Hello. I'm quite fat, and I blame you. Years of deep and unstoppable addiction to pixels means I've sat down in front of the computers that let me work on them for basically my entire adult life. Sitting, combined with a parallel but no less deep and unstoppable addiction to biscuits (cookies, if you're in the North American British Annexes), means I'm not in great shape.
As part of doing something about it, before I'm too smooshy and atrophied to enjoy having kids at some point in the future, I've recently got myself a standing desk (IKEA Bekant, it's magnificent) and a padded mat (Varidesk "The Mat", mostly magnificent) to perch on while I'm stood.
I've always wondered about getting one since they became a thing in tech circles, and now I've got one I feel sad that I didn't get one years ago. I can't say that it's helping me actually become more healthy just by itself, because I'm doing a bunch of other things to make that happen alongside the standing, but the psychosomatic benefits are real enough.
Anyone else stand up while they're computing? Those who do stand, do you have any tips for a fellow new standee?
Things that bug me a bit so far that I want help with:
- Even with The Mat, my feet still get sore after prolonged sessions stood up (5 hours or so seems to be the threshold, from the unscientific counting I've done so far), and rather than sit when that happens I tend to just walk off and do something else. The soreness tricks me into thinking I'm done at the computer, even if I've still got stuff to do.
- I have no real idea what the best ratio of sitting to standing is. I'm sure there's detrimental effects from standing up for so long, just as there are from sitting (even though we're designed to be upright, evolutionary speaking, we're also designed to move while being so).
The biggest thing that you're doing is walking. Try to make it so the walking is vigorous enough to keep your heart-rate up. If you aren't sweating, you likely aren't walking vigorously enough.
I used to have the same problems with being unable to stand up for long periods of time. It was bad enough that my feet would start to hurt after just 20-30 minutes. Back problems as well. Fatigued easily.
For me, what I eat or how much I eat isn't nearly as important as avoiding too much sugar or simple carbohydrates (things made from processed wheat flour for instance, which is basically the same as sugar). I eat tons of bacon, eggs, all types of meat, LOTS of fat, etc. I make sure to mix in good sources of fiber like beans, whole grains, almonds, etc.
I used to drink Skim Milk but that's not terribly healthy so I'm back to 2% or full fat milk depending on what I feel like it. This has benefits beyond the fat being good for you. Fat enhances the flavor of what is with it. So you need less sugar (or sugary cereals) to have that same "sweet" flavor with even 2% fat milk versus fat free skim milk.
Stand up desks are great. You can combine that with exercise by using it with a treadmill. During the winter months when I don't want to go outside to get cardio, I'll work on my computer while using a treadmill. I have my monitor on a monitor arm so can easily position it either over my desk or over the treadmill. Then I had a keyboard and mouse tray designed for my treadmill.
Also one of the biggest things to help with getting your body fat down (weight isn't as important as getting that body fat down) is to increase your muscle mass. That doesn't mean you have to be bulky like a muscle builder. Lean muscle works just as well. That will do far more to reduce your weight and keep it down than any amount of cardio (cardio is also important though).
I did it slowly myself with simple exercises I could do at home.
Push ups. I started doing this just against a wall in a leaning position so I could get a lot of reps in. Then progressed to on knees with hands on the rim of a bathtub. Then to weight on toes and hands against bathtub. Then to standard push-ups on the floor. At least 2 reps of 30 (60 total a day) is good enough for me and only takes a few minutes.
Balance that out with pull ups. I used a similar method of gradual ramping up. I started by using a bunk bed. Sit on the lower bed. Lean back slightly. Pull upper body forward by grabbing onto the top bunk. Then starting using a low bar and some light assistance from legs. Eventually getting to do full pull ups. Same as push ups 2x 30 reps. Just takes a few minutes.
Abdominals are hugely important and the above isn't really possible without at least some abdominal conditioning. This is easy and hard. I focus on this a little more than the others. Crunches and prone leg lifts are fantastic. I started just doing as many as I could in 2 sets of reps. If I remember right it was so bad when I started that I could only do like 2x 12-15 reps of crunches.
Now I do 2x 80 reps of crunches and 2x 80 reps of prone leg lifts. To help out at the start you can also do standing leg lifts which are easy but work amazingly well to get you start. To do those you just stand there. Hold your hands out in front of you at waist level. Then just touch your hands with your knees. Try to do 60 (depending on how bad your abdominals are, that might or might not be tough). If 60 is easy then work up to 100. You can do this while standing at your computer.
And the last one I do regularly is just squats and lunges (without weights as I don't want bulk, just lean muscle). I do 2x 30 reps of each. Oh and the other one I do is arm lifts. Just hands at sides and while keeping your arms straight lift them slowly away from your torso to the sides until thy are about shoulder or head level and then slowly lower them back to resting and then repeat. Amazingly difficult to do a lot of reps of this if you are in really bad shape like I was a few years ago.
I use that every day because it's easy. Doesn't take a lot of time. Maintains a nice level of lean muscle mass which helps keep the body fat down.
Doing that I eat about 1.5-2x the recommended daily amount of calories sometimes and I cut a very svelte figure at my age (not saying what it is, but it's over 40.
So, I don't have a young man's metabolism). But that's fine. As not all calories are created equal. When the weather is nice I like to go out for a nice 2-3 hour walk of 7-10 miles. Don't do it too often, as that's a huge time sink. But I do enjoy doing that once a week if I can.
I don't bother counting calories, as I find that counter productive. I find instead, I just try to pay attention to my body telling me it doesn't need food anymore. My brain will sometimes keep saying it wants more of something but my body will stop wanting it and that's when I stop. This took a while to cultivate. As I grew up in poor family where we were taught to eat everything we could and weren't allowed to leave the table until all our food was eaten.
Amazing when I consider just a few years ago, I couldn't make it more than a quarter of a mile without the bottom of my feet getting sore. 1/2 mile and I was too fatigued to go on. I couldn't stand for longer than 10-20 minutes. Now I can stand for hours and hours. My lower back was so bad that if I stepped off a street curb wrong, the pain would be so intense that I'd crumple to the ground. Now I can accidentally step down from a greater height than that sending a huge jolt up my spine and it's no big deal.
I used to try to eat diet/healthy food. Now I eat whatever I want (mmmm, fatty bacon, fatty steaks, eggs with the yolk, etc.), with the exceptions of avoiding lots of sugar and simple carbohydrates. The thing I miss the most is eating pasta 4-5 nights a week. I treat myself to sugared soda every now and then. But I actually have to water it down as it is now too sweet to drink straight.
Definitely worth it for how healthy I am now. Hope some of that can help you out. Again, this isn't a quick route to getting healthy. But it was my way to get to an easily sustainable healthy living condition. No regression as with diets as I eat what I want to eat. No regression from exercise as what I do is easily done while doing other things (most of it can be done while easily watching a video) without a huge time commitment. And can be done virtually anywhere. The hardest one to do anywhere is probably the pull ups.
And and don't forget to stretch some, before and after.
Also, I and another friend of mine regularly have discussions (arguments) about nutrition. And one our pet theories is that your racial background may have a hand in deciding what is and isn't good for you to eat. For me, and many people like me a high fat, high protein diet works quite well. For other people it may or may not work as well. But sugar and simple carbohydrates (mostly of the processed kind, like wheat flour) are universally bad.
Regards,
SB
