A couple of news items:

Adult Obesity Rates Rose In 28 States, And Fell In Just One, USA

Obesity Rates Highest In Southern States

So what does this mean to me?  Well, as a nation, we’re growing fatter, and as I live in Alabama, my region of the country is in the lead.  And while I have no statistics (yet) to back this up, I see a lot of fatties in IT.  Present company included.  I think IT, due to the stressfulness and sedentary, chair-bound working environment leads to weight gain and therefore has a high percentage of overweight people.

We can fight this, at least a little.  So I’m posting five good ideas of things to do that will help work off, or at least keep off the pounds

1.  Get out of the chair!  Remote desktop is a great tool, but do try to visit the server room at least twice a day.  If it’s on  another floor, use the stairs.

2.  Eat s-l-o-w-l-y.  Studies have shown that rushing through your meals doesn’t give your digestive system time to let the nervous system know it’s full.  We tend to grab a quick lunch when we’re busy.  I’ve tried the following:  I eat some of my lunch, say 1/4, and get up and go do some small thing.  Since I’m always busy, there are millions of small things needing to be done.  Just avoid having such a nice lunch that it will tempt your coworkers to finish it before you return!

3.  Avoid junk food!  We also have a tendency to grab a bag of chips and a coke, or a snickers, or something out of a machine, when we’re so busy we have no time for lunch, or we wind up working after hours.  Try to have healthy snacks available.  Carrot sticks are an excellent item as the biting and grinding tends to help work off stress.  Try seedless grapes, melba toast, celery, other raw veggies and fruits.  Keep your hands busy while your mouth is crunching for good stress relievers.

4.  Drink water.  It has zero calories, and tends to fill you up.  It’s healthy and you need it.  Don’t you remember learning in school how are bodies are 60% water?  Of course, you could argue that you’d lose weight by drying up some, but you’d probably kill yourself at some point!  A skeleton is dry and weighs a lot less, but it is dead.

5.  Get plenty of sleep.  Stressed out and overworked, staying late and coming in early takes its toll, but the more sleep we get, the better we’ll maintain our health and keep our weight down.  You should strive for 8 hours a night, but not less than six.