Stay Healthy While Working From Home

Stay Healthy
While Working From Home ❣

Right now, with the Corona threat still active, more Office workers are allowed to work from home. Some deem themselves lucky, but others are worried about having to stay at home all the time, and about how to organize their time between work and family. 

And they are unsure about how to use their unforeseen chances to exercise, diet better, and even improve their physical health while working from home. 

The only mistake you can make is trying to make too many plans what to do with all the spare time that is saved from commuting. 

Actually work is the same as in the office - nine to five, with the same regular breaks. And the children too must work - remote schooling. Yes, unfortunately, they need help from their parents... but not really more than when the parents were off to work. And there is no need either to kick the person who looked after them when the parents were away. 

The best thing you can do is keep the used routines, and enjoy the breaks together. Instead of queuing in the cafeteria, you can cook at lunchtime (and as long as you get your daily task done, who will tell on you if you take a slightly longer break?) - don't make it a habit, and don't overdo it, but you have your saved commuting time. Deliberately plan that quarter of an hour overtime exactly before or after regular worktime. 

Yes, this already looks like a lot of planning (and I of all people must be suggesting it!) But at a second glance, it's just keeping up the routines, and adding a bit of fun.

Now on to the healthier lifestyle I mentioned above: 

Homecooking - during your lunch break - together with your Family - or pre-cooking at the times you usually did - is the best way to cooking healthier, fresher food. And if you can, you could even keep this habit, when later you must work in the office again.  Meal prep works great when you work from home too! This does not just have to be for bringing lunch to work. The more you have prepared at home, the less tempted you will be to order food delivery or go out to eat.

Designated kitchen times – A common trap when working from home is feeling like you can walk into the kitchen at any time and eat something. To prevent this, have designated kitchen and meal times just like you would if you worked in an office. And if you know you or your family need to have frequent snacks, have healthy snacks at hand for everyone. Have fruit or nuts on your desk, keep granola bars on the counter, make sure your fresh fruit and veggies are visible, instead of a box of chocolate and a cookie jar. Moving around is good, even when it's only to the kitchen. But for a healthy snack.

Now I have reached the end of the page, writing gets kind of complicated and I still didn't get around to my main subjects: Improved Morning routines, movement, gentle exercises, and especially stretching!

So, if anyone reads this at all, stay tuned! This time I'll be really back soon. 

My Definiton of "Selfness"

In the Eighties and 90ties it was (physical) 'Fitness' these last years it was (mental and physical) 'Wellness' - now a new word was created 'Selfness'.

What is that? - Not much of definition or clear explanation to be found yet, and if, it has too much to do with business, working process, not all aspects of life. So I feel free to make up my own definition, an explanation of what I mean by Selfness, without starting too sound too philosophical.

Selfness is about the Individual, about the inside - in short the own Self.
How do you feel deep inside? - physical and mental? - why do you feel that? - in which situation? How, when and why do you feel well? What are your Needs? What can you do to make yourself feel better? What can you do for Your Self?

The human inside the society has to many things, also for her/himself - to be accepted as a member of the society. Things like... Work - not only to feed and house himself and the family, but be efficient; Be active, fit, friendly, popular, and what not, fit into the picture of his society.

Then it is said, we should not live for working, but work for living.... And society tells us grossly what living is - whatever trend is trend is 'in' basically, and we work to follow, wether we want deep inside or not. Even mental and physical health and how it is dealt with sometimes comes across as such a trend.

Self Improvement is another trend. We strive to learn how to improve ourselves, how to make the best of ourselves. We follow books, which without any doubt do contain wisdom and proven facts. We are supposed to apply what we read to ourselves, wether we dare to disagree, or understand it completely or not. We look for help from such books on Selfimprovement. Or on Self help. And we do not get the same results as all those others, and we ask ourselves more or less desperately, WHY? - The book was not written about us, the author had no idea of our existance, and it is a mere coincidence if the same thing concerns us as much as someone else.

To find best acceptance in society one must develop Individuality (yes, that is a contradiction, which to solve would just be a waste of time) - wether you feel well just swimming inside the crowd or not, people nonsensically work on their individuality, try to gain it from outside. But everybody is an Individual anyways and thus has Individuality - only, it must be detected, inside, where it always has been.

Yes, Selfness has to do with thinking exclusively for and about yourself. But it is a mistake to mix it up with selfishness!

