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Statistics for Sustainable Development > Blog > Healthy Living: The Neglected Miracle Cure
Healthy Living: The Neglected Miracle Cure
"If exercise were a pill, it would be one of the most cost-effective drugs ever invented" - Dr Cavill
Healthy living is becoming an increasingly important issue, especially if you enjoy a busy office life. With the easy option being to eat convenient, unhealthy food and to stay glued to your computer screen, there’s a greater chance that you will slip into a lifestyle which could be detrimental to your health. The definition of ‘healthy’ differs from person to person. It could be: never taking a sick day, being able to run a 5k in the park or training for a marathon. However, attaining a healthy lifestyle is a key element to achieving any physical and mental well-being goal.
A combination of a good well-balanced diet and sufficient exercise, a healthy lifestyle is simple! There are numerous benefits to pursuing your own healthy lifestyle goals. Here are a few:
- ·
It helps boost your immune system and can help
reduce your risk of chronic illness by up to 50%
- ·
Reduces stress
- ·
Promotes better mental health
- ·
Encourages a better night’s sleep
- ·
Helps maintain a healthy BMI (Body Mass Index)
- · Releases endorphins - the happy chemical!
In a busy working life, it’s very easy to let healthy habits slip into unhealthy ones. At Stats4SD we do our best to promote healthy lifestyles in the workplace. The importance of balance is key to our philosophy of a healthy lifestyle. For example, we keep our fruit bowls stocked up, but we also hold wine and cheese nights every so often! Living a healthy lifestyle does not mean you can’t enjoy an indulgence now and again (like we do with our wine and cheese) but it’s finding that balance and moderation that is key.
Though the fruit bowl stays stocked up, we do also like a bit of wine and cheese from time to time...
One of the biggest problems is that everyone forgets the
benefits of getting enough exercise and therefore does not prioritise a healthy
lifestyle. Pursuing this does not mean you have to spend two hours in the gym
every day and eating a rabbit’s diet! Here are some tips of small changes you
can make to increase healthy living in a busy office life:
· Move more! Increasing your number of steps in a
day can make a huge difference. It’s as simple as walking to work, taking the
stairs or popping out for 20 minutes on your lunch break
·
Make sure you take regular breaks from the
computer screen
·
Drink lots of water – the NHS recommend at least
8 glasses a day
· Try to be aware of the kinds of food you are eating. Just make sure that you have a good balance of all the right foods, and everything is in moderation
Stats4SD also understands that everyone has different lives
and commitments, so we offer flexible working hours to all our staff.
Recent studies have shown that staff who work flexible hours are often more
productive and efficient[1].
Staff are also less likely to take days off due to stress and are more likely
to be happy in their jobs as they have greater control over their work-life
balance[2].
To build on this, and other healthy living initiatives we have, we've continued our commitment to the cause by organising a step challenge for the week to try and get everyone's step count up. It was great to see so
many of us get involved!
Me with my Fitbit, racking up the step count
Nicolas turned our results into interesting graphs (see below). The first one shows the range of steps for the team, for each day, using boxplots with the black curve showing the average. Collectively, we dropped off a bit on Wednesday and Thursday, but picked it up again on Friday – where we all tried to make an effort to win the competition! The second graph shows our cumulative average for the week. Most days we fell a bit short of 10,000 average steps per day though made up for it at the end of the week! On average, we managed to do more than 50,000 steps in 5 days - an excellent team effort!
The cumulative average number of steps
We felt so inspired by our challenge that Stats4SD have
decided to set ourselves a new challenge and do a collective (virtual) walk to Nairobi, which
is about 9800km! Once we have reached our destination, Stats4SD will donate
£500 to a selected charity (TBC). We will be having different incentives and
challenges along the way to keep us all motivated, not to mention keeping us
all fit and healthy!
We will be updating our trip on our social media so keep watching our space and we hope to inspire many other healthy journeys.
[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/flexible-working-hours-jobs-productivity-economy-uk-business-a8666241.html
Author: Shannon Mullen
Shannon joined Stats4SD in November 2018 and works across the whole team in supporting and managing administrative tasks such as invoicing and expenses. She is also a third-year student at Reading University studying History and International Relations. The role has enabled Shannon to develop her administrative skills and apply them to a business and finance-based role.
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