Keeping fit at work may seem hard, especially if you have a desk job in a cubicle. However, there are some things you can do that can make the difference between becoming pear-shaped and restoring your youthful form and fitness.

Eating Well and Enjoying It
First, bring your lunch to work. Include raw fruits and veggies as well as small cubes of part-skim mozzarella cheese, cans of low-sodium V-8 juice, a water bottle that you can refill throughout the day and, if you really have to have a sandwich, choose whole-grain bread. Bring along fresh spinach in a separate baggie, and put it in the office fridge till you're ready to eat. I recommend Smart Balance margarine substitute or Smart Balance mayonnaise, both of which help keep your good cholesterol up and bad cholesterol down if used in place of other fatty spreads. You can use your mozzarella cheese cubes with veggies on whole grain bread or in a whole grain pita pocket; the melted cheese keeps the contents from falling out.

Always include a few walnuts and almonds. Five large human epidemiological studies, all found that nut consumption is linked to a lower risk for heart disease. Researchers estimated that substituting nuts for an equivalent amount of carbohydrate in an average diet resulted in a 30% reduction in heart disease risk. Researchers calculated even more impressive risk reduction-45%-when fat from nuts was substituted for saturated fats ( primarily found in meat and dairy products). http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&d bid=20

I suggest putting aside the nuts, some celery sticks and perhaps baby carrots for when you get the munchies (assuming that you're crunching doesn't drive your coworkers crazy.) This also keeps you from eating a large meal at one time, which causes discomfort and stretching of the stomach. If you need a concentrated sweet to restore alertness, keep on hand some of the recently developed soft, pitted prunes which come in flavors such as Orange Essence. Eat no more than five per day. (For another treat, see my upcoming article on guilt-free chocolate cookies.) When selecting the foods to take with you to work, check packages and online nutritional values to make sure the total for the day does not contain an excess of calories. You soon will get into the rhythm of buying and assembling the foods you love, that are good for you.

If your employer maintains an exercise room for employees, take advantage of it! Either way, there are things

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