Did you enjoy American Heart Month? I didn’t really. But it’s mostly because of the embarrassment of being caught on tape doing weird workouts at the office.
For my challenge, I wanted to be more active at work and more mindful of my heart. I decided to try some suggestions for ways to be more active, such as doing little exercises at the copier while I waited for something to print. I also set my Fitbit to alert me every hour to stand up and take a little walk.
GOALS THIS MONTH:
- Stand once per hour at work
- Find little ways to be healthier/more active
- Take lots of cardio classes
- Set my desk to standing position so I sit less
HOW DID IT GO:
Well standing every hour turned out to be fairly time consuming when I was trying to get something done since it takes my focus away for a bit, but it did make me feel better and made the day go by a lot faster! And it made me more conscious of opportunities to work out my muscles while I’m just sitting.
Apparently my co-worker found my desk workouts hilarious because she showed me all the videos she had taken of me afterwards, which I found embarrassing and thought they made me look like a weirdo, so naturally I had to include them in my video blog below.
For more ideas on how to work out at your desk job, check out these 33 exercises from Greatist.com.
VLOG:
FAVORITE RECIPE THIS MONTH: Chocolate No-Bake Cookies
Note: This picture looks disgusting. But I promise they are gooey-amazing-chocolatey-goodness. They are kind of high in calories, but are made with healthier ingredients so I like to consider them a healthier snack/dessert alternative. With my adjustments, each serving has about 215 calories, 10g of fat, 15g of carbs and 1g of sugar.
Ingredients:
- 1 stick of butter (Instead I use half a stick of butter and half Smart Choice Olive Oil margarine.)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup milk (or unsweetened almond milk)
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ cup creamy peanut butter (could use a low-fat peanut butter)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups quick rolled oats
- 1 scoop protein powder *optional* (I love the taste of the Elevate protein powder from Aldi so I add it to everything!)
Directions:
In a large pot, whisk together butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder, and bring to a boil. Whisk for 60 seconds at a rolling boil, then turn off the heat. Add peanut butter, vanilla, rolled oats and protein powder. Mix until everything is evenly coated.
Spoon globs onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets and refrigerate. Then eat them all at once because they are amazing.