before. heck, you can even prepare those things days ahead of time. i have one day a week when i food prep breakfasts and lunches.

now you have at least 45 minutes of free time every morning. plenty of time to get in a workout and a shower in. less if your morning routine involves any TV or internet time.

Hey!!

So i've found that i now walk on my lunch, I really don't have time in the A.M i'm up at 5 am. Get a shower // get ready and leave my house by 6:30, yes i know i spend time on myself. But i'm at a place of work i need to be presentable. So anyways i'm getting my cardio in now during lunch

masanz1

i get up at 5...at work at 6..work until 4...home at 4:30, run for 30 minutes or bike for 60..eat dinner at 5:30-6..watch one recorded tv show...read or internet for a little bit...start all over..i rarely watch tv and spend very little on the internet..there is 30 minutes somewhere in the day...i wish we had showers at work i would exercise then.

imagstl

Try taking the stairs ALL of the time. This is an excellent form of exercise too. I've noticed I pick up speed when I'm in a hurry to get to a meeting or have to pick up documents. Going up and down the stairs also had been building up my stamina. I started just taking the stairs when I had to go down

bas0128

I've got a hydraulic desk so I get to stand some during the day so that helps . Then, I squeeze a run in with coworkers at lunch. On non-cardio days, I strength train for an hour after work. Once your workout schedule becomes routine and habitual, it gets a ton easier

SarcasmIsMyLoveLanguage

Office worker here. Luckily we have a gym in our building which is reasonably priced and I work for health-minded people so I am able to go to the gym during my work day. I know how lucky I am!

ronronronj

I am an office worker also. Like you, I get up at 5 AM, but I meet my carpool around 6:30. Fortunately, with carpool lane access, I can get to work by around 7. I also do walking around lunch time. In addition, whoever made office assignments in our building put half the office on the 6th floor of the building and half on the 11th floor, so I can get some exercise on the stairs. We just got waster coolers/filters installed in the office so the water tastes better.

In addition to all this, I get to work at home a couple of days a week and get alternate Fridays off. This gives me more of a chance to do some walking or other exercise.

My main problem is that everyone else in the house wakes up later than I do, so the noise tends to continue until at least 9:30 or 10 at night. My wife is also a professor with night classes, so when she comes home from those (or chorus rehearsal), it tends to wake me up, and the kids have to jump up and see her, thereby adding to the light and noise.

joshuapowell1989

I'm an office worker and struggled to get my steps. I get up at 5:45-6am and i'm usually at work for 7am.
I then finish work at 4pm but have commitments at home. (dinner, pets etc) to sort out, I've taken a 3 step approach:

Step 1:
Monitor my current exercise - Really understand what I actually do in an average day.
For this I bought a Fitbit, and glad I did! I was shocked to see I only do about 2000 steps a day usually!

Step 2:
Begin to increase my exercise In the time I do have:

My working hours at 8-4 but I'm usually in early as I have too much work to do within those hours. but hell they are not my hours. let me continue getting to my works area on time but go for a short walk before.
This added 2000-3000 steps but this is not a daily thing, this depends on my workload for that day.

In addition, I have an hours lunch break. Usually I would go to the pub and sink a couple of pints, why not use that hour more productively and get out and about. I now do a 2-3 mile walk each lunch break (depending on route) which adds another 6000 steps.

Already I'm doing 8000-9000 steps extra.

Step 3 (Ongoing):

Why do I not exercise when I get home? ... because I'm home...
I realised when I get home I know I have alot to do so focus my mind elsewhere rather than on my wellbeing.
I clean all the various pets we have and then cook dinner ready for my misses getting home from work.

I asked myself, What If I do exercise before I get home?
Therefore on payday I will be joining a gym, this will hopefully get me alot more exercise each day.

