Three Ways My Job Was Making Me Fat and What I Did About It

Last summer, I stepped on the scale for the first time in several months and was shocked by my weight. Prior to that, I knew I had put on a few pounds. But, when I saw the scale, I realized I had reached a point where I faced potential health issues.

As a result of that, I decided to do something about it. I started exercising more often and stopped eating fast food on a regular basis. However, when I saw very little progress after the first few weeks, I realized I needed to do more. Specifically, I realized my job was making me fat and I needed to do something about it.

I work full-time as an inside sales rep and, as part of that, I sit behind a desk for 40 hours a week. That stationary life-style combined with the fact I usually had plenty of junk food in my desk was something I knew I would not be able to work off with just a couple hours per week at the gym. In addition to that, the stress from my job (related to me working on commission and needing to get sales to pay my bills) would often leave me drained to the point I would just sit on the couch when I got home.

Once I identified the causes of my weight gain, the next step was to do something about it. The first thing I did was tackle the junk food issue head on. Junk food is now replaced with healthier alternatives like whole grain crackers and even fruit. More importantly, instead of soda, I started drinking water.

The next thing I did was find a way to move around more during the course of the day. This wasn't something that was easy since I do need to be on or by my phone constantly. But, I found ways to move around more, such as printing off a document one page at a time and walking to grab each page separately. I also park on the far end of the parking lot so I have to walk a little further to and from my car.

I think the hardest part was related to the stress because there really wasn't an easy fix for that. Instead, I had to force myself to exercise despite the lack of energy, something I did by taking the time to play with my kids or doing some yard work right after getting home. A nice side effect of that is it did manage to help me keep my stress under control to the point I eventually had more energy.

Once I made these three changes, losing weight was much easier. I still have some pounds to shed. But, because of these changes, I'm in a much better position health wise than I was just a few months ago.