Should I exercise at my desk? - Client Questions

By Kelly Clark / Client Questions

Comments
  • should I exercise at my desk? a great question a client asked me
  • Victoria Beckham is the perfect example of how people make being THIN complicated
  • how I lost 30 pounds 23+ years ago by SIMPLIFYING my exercise routine
  • ready to CRANK OUT your best work?
  • what would you do with an extra 300 hours each year?!

Should I exercise at my desk?

A few years ago I saw a photo of Victoria Beckham working on her computer while walking on a treadmill, that doubled as a desk.

(Yes, she was wearing stilettos.)

You know VB… aka Posh Spice!

Posh Spice! She's an internationally recognized style icon and designer. And if you're a footie fan, you'll also know her husband David.

(She’s the first SPICE GIRL on the left, performing at the closing ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympic’s in London.)

Victoria’s also an internationally recognized style icon and designer.

And if you’re a footie fan, you’ll know her husband David.

(More on Sir David Beckham at the end… OMG!)

Should I exercise at my desk?

When I saw Victoria working and working out… my first thought was:

Wow... people make exercise complicated...Just like I did!

 

So when one of my super-smart, highly-motivated and always-tough-on-herself clients asked me:

Would swaying a little while I’m at my computer be a good goal for the week?

It reminded me that I wondered stuff like that too
the entire decade I was obsessively dieting
and 30 pounds overweight.

…I wondered stuff like that until I unlocked my H 🙂 PPY weight 23+ years ago by simplifying my relationship with food and exercise.

Maybe you’ve considered exercising at your desk too

Lots of people have!

There’s TONS of exercise-under-your-desk equipment available to buy.

I see it AND LEAVE IT discarded behind buildings on our walks with Rocky.

And if you Google: “Victoria Beckham treadmill desk” you’ll find that TONS of outlets picked up this story because they found it newsworthy.

So let’s get to it:

Should I exercise at my desk?

NO!

Here’s 3 reasons why you don’t need to exercise at your desk:

Should I exercise at my desk? NO – Reason #1:

You can unlock your HAPPY weight by getting into a healthy routine that’s SIMPLE.

In my course and 1:1 coaching, I support women in building a rock-solid eating and exercise routine—what I call a personalized GOLD Standard Routine—full of food and exercises choices they LOVE.

Then they can eat anxiety-free and confidently, and be 100% focused on:

  • finishing their screen play
  • planning their daughter’s 7th birthday
  • or putting their petition online to stop their local butcher from selling foie gras (Um, ok… that was me.)

Instead of worrying about how many calories were in their cobb salad at lunch.

…Actually, I just phoned the butchers and we had a good conversation (I think I was practically hyperventilating b/c I was so nervous). Then they pulled foie gras from their shelves. My argument? Their mission statement didn’t align.

I love animals!

I’m all about eating and getting on with the day!

Vs. overthinking and worrying about everything you eat.

One of my client’s calls what she used to do: “micromanaging every bite I put in my mouth”.

The exercise part of a GOLD Standard Routine that’s made it easy for the Type A women I work with (perfectionists!) to unlock their HAPPY weight is:

Getting your heart ❤️ rate up
3 X’s a week for 25 minutes
+
Being active every day

Therefore, you just need to build in three, 25 minute workouts into your week.

Similar to how you build brushing your teeth into your day.

No one… well, not many people say:

OMG I’m so excited to brush my teeth!

But they do it anyway because brushing your teeth is the healthy choice.

TBH I love brushing my teeth!

Nothing makes me feel cleaner! Amirite? I actually had to have gum surgery because I over-brush… They had to cut two strips from the roof of my mouth and graft them onto the sides of my gums. That was during my “drinking-a-case-of-diet-coke-a-day” stint. I’d brush after every can. Ummm. Ya. I have a history of doing things in extremes. These days I’m more discerning about where I throw my energy. (Only into projects I love that make a difference). All my eating and exercise is MODERATE… because that’s how I finally lost weight. Your body wants to be a healthy weight. You don’t need to do anything extreme! And I haven’t had a sip of any diet drink for over 15 years.

I'd brush after every can

That’s why when I say you only need to put on spandex 3 x’s a week for 25 minutes to be in a GOLD Standard Exercise Routine, that unlocks your H 🙂 PPY weight, I hope you believe me.

Because, ya, I’ve overdone the exercise thing.

(More on that in a minute.)

Jogging
the elliptical machine
cross country skiing
swimming
& endless other options

are all fantastic exercise ideas to get your heart ❤️ rate up, 3 times a week for 25 minutes.

Then move your body every day.

The easiest way to be active each day?

Incorporate movement into what you’re already doing.

It could be:

  • getting off the bus one stop early
  • taking the stairs instead of riding the elevator
  • walking your dog around the block once vs. letting her out in your backyard
  • pushing a door open instead of pressing the disabled button

Should I exercise at my desk? NO

All these small shifts in how you travel through your day, when you’re NOT in your Lululemons, add up over the week, month and year.

I love moving my body!

I never take that luxury for granted.

Should I exercise at my desk? NO – Reason #2:

If you’ve read my book or been reading my blog for a while, you’ve likely seen this image:

Why the energy you burn plateaus

It shows that there’s a limit to how much energy you can burn.

In other words, doing extra exercise doesn’t mean more weight loss.

So you can exercise at your desk All. Day. Long. but not see any changes.

Why?

Because over-exercising is like under-eating

It puts your body into survival mode.

Which makes it hard to lose weight and easy to gain it.

→ This “limit to how much energy you can burn” explains why I was 30 pounds overweight DESPITE doing tons of exercise.

