The pandemic changed many aspects of our lives. One of these major impacts was the major acceleration of people working at home rather than going to an office. “Teleworking” was already occurring with increasing frequency prior to the pandemic but there was an exponential increase in the number of people that no longer had to travel to an office daily.
There were some major benefits perceived for those working at home. These included:
- Not having to commute both ways in traffic, thereby freeing up well over an hour or 2 a day.
- Being able to monitor the children at home that were required to have their schooling via Zoom.
- Not having to dress up (at least above the waist for those Zoom calls) to go to work
- Being able to have your own refrigerator, microwave and over to use for your meals
However, focusing on the weight control arena, there were/are some major challenges that occurred resulting in many people gaining weight during the pandemic. The reasons include:
- Not having to dress up and be seen by others.
- Not walking as much as would be the case at work.
- Being able to hit the refrigerator or pantry for constant snacking.
- Stress eating because of needing to juggle the kid’s school needs and work requirements.
- Not having the workplace gym or lunchtime walk around the complex with friends.
The “Covid 19” was a joke aimed to describe the 20 pounds or more weight gain that many people experienced during the pandemic. This weight gain was caused, in part, by the working at home “new normal”.
How can working at home be turned into a favorable state of affairs for weight control as opposed to a challenge? Here are several ideas:
- Convert that extra 1-2 hours that you are not commuting to exercise time…not sleeping in!
- Oops…take some of that extra time away from exercise to plan your meals and shopping
- Place 3X5 cards on your refrigerator and pantry to remind you of the reasons why weight control is so important to you….you can’t do this at work!
- Read my blog daily now that you are always on the computer and not in a car (wow, that sounded narcissitic, huh?)
Yes, the “work at home” thing can be challenging but let’s look at this as an opportunity to focus more on your health and get those pounds off.
