How do you juggle a demanding job and keep up with your fitness goals?
So as most of you know, I have a very demanding full time job, with long hours, stressful situations and not enough sleep. To make things more intense I am a lecturer at UCL, and I also teach several architecture workshops around the world. So you can imagine how difficult it is to keep up with my fitness goals, especially during times of stress and deadlines. But this is not just about having more than one job, or being overwhelmed with responsibilities, but also about how one spends their time, even when I am free sometimes, I spend time on Netflix, or generally don’t have too much time outside of my day to dedicate so much to the gym, and I am sure this applies to many of you. This is a short list of hacks and tips that I try to follow to keep myself from turning into a large ball of lard, but also to reach my fitness goals while juggling the general demands of day to day life.
1- FREE FOOD HAS CALORIES!
When you work in a big office like mine with around 100 employees, it always seems to be someone’s birthday, someone’s kid’s graduation or even a lunch meeting. There is always a colleague who has come back from a holiday or a business trip and brought some delicious delights from their destination, and the list goes on and on. When I spend so much time sitting at my desk, and get that evil but sweet sweet email of treats in the kitchen, I find it impossible to stay put at my desk. So my first tip of this blogpost is: Free food has calories! It’s okay to have a piece of cake celebrating your friend’s birthday, but just be mindful, take a minute to decide if you are actually hungry or want to eat instead of mindlessly gobbling up these delicious treats without thinking.
2- LUNCHTIME RUN CLUB
I get an hour lunch break, but with my insane to do lists, I stopped taking the time to move from my desk and eat. Most of the times I used to sit at my desk eating and working, which is firstly quite sad, and equally less sociable. So it is time for you to claim your lunch break back!
Running 5 km would take you around half an hour, if you preplan your route, you will be able to go for a quick run and back and have a quick shower and be at your desk by 2 o’clock. If you have crazy hair like mine, don’t worry too much and just dry shampoo it at work, and then you can have a shower when you get home. Have a bigger breakfast at around 11, so that your body has enough time to digest the food, and keep your body well fueled, so that you are not starving by the time the lunch break comes. I also always take someone with me, that way you have someone else keeping an eye on the time, but also this is how you plant a seed of change. I realised a friend of mine who works around 20 mins away from mine does something similar with a colleague of his, so the plan is that we start this lunchtime run club with all the architects around my area. Hit me up if you want to go for a run around Farringdon 🙂
3- INVITE YOUR WORKMATES TO THE GYM
I usually get invited to the pub after work, or decide to go to Friday beer-time, or feel like celebrating a submission with a drink at the pub with my team. So the other day, I decided to drag everyone to the Ministry Does Fitness, for a kickass HIIT session which was naturally followed by a well-earned drink! I was honestly shocked by the turnout, and all of a sudden people started coming to me asking me when I’m going next because they wanted to join. Everyone is interested in fitness, many people just need encouragement, and others want the company. It was a great change to the normal after work drinks. It was sweat sessions, planks and lifting weights instead of pints!
4- STAIR CHALLENGE
After the success of the Shelter Charity Stair Climb, the office building has decided to launch a stair challenge. With so many workers using the same building, and the stairs actually taking less time to get you to your floor than the elevator, building management has posted encouraging signs all over the building in order to challenge all the companies to build teams, download the StepJockey app, and win prizes according to how often you take the stairs etc, Let’s just say, my team is in the lead 😛
5- SHELTER
When I first joined my office, I went through this wave of panic, I was working long hours, and suddenly my flexible working hours were destroyed. I could no longer catch a workout at 11, and I was stress eating. I needed a new challenge, something to keep my fitness goals fresh and fun, and a friendly way to get to know more people in the office. So I signed up the Shelter Stair Challenge, had a chat with HR, and got the office on board. They paid for our registration, all we had to do was raise 160 pounds each for shelter, and manage to climb 42 floors up Tower 42! That’s 942 steps in total. Slowly people started showing interest, we managed to get 20 participants, from graduates to office directors. We all had a common challenge which was to make it up those steps, and raise the money. My main challenge was to make sure I don’t get any casualties by floor 30, because it was my job on the line. So I needed to get everyone in shape. We started a leader board of who could run up the 10 floors to the office (that very quickly built a competitive vibe between everyone with the winner running up 10 flights of stairs in 46 seconds. How he did that is absolutely beyond me). I held a few office workouts after work which didn’t need any equipment, and we survived it and raised 3700 pounds for charity. (Blog post about the event coming soon 🙂 )
6- WORKOUT BEFORE WORK
I find that sometimes agreeing to go to a workout after work can be quite stressful, especially when you have an asshole boss who passes by your desk at 6 and reminds you that there is a long to do list to be done before 9 the next morning and by that point you put away your workout bag and go back to your laptop and miss your workout. ( btw I am not talking about my boss in this situation ). If you have a stressful job and can’t commit to regular working hours, then just wake up earlier and head to the gym beforehand. That way if you have to work late, you already have your workout in the bag. I find that working out in the morning gives me this incredible push of energy, and makes me feel more energised for the rest of the day. It also works well as most gym classes have a 12-hour cancellation policy, so it saves you from losing money by not being able to make it to your workout.
7- WALK TO WORK
Taking the tube in the morning was one of the worst experiences of my working life, getting squished against strangers in the tube on a hot day during rush hour never gets easier. So I decided to start walking to work, with a 40 minute walk in the morning and another 40 mins walk back in the evening you have fitted in some activity in your day. I also realised that one of my colleagues is my neighbour and we started walking together, which keeps things fun and we get to catch up on office gossip too. If you don’t have company, you can always download a podcast, listen to music get some fresh air or even a coffee to go and make it a habit.
Obviously, the list can go on for ages from meal preps to managing your time efficiently, I think this list is a great place for you to start managing your fitness goals, and I’ll probably publish another list soon 🙂 You don’t have to compromise your fitness goals to be successful at work, at life (if that makes any sense). Being happy with your body and your wellbeing will actually make you more productive. So spending time managing your fitness goals is actually a great investment of your time, and an incredible step towards your wellbeing and happiness, and isn’t that the most important thing? Happiness?!
Christina x