LennyLentils

Hi, I am also in a desk job. I'm a receptionist at a local radiology practice. From work I come home, have tea, bath and bed kids. By that stage I'm knackered. Started on here a couple of days ago and trying to worm in a little exercise most days Feel free to add me for extra motivation and anyone else on this thread.

Machka9

SummerLovin0x wrote: »

I'm sure there are plenty of people on here whom have desk jobs or office jobs.. Secretaries? I'm one of those. Who works a long work day, up at 5 am.. 1 1/2 hour drive to work. Be into work for 8:00 am. work 8 hours, home at 5:00, eat supper, do nails, because i'm also a nail technician, finish at 9:30 p.m. Shower / Bed.

How do i find time for working out. Better yet how do you guys find the time? ox

Do you have to drive to work?
Do you have to drive all the way to work?
Can you walk or cycle for some of your commute?

What about at lunch? Can you take 20 or 30 min and go for a brisk walk?

How about a once a week spinning class just before dinner?

And then there are weekends ... I do most of my exercise on weekends.

dutchandkiwi

I have a job which is primarily office based, as does my husband (90% of the time). I don't have a driving commute that helps. My desk is either 52 min walk or 20 min bikeride from home. I have the opportunity to get changed at work (lockers and shower) which is a bonus
But I also start my day with a 20 minute yoga/pilates based workout. I get up at 6.10, workout, get ready, have breakfast and leave the house by 7.30 on a normal day, the walk to work for 52 min.
At work I try to get up and walk to other people I work with as much as possible and always use the stairs (I am on the third floor). I walk to town for my shopping and carry everything in my backpack.
At work there are a number of people that go for a run or walk in their lunchbreak too.
Other than that I do a yoga class once a week, I go for a long cycling trip in the weekend, and if it fits in with my schedule I will do an aquarobics class (on average once every two weeks). We also have a rowing machine and I fit in 15 - 30 minutes whenever I feel like it about twice a week.

Now I do agree I am lucky to live within walking distance to work, it has helped to incorporate excersise within my day-today routine. My husband however is not so lucky. He has an hour commute to and from work. He parks his car at the far end of the parking lot so that he has to walk 10 min to his office, takes the stairs. He also goes for a run during his lunch break once a week and goes for a run after work twice a week (nights that I am away as well) He runs near work as it also means that he's late and misses pak hour traffic and therefore is less stressful driving back. In the weekend he goes for his long distance trainings - He is due to run his 10th half marathon, the second this year, next week.

The thing is, a day only has 24 hours and if you want to fit in exersise it means that something has to give way. It does mean that we have had to make adjustments in our schedules. It means that we eat later or, once a week, not together. It means that we do not see much TV at all (does not bother me in the slightest), but we are fit and healthy and our lives have improved overall since we started this journey.

89Madeline

I get up at 08:00, shower, breakfast, get to work at 09:00. I'm usually able to leave at 17:00. I sit all day. After, that I go for a run or a strength work out and have dinner around 19:00. I now live a 2 min walk from my work, whilst before I used to bike 20 mins to get there. I definitely noticed a change not biking any more and needing to burn some extra cals!

flrancho

I have a desk job, but fortunately my hours most of the time aren't bad - I usually get up at 6 am to be in at 8:00 am, and leave at 4:30 to get home by around 5:00 pm. I go to the gym 2-3 times a week; the other days I go for a 1-2 mile walk in the neighborhood.

ronronronj

I would definitely recommend that you ask your bosses and/or try to set things up so you can work at home. You can use the commute time to exercise, or start/finish earlier and use the time at the end for that. You can also drink more water and avoid the office "candy bowls." My office has a workstation with a laptop that connects to a monitor and keyboard, but I can take out the laptop and bring it home when I need.

PaulaWallaDingDong

I get an hour dinner break. I use 20 minutes to eat and the other 40 walking. I can usually get in 1.5 mi before I have to head back. I also get enjoyment out of changing the bottle on the water cooler, but I haven't taken to lifting in sets yet... New goal!