Sitting at your desk all day can wreak havoc on your body. Did you know that good cholesterol levels actually decrease 20 percent and your risk of diabetes increases after only a couple hours of sitting? That is why I always recommend that women take many of their business calls standing up. Doing so burns 50 percent more calories than sitting, increases health benefits, and makes you less likely to snack—very important since many office workers take in more calories with snacks than they do at lunch on a daily basis!
To help you make healthier choices at the office, I have created a "Stay Fit Survival Guide" for when your job forces you to sit at a computer all day.
Ditch
1. Diet soda. Do not be fooled by the "diet" word or the calorie-free label. Diet soda may be linked to weight gain and can make you F-A-T, fat. Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center concluded that people who drank two or more diet sodas a day had larger waist sizes. If you need more convincing, diet soda has also been linked to an increased risk of stroke, and drinking more than one a day may increase your risk of type 2 diabetes.
2. Baked potato chips. Baked chips means healthy chips right? No! That's like saying diet soda is a healthy beverage. The word "baked" makes consumers believe they are doing something good for their bodies when choosing between chip options. Sure, 1 ounce of baked potato chips may have 14 percent fewer calories and 50 percent less fat than regular chips. However, baked chips are more highly processed than their regular counterpart and contain high levels of the cancer-causing chemical acrylamide, which forms when the potatoes are heated to high temperatures.
