Working at a computer can take a toll on the body with lack of exercise and healthy eating habits. So take charge and turn your habits around with these helpful tips.
- Journal and keep a daily diary about what you eat and how much activity you get each day. Make sure to get at least 10 minutes of activity daily away form your computer with healthy exercise; walking, jogging, biking, stationary-biking, something…
- Keep healthy snacks and foods on hand like:
- Tuna
- White cheeses and low-fat crackers
- Celery and low-fat peanut butter
- Carrot and Celery sticks
- Salad (bagged and prepared is fine) and low-fat dressing
- Cucumber slices
- Snow peas
- Broccoli and cauliflower
- Wheat bread
- Veggie egg rolls
- Fresh Fruits / Fruit Bowl
- Frozen grapes
- Wheat Toast and jelly
- Bagels and jelly or lite cream cheese.
- Freezer treats (lite ice milks, low fat yogurts, flavored ices, etc.)
- Jello (with or without fruit and/or lite whipped topping)
- Pudding with low-fat milk
- Healthy beverages: teas, coffees, bottled flavored waters
- Take the batteries out of any remote control units you have at home and get up and walk over to change channels.
- Take your dog for a walk every evening. If you don’t have one, take your elderly neighbor’s dog for a walk.
- Do exercises while watching television. No need to wait for commercials, for jump in there and hit the floor.
- Pick up healthy cookbooks at the local library, bookstore and online. And find favorites to use, changing your bland, some-old same-olds.
- Add healthy no-sugar cereals to your day, sweetening them with fresh berries (or some brands now have the fried fruits packaged right in the cereals.) You can eat cereal as a snack, too.
- Oatmeal is healthy and good for you. Experiment by adding raisins, nuts, a little brown sugar and other goodies to make it a nice, warm meal.
- Stock up on soups: vegetable, tomato, vegetable beef, chicken, bean, chicken and stars, chicken and rice, chicken and noodle. And stock up on a variety of crackers to go with them: oyster crackers, saltines, Ritz, Sociable Crackers, etc. Eat your heavier meal for lunch and leave the lighter ‘soup’ meal for dinner.
- Invite a friends or friends over to eat. Stop hiding out and socialize. Share recipes and healthy food ideas. Plan a round where someone brings the main course, someone else brings the side dishes, another brings dessert.
March 4th, 2007
If you need a little more help or a variety in your exercise routines for your upper body during computer breaks, try some of these workout exercises for your arms. Customize them to suit your needs, varying the number of repetition, the intensity of the workout level, etc. as needed.
Lower Arm Flab
Some things to try are dips. With dips, you sit on the end of your chair or other hard surface. Place your palms so that you have one on either side of your hips. And have your fingers dangling over the edge. Then proceed to walk with your feet pointing outwards while picking your hips up off of the chair. Then squat, bending your knees while you lower yourself, making your elbows come to 90-degrees, keeping your upper arms parallel with the floor. Stand up, and then repeat, lowering yourself with your arms. Continue repeating 10 more times. Then repeat two entire sets more (if you’re new with this, grow your sets over time - -like work in one set the first week, then two sets the next and so on). And for those more advanced, you can stretch your legs out straight with this routine.
Another way to tackle lower arm flab is with kickbacks. Holding a small amount of weight (like a soup can), bend your wrist over having your hand (back side flat) on a surface. Now with the soup can or hand (or other) weight in your other hand, bring your bent elbow up to your side in what we call the ‘start position.’ Take the elbow at your side and reach back until that elbow is out straight, and then lower it back into place. Repeat this exercise of motion 11 more times, switch hands / arms and do the same on the other side, same number of repetitions. Then repeat two additional sets, again growing over time as needed. And for more advanced exercise levels, you can increase the weights.
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Tips
This is especially a good exercise for computer users who are prone to getting carpal tunnel (painful wrists). Being by using wrist weights or holding light weights for resistance work; however, you do not want to grasp the hand weights tightly. Flex your wrists outward, then inward a dozen times each wrist. Then repeat a couple of sets. You can also vary this routine by adding a mix of other activities into your exercise plans like: doing wrist curls, swimming, placing wrist rests on keyboards or gently squeezing small rubber balls.
Upper Arm Flab
Combat upper arm flab in a variety of ways, too. You can hit the floor and do old-fashioned pushups, any style you like (military or other). You can mix in some reverse crab walking where you get down on your feet and hands facing upwards, looking at the ceiling and crawl around. Or you could enjoy some fun shadowboxing using a light amount of weights in your hands, punching roughly 15 rounds of jabs, hooks, undercuts and crossovers.
March 4th, 2007