9 Ways to Start Losing Weight at Work …

9 Ways to Start Losing Weight at Work …

Lose weight at work — doesn’t that sounds like the ultimate in multi-tasking? I think so, and it can really happen, too! If you know what to do, you can kick-start your weight loss journey, or just cut a few extra calories to help out, just by doing a few small things — and none of them involves wearing a sweatband. Here are 9 ways to start losing weight at work. Get ready!

1. Park a little further away, or walk!

If you can possibly swing it, walk to work. If you can’t do that, then at least park a little further away to maximize your calorie-burning, keep your blood flowing and your mind focused, and even keep your metabolism rocking! I used to drive around looking for a close spot, but now I just head straight for the back of the parking lot and walk the quarter-mile in. It’s invigorating!

2. Start a club

Surely you’re not the only office drone who wants to lose weight at work. Why not start a club, then? Encourage each other, share ideas, track your progress together, maybe even plan healthful, low-cal pot-lucks together.

3. Bring your lunch

Let’s talk about food some more. Did you know that if you bring your own lunch from home, you’re far likelier to make more healthful food choices, spend less, and eat smaller, more healthful portions? Brown-bagging your lunch is one of the best ways to lose weight at work.

4. Lobby for a gym

At-work gyms aren’t just for high-level execs anymore. Why not lobby your superiors for an elliptical or two at work? Here’s the angle: workers with healthier weights are less likely to miss work, which saves the company money in the long run.

5. Be aware

Before you grab a snack out of the vending machine, or indulge in a double-whip mocha latte from the coffee shop in the lobby, think about what you’re doing: adding unnecessary, empty calories to your work-day diet. Be aware of the choices you make at work, just like you do at home, and you’ll lose weight at work, too!

6. Take the stairs

Just like parking further away and walking to your office will help you lose weight at work, so will taking the stairs instead of the elevator. It will also get your heart thumping! Not convinced? I used to work on the 35th floor of my building. Even if I got off the elevator half-way up, I still got in a good cardio mini-workout… whew!

7. Walk around!

Rather than using the printer by your work area, choose another one a little distance away. This will encourage you to get up and walk a little more… again, burning more sneaky little calories away! You also might run into that hottie in the Accounting department a little more often… hmm…

8. Skip the soda

Did you know that just one serving of regular soda contains more than 100 calories? If you drink soda at work, you may want to consider wither skipping it altogether, or at least switching to a low-cal or no-cal version. Those calories add up! If you have two servings (on bottle) of soda every day for a year, that’s 73,000 calories. Holy moly!

9. Ban donuts

If you’re considering skipping the soda, why not ban donuts in the office while you’re at it? Sure, bagels and muffins are just as diet-wrecking, but this one tiny ban may start a trend of healthful pot-lucking that’s sure to help you, and your co-workers, lose weight at work.
See? There are loads of easy ways to lose weight at work, and not one of them involves wearing tennis shoes with your pencil skirt or chasing the IT guys around, asking them to fix your computer. Follow these simple tips, and you’ll be on your way to being… less of you… in no time! Which of these work-place weight loss tips do you like best? Or do you have another tip to share?

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8 Reasons to Avoid Fast Food …

8 Reasons to Avoid Fast Food …

As far as I’m concerned, fast food really only has one advantage over home-cooked or restaurant food: it’s fast, hence the name, right? But other than that one quality, I really don’t like fast food (except for an innate weakness I have for Taco Bell), and here’s why… here are 8 reasons to avoid fast food.

1. It’s fattening

Reason number one for avoiding fast food: it’s fattening. Actually REALLY fattening. A Whopper 40 grams of fat. A Big Mac has 29 grams. For the sake of comparison, and in the pursuit of full disclosure: my entire lunch at Taco Bell (a bean burrito with sour cream and a cheese roll-up) has 22 grams of fat. That’s a LOT of fat, considering these aren’t total meals… most of us eat fries with our burgers, and those add a whopping 22 additional grams of fat — in other words, there are as many grams of fat in my entire Taco Bell meal as there are in just the fries… and we’re really only supposed to get, maximum, 195 fat or sugar calories a day… do the math! A Whopper has 40 grams of fat, which is 360 calories… ick!

2. It’s a lot of empty calories

While it’s true that some of the calories in fast food are from fiber and other “good” carbs, most are not, so they’re useless, or “empty” calories. Empty calories aren’t going to keep you full or help your body, so why bother?

3. It’s disgusting!

Let me be blunt, but gross: there is a certain amount of animal feces in your hamburger. A LOT of animal feces. When you hear of fast food tainted with E. Coli, that, my dear, is where it’s coming from — animal poop.

4. There aren’t a lot of fresh food choices

Most fast food restaurants offer apple slices (with sugar-laden caramel dipping sauce) or salads on their menu, but sadly that’s about the extent of their fresh food offerings. There are a few exceptions: Subway, for example, offers plenty of fresh food options, but, according to Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation,” Subway is more concerned with selling franchises than food.

5. They have poor employment practices

Do you know why fast food places seem to hire so many teenagers? It’s because hardly anyone else wants to work in fast food, with the dismal hours, hard work, and low, low pay, most of the time without benefits. Add to the teenage (and thus slightly less reliable) work-force the fact that these restaurants get a tax break every time they hire a new employee, and you see why high job turnover is good for the fast food business, but maybe not so good for the economy.

6. They harm the environment

Massive feedlots, scores of polluting trucks, less-than-energy efficient stores… I’d say fast food isn’t quite as gentle as they could be on the environment. Granted, they’re not alone, but this is just another reason I avoid fast food.

7. They target children to form life-long “addictions”

In a way, I think it’s sick that McDonald’s, Burger King, and all of the other fast food chains target children. They’re trying to get them “hooked” on tasty, high-fat, high-calories, high-sugar foods, so they’ll be what the industry refers to as “heavy users” as adults. No pun intended. That’s really what frequent fast food customers are called.

8. Ronald creeps me out

Last and certainly not least, Ronald McDonald completely creeps me out. He’s a scary clown with blood-red paint on his face and a cheer that borders on manic. And the Burger King plastic guy? Yeah. He’s scary, too.

With so many reasons to avoid fast food, and only one good one I can think of to opt for it, I’m starting to eat at the cursedly addictive Bell less often, and at other fast food next to never. Do you love or loathe fast food? Why do you avoid it or adore it? Please share!

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