Cubicle Worker Weight Loss Plan

I was going to post some tips on losing weight for people that work in offices and are contained in cubilcles. Then I thought about checking for advice given in the Dilbert cartoon series from Scott Adams. Sure enough I found some diet information.

One of the best tips at the Dilbert Blog is to stop eating in the evening. But of course this is the hardest thing to do for most people. In the comments there are some really funny tips such as becoming ill or becoming a crack addict.

I used to be an engineer and worked in a cubicle. In case people don’t know, they are ways to divide up an office with cheap partition boards that flap around on simple metal supports. They are either full height so all you can see is your computer or half height (usually behind you) so the boss and anyone else can check out what web sites you are looking at.

It’s easy to become overweight in these cubes since there can be little reason to leave them apart from going to the lavatory or heading home. Unless you are a manager, you probably only get to go to one meeting a week (the team brief) where you get to go walk along some corridors and glimpse outside.

So how can you lose weight in this situation? The way is to force yourself to become more active since clicking a mouse and blinking burns very little calories and passing away the hours in the cube tends to slow down your metabolic rate, much like a hibernating hamster.

Ways to get more active in the office:

• Use a rest room (loo) that is a long way from your cube and on another floor of the building
• Use the stairs instead of the lift
• Take a long detour on the way to meetings
• Ask the office weirdo to stop bringing you your parcels and post. Get them yourself
• Network. Go see people and talk rather than using email
• Park your car in a far corner of the car park
• Go outside every lunch time, preferably for exercise such as swimming, walking or jogging

Well those are some ideas.