Is Your Workplace Making You FAT?

Does your brain work hard on the job but your body sit on idle all day?

Do you find it hard to put fitness into your day?

Are you or your co-workers spilling out of your seats?

Is obesity the key health problem in your workplace?

There is a big FAT problem in this country that is affecting the bottom line of businesses, our health system and the economy.
The average city worker has access to a smorgasbord of healthy choices. Yet there are lollies at the desk, biscuits in the lunchroom, pastries at meetings, and unhealthy snacks in the vending machines.

Levels of obesity can vary depending on the industry and occupation. The worst jobs for the waistline are sedentary office workers where you use a computer, high stress jobs like law and call centres, and transport companies.
And it doesn’t end there. Our FATNESS is contributing to the rising costs of living as well.

The billions lost to absenteeism due to sickness or poor health; injuries; and productivity where employees are at work but doing very little is staggering.

Our hospitals are forced to spend money on reinforced beds, provide wider door access, and buy equipment to accommodate the growing trend of obesity related diseases. This money is being spent on what could be prevented rather than treating things that cannot.

Even funeral companies have to install special lifting equipment in their morgues, provide wider and deeper coffins, use trolleys rather than pallbearers, and special lifting machines to lower coffins into graves.

It is not like we don’t know what to do. Rather, it is one of not being responsible for what we put in our mouths and looking at everything we do as an opportunity to move more.
It is simple science, Energy in versus Energy out. Energy in (what goes in your mouth) and energy out (how much activity you do). You adjust the equation according to your needs. If you wish to lose weight, you eat a little less and move a little more.
If you are faced with an expanding workplace, there are some simple steps you can do to trim the waist lines and boost the bottom line of our businesses, our health system, and our economy.

Strategies for fitting healthy options into your workday.

•Start a group fitness workout at lunchtime or after work.
•Hold your team meetings during an outside walk.
•Use the rest room that is the farthest away from your desk.
•Wear a pedometer to track how many steps you take in an average day.
•See your HR department to get a Personal Trainer to start a fitness class at your work.
•Take the stairs instead of the lift during your lunch or tea break.
•Walk to the end of the building to give a message rather than send an email or phone.
•Park your car a little further away from the office or get off the bus a few blocks earlier.
•Keep healthier eating choices at your desk for when you can’t get away.
•Freeze meals or buy healthy readymade meals and bring to work to heat in microwave.
•Get a hands-free on your phone so you can get up and move around.
As you can see, you don’t have to do a run a fun-run every lunch hour. You just have to look for opportunities to move more during the course of the day.
We can dramatically reverse the growing trend of workplace waistlines if we take on being responsible for our own health.