For those 10 YEARS that I was overweight I exercised for a MINIMUM of 1 hour a day… And I exercised even more if I ate something I regretted.

Since 1999 I’ve got back nearly 300 extra hours each year b/c I stopped over-exercising.

Here I am years later, at the end of my eating disorder

↑↑↑ That’s me when I had an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise… when I was on my Nordic Track for at least 1 hour a day.

What will you do with 300 extra hours each year?

Having a “limit to how much energy you can burn” also explains why a healthy eating and exercise routine, a GOLD Standard Routine, unlocks your HAPPY weight naturally.

You DON’T need to diet!

You don’t need to do anything extreme!

Extreme choices work against your body… and mind ↓↓↓

Should I exercise at my desk? NO – Reason #3:

I don’t know about you, but when I divide my attention between two different things, I do both at half my potential.

Exercising distracts you from doing your best work when you’re sitting at your desk!

And if you don’t exercise while you work, but think you should be. Well, you can start feeling guilty.

Then you find yourself in a spot where you just can’t win.

Feeling anxious about your choices,
especially when you don’t need to be
can really play with your mind and affect your mental health.

Bottom line?

Don’t exercise at your desk!

Strap on your favorite stilettos while you sit peacefully at your desk, cranking out your best work.

Strap on your favorite stilettos

Or throw on your favorite slippers.

These are shoes… but they look like slippers:

These are Steve Madden Shoes... but they look like slippers

Sort of the perfect meet-in-the-middle.

Going Green by Rescuing “stuff” from the garbage

Reduce.

Reuse.

Refuse.

Repair.

Rescue!!!

Alex found those pink Steve Maddens in the garbage. BRAND NEW and in a designer shopping bag with a bunch of books, beautiful glass vase and a plastic vacuumed-sealed box of baby diapers. They were all gently lowered into the dumpster in our communal garbage room. (I can only assume because the glass vase was intact.) So Lx gently lifted that bag out of the bin and left the brand new box of diapers on a bench in the children’s play area across the street from us. They were gone the next day. Yay! That BRAND NEW Nikey black running shoe, size 6, that I’m holding in the picture at the top (where I look like I’m in a Palmolive commercial circa 1984), was a rescued item too.

That black running shoe, six 6, I'm holding was a rescued item too

And when you’re NOT working, keep exercise simple

Remember the exercise part of the GOLD Standard Routine (GSR):

Carve out three,
25 minute windows to get your heart ❤️ rate up
each week.

& add activity to the on-the-move things
you’re already doing each day.

…Like take the ACTIVE choices when going from A. to B.

Push a door instead of a button.

C’est tout!

Keep it simple.

Your body and mind will thank you.

Another way your body and mind will THANK YOU when you no longer exercise at your desk

…and instead, get into a personalized GSR?

One of the gals in my group program said that when she first started exercising she had so much more energy that she was having trouble sleeping at night. WOW! I love that reflection because sometimes what STOPS people from exercising is feeling like they don’t have enough energy. But you GET energy from working out.

Then she said what she loves about exercising is that after she feels a little, um, smug.

I LOVE IT!

It’s so true.

Exercise is not always fun or something you want to do… but the 100’s of benefits you get from exercising are so worth it. And one of them is that aside from your 3 X 25 minute workouts, you get to feel smug the other 166.5 hours of the week. Hooray!

Along with feeling smug, here’s more benefits of exercise:

Along with feeling smug, here's more benefits of exercise

The above pic is from my book.

I always tell people to rip it out and put it on their fridge 🙂

For my next edition I’m definitely adding “get to feel smug” as a benefit from moving your body each day!

Rest days are key to unlocking your HAPPY weight

Easy Exercise Routine - THE LIFE

I exercise Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

Breaks between exercise allow your muscles to build and repair so you can get all the benefits of exercise.

Work WITH your body!

I explain all that in my book that shares The 3 Steps that unlocked my HAPPY weight.

More evidence you don’t have to exercise at your desk

Check out my other blog posts, like:

What does a healthy exercise routine look like? here
How do I motivate myself to exercise? here
Why a little bit of exercise is practically as good as the perfect amount. here
Why an obsessive exercise routine won’t help you lose weight. here

And here’s a link to all my posts about exercise.

And, oh ya, laughing gets your heart ❤️ rate up too!

Here’s a funny bit about Victoria Beckham’s husband. It’s so worth your time…

OMG I can’t stop watching it!

Side Note:
David Beckham has OCD (like me! I wrote about it for my University’s paper.)

And he’s successfully focused that drive into something he’s passionate about.

Beckham was a product of Sir Alex Ferguson’s hard-working approach at Manchester United. Ferguson said that Beckham “practised with a discipline to achieve an accuracy that other players wouldn’t care about.” Beckham reportedly spent hours practising his free kicks after training sessions had ended.
– Wikipedia

Which is why:

Beckham has a total of 65 goals from set-pieces in his career [and 100’s from non-set pieces]. His free-kick to take England to the 2002 FIFA World Cup is still cherished as one of the best moments in English football.
-sportzpoint (dot) com

I mean, he can even score from midfield.

Do you warm up before work? I think that might be the video to watch to get you in the mindset of focusing, taking risks & going after pure joy.

So I want to know:

If you could free-up your energy from dieting, and get into a rock-solid eating and exercise routine you feel confident about, where would you redirect all that high-achiever energy?

Got questions about: Should I exercise at my desk?

Leave’em in the comments below!

I’d love to write back to you.

PS Do you feel smug when you exercise? You should!
Kelly Clark

 

 

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