As someone who loves being a homebody, the first few months of the pandemic weren’t that bad for me. I was renting with colleagues at a fancy apartment in an affluent neighborhood in Delhi, the house was spacious, I had my cat and my colleagues and the occasional friends for company. However, the homebody lifestyle quickly made me sporadically active instead of the hourly walks and the daily commute that kept my NEAT soaring.
NEAT or Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis is the energy our body expends doing every day tasks ( excluding sleeping, eating or sports like exercises). It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing, performing yard work, undertaking agricultural tasks and fidgeting. Even trivial physical activities increase metabolic rate substantially and it is the cumulative impact of a multitude of exothermic actions that culminate in an individual’s daily NEAT( Source: NCBI.nlm).
Additionally, the pandemic induced lockdown ensured we had to take care of all the housework too. Cooking and cleaning and the maintenance. To add to that, the unending Zoom meetings ( which I think people used to resort to as an emotional crutch more than work related matters) kept us on our toes and videos which meant we were ordering in most days.
I am also an emotional eater which I used as a crutch quite liberally during the extended lockdown and before my wedding( which also happened at the peak of the second wave in India).
These changes brought on some tangible consequences: one of which was me adding around 15 kgs to my petite frame.
I am still trying to lose the pandemic era weight which has made my body its permanent home.
I workout everyday and have taken to strength training recently ( and I can see the results too); I have also adopted time restricted eating( sunrise to sunset) but I still have a long way to go to get back to my 2019 shape.
I was recently recommended a book called The Obesity Code by Jason Fung and I have finally got it but yet to start reading it.
Apart from my weight gain, I believe employers are now more open to the idea of remote work, something that was frowned upon before Covid 19. Although, I believe in the importance of in person interface in workplace, I think remote work, if brewed in a culture of trust and open communication would yield great returns for organizations.
But while that’s great and an increasing number of individuals are working remotely, my appeal would be to not overlook the importance of NEAT and mindful eating. By taking care of these two things, we can thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of remote work while prioritizing our well-being in the long term.
Fingers in symphony 