When You do not feel well inside in whatever place or situation, you have an influance on the overall climate of this surrounding. For instance, when Mum is not feeling well, she cannot make her Family feel completely well. Energy, that is absorbed by stress, illness, or other negative influences can not be used positively for others. When we finally stop blaming ourselves (which also uses up life energy) as selfish, we can freely cultivate our Self(ness), thus deeply improve our Self in an easy, natural way. And we would be much better prepared to give back, to be strong for others to pick those needs of society we have to obey to in which we perform best.

Selfness is the state of being when we know our Self, when we focus on ourself, find the best compromise for our Self inside our Self when dealing with society needs. It refers to body and mind. It is not only wellness, but it is the only state of being, in which we can succeed in so many aspects of life.

Selfness is by far not as aloof as it sounds. It has very simple logical aspects. For instance - to come back to the subjects of my blog: when you know your body, when you listen to it, you will know what muscle to move in what way. That sounds complicated again, but you do know your body best (as well as your mind), you are inside it. The better you know a problem about you, the easier you find the solution or can go for professional help, without guessing, directly to the point.

Before we waste efforts and lose time with solving any problems in a circumstancial way, we should go down to the very roots. Find Your Self. And from that point organize everything else.

A New Throne for the Cyber Queen

No, this is not my new office chair. I like to sit on my Swiss Ball occasionally. Dynamic sitting, moving the lower spine,
in every direction, not leaning to the seat-back. A swiss ball is a healthy and not uncomfortable alternative to an office chair. - But not for too long. Last week I had to experience, that it can get pretty hard after some hours, and really cold. One cannot be in the slight movement that comes naturally with sitting on a ball constantly and sitting still, the surface you contact is quite small, besides, it cannot be warmed up by the body temperature.

Well, why should anyone want to try this out.... I sure had not planned this, but....

The other day I sat down in front of my screen, when suddenly the seat sagged down and I tilted with the chair. Of course this was impossible, an office chair with 5 feet cannot tilt. Luckily it went slow and not straight backwards, so I could grab a hold before I had sorted that out.

It had happened, because the leg was a straight cylinder, that could slide easily through the mounting plate, after the bottom had broken out. Actually the usual office built like this, such feature is often neglected; so even a well stability-tested office chair can tilt, when the bottom lid breakes out, worn by time and turning movement.- so much about office security. - Well, with my new chair this cannot happen anymore. The lower end of the cylinder is narrowing and thus supported by the entire mounting plate.

So I had thought, until I got a new one, I could use the swiss ball some days - not such a good Idea, even with a blanket over it. But a normal chair is not much better, one realizes soon, the ability to move and turn, adjust and change the backrest, is necessary.

Modern office chairs have also movable seats, slightly diagonally downward to the front, which is good for the knees and venes. - Better still for the venes is, if possible, put the legs up on a stool under the desk, though this is not very comfortable for a long time. -

I even saw chairs with seats swinging sideways and rocking in all directions, but this is not for me, my husband tried it too and said he'd get seasick - one probably would on the long run, lol.

While using the computer for hours, you should alternate between times with more movement and times when you sit still deliberately.

Like in the picture below, the angle of the backrest should be changed occasionally, and it is important to actually rest your back against it, specially the upper part as well, to sit straight.

Also a headrest is not superflouus, when you are tall. So you can on an anatomically correct chair, which follows the natural form of the spine, press the whole back against the rest and straighten it.

When you neglect to do so, the upper back will get round and stay round, sooner or later.

An office chair for too frequent use must be well tested before purchase, to make sure the back rest supports the back correctly in the correct places and is adjustable in hight. The support for the lumbar region must be exactly at the small of the back and almost always in contact.
All in all, the backrest of the chair in the picture is not bad, but a more complete one and higher one is better for long sitting. (which you should not do anyways, but that is another subject.)

The material is not unimportant, it should be strong, but breathable, (which does not mean such a cool chair in modern net optic is better than an upholstered one - after coming to know this on my Swissball, I guess it would be a pretty cool experiene with another meaning, if the slightest draft should occur.)

The Armrests - I always hated to have them, because one could never really rest the arms on them, they are usually too far down, even if adjustable. But when they can be brought high enough, meaning the hight of the desk, it is indeed a big advantage for wrists and shoulders.

So much about my new office chair for now. - I will show it when I've conquerd some small technical problems and make some short videos about how to exercise in front of the computer.