I hate to admit it. I am a Health Coach for goodness sake! I’ve already lost so much weight. I’m usually so careful, but I sit here about to type the terrible truth. I gained 12lbs over the summer!
I work-from-home now. It’s wonderful. I can keep my fuzzy slippers on all day (or as we call them around here, “my sexy socks”). I get to do what I love all day long. I can also wander aimlessly into the kitchen and munch.
Working from home is conducive to every aspect of my life — except my waistline.
It’s taken me a few months, but I’ve finally found the game plan that has helped me to avoid the waistline spread. I know many of you who work-at-home struggle with weight gain too, so here’s your chance to put a game plan in place!
These aren’t the newest ideas you’ve ever heard. In fact, sometimes just going back to the basics is all you really need. While these aren’t earth-shattering, they DO work!
Ways to Prevent Weight Gain When Working From Home
1. Eat Breakfast
Not sugary cereal and milk. Not bagels and cream cheese or English muffins and peanut butter. (The latter being MY personal downfall.) Instead, eat something more substantial.
- Eat eggs. (My favorite is a one egg omelet with onions, refried black beans, and a little cheddar folded in the middle!)
- Eat leftover dinner from the night before. (Who said breakfast has to be one type of food or another?)
- Eat quinoa breakfast cereal. If you are going to have a few more calories, it’s better to have them at breakfast rather than lunch.
Get plenty of fiber and protein; they take longer to digest, so they keep your belly feeling full longer. A nice protein-rich breakfast will get you through to lunch without the need to snack.
2. Drink Water
Yes, it IS that simple. We all know we should be drinking water, but how many of us actually do it? Start with drinking at least as much water as you do coffee, tea, or (GASP!) soda. Then up it just a little each day until you are drinking eight glasses of water a day.
Water keeps you from being dehydrated. It fills your stomach and doesn’t leave room for fake hunger. Many of the times, we think we are hungry, we are really just thirsty, and by the time we feel that we are already becoming dehydrated. Stay hydrated. It will help you feel better in more than just the waistline department.
3. Make Your Lunch
Yes, you heard me. Pack your lunch. You make your kids lunch. You might even make your partner’s lunch. So, I am suggesting you make your own lunch at the same time. This requires minimum work since you can quickly put the leftover chicken from dinner into two containers instead of one. During the day, only eat what you have packed for yourself. You will reap maximum benefits with this one because you have designated food that you know you can consume during the day.
Follow a few of these simple steps when you pack that lunch:
- Consider how you best eat and plan either small meals you can eat during the day or one big lunch.
- Don’t forget healthy snacks. (Veggies and hummus or salsa are a great healthy way to satisfy hunger.)
- Put your lunch aside in a designated part of the fridge and know that it is the food you are allowed during the day.
- Be disciplined. (You thought I was going to pretend this was easy, didn’t you?) You planned this food and these meals because you have a goal. Stick to it! You can do it!
4. Create a Schedule
Working from home requires a great amount of dedication and motivation; it can be easy to get distracted, so it’s imperative to create a daily or weekly schedule to stay on top of deadlines and projects. The same goes for healthy eating and exercising, if you don’t schedule it in and plan for it, healthy choices can easily be filled with work, household chores, and eating poorly. Schedule times for meals, snacks, and exercise, it will help you stay trim and give you a clear head for work-related matters.
Related Content: Increase Your Productivity with Block Scheduling
5. Get Out of the House
When you work-from-home, you lose the social interaction of co-workers, and loneliness and boredom can set in, and in turn, can cause over-eating. If you’re feeling lonely, pack up a laptop, and head to your local café, coffee shop, bookstore, or library, most places offer free wireless internet connections. This will give you a dose of social interaction while fighting those cravings to raid the fridge and eat when you’re not really hungry.
Related Content: 7 Tips for Working From a Coffee Shop
6. Put a New Spin on Your Exercise Routine
Don’t have the time or money to join a gym? Too hot to run outdoors? Try streaming a free class online where you can do everything from yoga and aerobics to Pilates and hip-hop cardio dance. Peloton offers a free trial of their fitness app. Or do you have kids that just won’t let you get through an entire exercise routine? Put on some music and run around and dance with them.
Related Content: A Mompreneur’s Guide to Summer Fitness
Conclusion
In the end, we all know there is no magic wand to wave that will help us lose those extra 5- 10 lbs. We all know that wishing is not going to help us lose weight. But every time we can get some new ideas to add to our bag of tricks, we should consider how they might work for us. Listen to your body and your head. I bet if I asked you right now, “What three solutions can you do right now to help you achieve this goal?” You would know exactly what you needed to do! Answer the question! Follow these tips. YOU CAN DO IT!
Related content: Honoring a Healthy Lifestyle When You Must Travel For Business
Laurianna Murray is the owner of Laurianna Murray Wellness and author of The Curvy Life blog. After making a total life transformation and learning that being healthy can truly become a lifestyle, she is passionate about helping other women lose weight, have more energy, and learn how to change their own lifestyle once and for all. She also has a desire to help people in the Bariatric surgery process be fully successful on their journey. She offers in-person and telephone health coaching, cooking classes, meal planning, and more. You can follow Laurianna on Twitter @LAMwellness and @thecurvylife.
I need to start implementing these great tips – I always struggle with eating healthy when I’m at home working on the computer and trying to keep my 3-year-old entertained.
I think it’s additionally hard when you have kids at home too!
Keep up the work!
La-
Great tips! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome Kari! Enjoy the holidays!
La-
I read sonewhere a long time ago, that you should never keep your slippers on all day or sit around in relaxing pants. The claim was that it creates a lazy approach to your eating habits. So, even on the days I am home working on proofing and not seeing clients, I get dressed as if the outside world will see me. You don’t make too many trips to the fridge in heels!
That is a great tip Revenda! THANKS!
Good info yet again, you are an inspiration!
Thanks Tammy! You know I feel like if I could do it, then everyone can! :)
La-
My problem has been how fast and easy it is to get fast food quickly. I have experienced significant weight gain during the 10 years that I’ve been working at home. I think that making exercise a priority each day is probably going to be the key to me losing it and stopping any further weight gain.
You are so right! Regular exercise is so the KEY to keeping those pounds off! I always say- you have to MOVE somehow and MOVE every day!
You can do it!
La-