Five key ways an IT professional can keep their body and mind healthy

There is a common stereotype that IT workers are either overweight or generally unfit due to the fact their profession involves little physical activity beyond moving around an office space.

It's certainly true that sitting in the same place facing an artificially lit screen for 6-8 hours a day can have a negative impact on your overall health if you don't offset it with diet and exercise.

However, finding the time and motivation to pursue a new diet or workout regime is not always a simple endeavour.

With that said, it's nonetheless important that you find ways to keep your body healthy while working a full-time desk job.

One of the big problems IT workers face is trying to ensure they are eating nutritious meals on their lunch breaks.

If you find yourself heading down to the nearest takeaway shop every lunchtime, you are probably not eating as healthily as you could be and are losing money at the same time.

Luckily, a meal-kit delivery service will allow you to have fresh ingredients delivered to your home or workplace so that you can cook healthy meals yourself.

This kind of service works by delivering pre-portioned ingredients for your meals along with simple cooking instructions and allows you to put together amazing dishes like this goat cheese and pesto spaghetti.

An uncomfortable desk chair is the bane of many an IT worker's existence as it causes them to adopt an awkward posture which can cause painful back issues.

It's best to stop this problem before it manifests in the form of back pain by making sure you invest in an ergonomic desk chair that suits your eye height so that you don't need to strain or bend in order to see what's on the screen in front of you.

A lack of physical stimulation is what causes a lot of IT workers to put on weight as they are not burning as much energy as they are consuming to get through the day.

Making sure you get up and walk around for a few minutes every hour or so, as this helps keep your body alert and allows you to re-focus before jumping back into your work.

Depending on your role and the culture of the company you work at, it might be acceptable for you to tune into your favourite music or a podcast while you're typing away.

If you're spending a long time doing a repetitive task, then it would probably make it feel like less of an ordeal if you had something else to entertain you in the background.

In order to offset the lack of physical activity demanded by your desk job, it makes sense to pursue some kind of physical exercise every day.

For some people this is as simple as a 20-minute jog in the morning, while for others it's an entire gym session during their lunch break.

20-30 minutes of physical exercise every day can make a huge difference not only to your fitness but your emotional health as well.

Find an exercise that works for you and try to stick with it every single day.