Freelancing makes you fat
But planning ahead (or working in an office) can help
IT’S 3 p.m. on a winter afternoon, and it’s time for me to take a quick tour of the fridge. I swipe a soup-spoonful of mac ’n’ cheese left over from the kids’ lunch, a Swedish meatball and a doggy bag of Peter Luger steak. I’m now ready to hunker down and work for a few hours before enjoying a pre-dinner victory lap through the kitchen.
Working from home as a freelancer may be all the rage, but newbies beware: With cupboards and refrigerators always beckoning, croissant-studded coffee bars a short stroll away, and extra time for luxe lunches, you will get fat.
Before starting my staff gig at The Post in February, I had worked from home for most of my career. At my peak, I tipped the scales at nearly 250 pounds before settling in at 238, which was my weight right before I went full-time.
Back then, I was able to wear sweatpants to my “office,” and nobody minded. And even though I had a gym membership, the Park Slope YMCA was six long blocks away, and I preferred spending my spare time in bookstores and pizzerias.
I should have taken the hint when I crossed the street one morning last fall and some wiseguy in a car shouted, “Hey, it’s Michael Moore!” (OK, my hair had grown out a bit and I was wearing a baseball cap, but still.)
Working from home isn’t a license to stuff your face with leftovers. Nikki Ostrower, founder of NAO Nutrition & Wellness in the West Village, suggests that freelancers try meal-prepping for a few days. “Go for seasonal salads with protein left over from dinner, have one portion and don’t go back for seconds,” she says.
Too bad I didn’t know that then. But fulltime office employment did give my eating habits some much-needed structure — plus close proximity to a gym, less time for lunch and a fridge that isn’t stocked with my family’s day-olds.
Never mind the old saw about people getting fat because they have sedentary office jobs — there is a way to lose weight while jockeying a desk. And although I’m still too quick to snack on the odd box of doughnuts that filter into the office, I try sticking to fruit and yogurt during the day.
My goal is to arrive at the office early three times a week in order to hit the gym for at least 45 minutes of cardio, augmented by occasional personal-training sessions and a run or two over the weekend.
The result: My 6-foot-1 frame is now down to a healthier 208 pounds (give or take 5-pound fluctuations) — 25 to 30 pounds lighter than when I started — and the clothing I bought for the office now hangs loose on my body.
Not that everyone’s noticed. On a recent trip to Atlantic City, NJ, while riding a casino’s down escalator, a goofball going up pointed at me and said, “Hey, it’s Tom Arnold!” I’ll assume my eyeglasses threw him off. Just wait until the guy sees me after I implement Phase 2 of the work-hard-eat-light diet plan, which will have me shedding an additional 20 pounds and hitting my college weight.
Hopefully he won’t mistake me for Steve Buscemi.