Heart Healthy at Work—Are You the 1 in 25 Who Isn’t?

Let’s take a minute to talk about our health. As working professionals we don’t always put that at the forefront of whatever we are doing. We tend to think of health and fitness as things that happen after all the work is done. The only problem is that the work is never going to be done, so it’s up to us to make sure that the health part is taken care of no matter what. After all, you can’t pour from an empty vessel. Taking care of yourself is crucial.

Unfortunately, most office workers only meet two out of seven healthy heart behaviors—only about 4% achieve all seven. This means that over the course of your career your health will continually deteriorate, and then when it’s time to retire you’re going to be too sick to enjoy it. When your heart suffers from your lifestyle choices your whole body suffers.

• For starters, if you stare at a computer all day every day you need to start following the 20-20-20 rule right now. Every 20 minutes look away from your screen to a distance of at least 20 feet for 20 seconds. This will help eliminate eye strain and all the issues that come with it, from blurred vision to watery eyes to eventual problems with vision, posture, and more.
• Next, if you sit all day for your job make sure you get up at least once an hour and go for a five minute walk or perform some other kind of exercise. If you stand all day make sure to give yourself a break, stretch, and even try doing squats in place to keep all of your muscles engaged. Yoga poses, squats, lunges, and stretching are all things that can be done fairly easily with little to no extra equipment.
• Diet is especially important no matter what you do for a living. Make sure you are getting the right combination of nutrients, and especially that you are getting plenty of vegetables in your diet. Even a little bit of red wine and dark chocolate in the evening can go a long way. And be sure to drink plenty of water every day as well – hydration is crucial and often overlooked.

As working professionals it’s up to us to ensure we are achieving a good balance between work and minding our health. Learn more about maintaining health in the office from this infographic!

Infographic courtesy of GundryMD.com.