by Catherine L. Tully
Being a writer means you sit a lot. Sitting a lot means you can’t eat a lot. If you do, you’ll gain weight. It’s just the way it goes. Contrary to popular belief, calories in and calories out are the two main things to think about when you battle the pounds that want to creep up on your writer’s body. The good news? You can fight it. The bad news? It takes some work. Here are a few suggestions for you that can help:
+ Don’t use up calories on beverages. Drink water, sparkling water, coffee, tea (no sugar) or something like that. Pop and juice add big time calories.
+ Keep low-cal snacks handy. Don’t buy junk food–you’ll eat it. Instead, get things such as fruit, veggies and low-fat yogurt to snack on. String cheese isn’t bad either. And don’t snack mindlessly. It’s easy to put away a lot of food if you are just eating while writing. If you’re going to snack, stop writing, eat, then go back to it.
+ Move it. Sitting all day means you are barely burning any calories. Get up and walk. Do stairs. Lift hand weights. Do anything other than sit all day. If you can build in some actual exercise, great. If not, then just do something small, but do something.
+ Chew gum. Gum is a great tool. It keeps your mouth happy and it doesn’t really add a significant amount of calories either. A great partner in the battle against the bulge.
If you have any good tips to share–now’s the time! We all have the same challenge here, and if you can help out a fellow writer, Karma will be more likely to smile on you. Come on…share your secrets.
I currently do all this instead of exercise, but after my 30 day challenge of avoiding most forms of sugar, I plan to add a habit of taking a morning walk. It’s easy to set up positive healthy habits with 30 day trials, if you have difficulty maintaining it initially. (Learned all about this neat little tool from Steve Pavlina and I’ve already made several positive lifestyle changes with it.)
I tried with gum but without much success. 🙂
30 day trials really work for some people! Keep swingin’ Matt!
Gum doesn’t work for everybody, but if you keep trying new things, you’ll eventually connect with something that does work for you. 🙂
There are a lot of good reasons for writers to exercise in the morning. It can help add structure to your day, put you in a goal-setting mindset, and give you a sense of accomplishment that can be a great motivator. It gives you energy as well. For me, there are so many similarities between writing and exercise (they both require goal setting, they are both better when done regularly, they both require discipline) that I feel like exercise is an important part of the process.
Shelly,
I agree 100%!