Fitness is a marathon, not a sprint, and over a sustained period of time, it’s the small things that add up to make a big difference. A spoonful less sugar in your coffee, getting off the bus a stop early, going for a walk on a sunday - all of these things add up fast.

But for people who work with computers, finding out where to start can be a problem. Late nights are endemic, and coffee almost a job requirement for a techy who wants to keep going all day. Takeaways provide a nice, easy, convenient source of food, and sport is often a foreign concept. The proportion of smokers seems higher (to me, anyway) among geeks than the population at large.

If it sounds like I’m promoting a stereotype, that’s because essentially I am. Most of the geeks I know, myself included (although I’m working to change), fit that stereotype fairly well.

For the geek, though, all is by no means lost - there are plenty of things that will improve health and fitness that don’t require a radical departure from the norm. This list may even prove a half-decent starting point for the geek looking to make a change - 5 tips for a healthier lifestyle, all written with the geek in mind.

1. Subscribe to and Read Fitness and Health Blogs

   It seems to be widely accepted that people who surround themselves with rich people tend to become richer. The same with fit people, artistic people and geeky people. Maybe it’s some sort of personality diffusion. Anyway, the more time you spend with fit people, the more of their habits you will take on.

   The same applies, to an extent, to reading about fitness. The more you read about health and fitness, the more you will learn. The more habits you find out about, the more you will adopt yourself. There are thousands of people writing about health and fitness, and the more quality content you read, the better equipped and more motivated you will be to spot opportunities for improvement in your own health and fitness.

2. Write Your Own Health and Fitness Blog

   Standing up and saying publically what you want to do and why, and talking about your progress, can be quite rewardig. It’s certainly worked for me so far! Readers will be able to offer their opinion on your plans, and give you much-needed encouragement. If you have the discipline to keep a blog going (something I’ve not done spectacularly well with so far) then you’ll get out of it far more than you put in.

3. Use Online Tools and Trackers

   There are lots and lots of online tools out there to help keep you on-course. One of the hardest things to do when trying to make changes to your lifestyle is to identify where to make them - that requires some fairly meticulous tracking, of diet and exercise for example. And when you start becoming more active, you may well want to see how your progress improves over time.

   The advantage of online trackers is that they can be integrated with your other online tools. Calendars can read iCal and RSS feeds from your tools, and email reminders to keep up to date can be sent to your inbox or via RSS to your feed reader. Even your phone can become an ally when you get your computer involved in your fitness.

   traineo
   traineo calls itself a fitness and weight loss community, but I’ve used it more for its tracking abilities than anything else. Unlike most exercise trackers, this doesn’t overwhelm you with demands for detail about every piece of exercise you do - it tracks what you did, for how long, and how hard it was, and then converts that into a simplistic calorie counter. It can also track your weight over time if you like, and there are forums packed with all levels to chat to.

   Joe’s Goals
   Joe’s Goals bills itself as a free online habit tracker, and its beauty is its simplicity. Create an account, and define what you want to do, or not do, on what days. The site will then present you with a calendar, and you simply tick off the items you do (or don’t) perform each day. The site will email you to remind you to fill it out if you’ve not been there in a while. Dead easy.

   SparkPeople
   If you can stomach the vast swathes of advertising and the overly detailed signup process, then SparkPeople might be useful for you - it has one of the best nutrition tracking systems I’ve seen yet. It includes a distinct water tracker (for those trying to get through 8 glasses a day), huge numbers of recommended meal plans and plenty of information about different food types. It also includes exercise tracking, forums and weight tracking - a quite complete setup.

   FetchEveryone
   FetchEveryone is a running-specific site, with a great community and lots of bloggers hidden away (no RSS and readers must log in … seriously guys, it’s 2008). It allows you to track your running performance and training in incredible detail. I include this primarily because it’s a great site to start using if you are considering running the Couch to 5k Plan, or if you have finished the plan.

4. Go Gadget-Mad!

   Most geeks are obsessed with gadgets, and there are some very cool ones out there for those wanting to try a more technologically sophisticated approach to health.

   The best of the bunch may well be a Wii (especially when Wii Fit becomes available) - it encourages more activity and motion than other computer games and, while it won’t work magic by itself, when combined with other small changes can make a big difference.

   Nike have released Nike+, an automated tracking system for runners that uses your iPod nano to help keep you going and track your progress.

   There are even such things as bluetooth weight scales, accelerometers, watches that do everything but run for you - a huge range of gadgets. And of course, once you’ve invested, you have another motivation to get up off the couch!

5. Improve Your Desk Life

   Assuming you work at a desk, as many geeks do, there are plenty of things you can do to turn this part of your life to your advantage. Sitting on a gym ball, for example, while it might look a little silly, is great for your body as it forces you to maintain your balance through the day and therefore work muscles that otherwise would do nothing. There are also lots of stretches you can do at your desk (surreptitiously if you like) that improve your blood flow.

   Drinking water instead of soft drinks is a major positive at work, as well as eating healthy snacks instead of biscuits or mars bars.

   Finally, get away from your desk! Most geeks I know work through their breaks and lunch breaks. However, taking a break every couple of hours to go for a five minute walk, and getting out and getting some fresh air at lunchtime will not only improve your health, it will help you to concentrate when you are working, as well as de-stress and deal better with the day’s challenges.

6. Bonus! Avoid Stereotypical Geek Behaviour

   Just because your stereotypical geek stays up till 4am writing code (or whatever other geeky pastime keeps them up late), gets up late, avoids breakfast, smokes like a chimney, eats tonnes of pizza and drinks lots of caffeinated drinks, doesn’t mean that you, as a geek, are letting the side down if you don’t do the same.

   It took me about a year to cure that short list above, and I feel much better for it. I still write lots of code, still love my gadgets, still find plenty of time to spend with my XBox 360 and Wii to make sure they don’t get lonely - still a bit of a geek by all accounts. But a slightly fitter geek.

Most of the adult population will have been celebrating in some small way for the last few days. Some may still be nursing hangovers, having overdone the beer/spirits/champagne.

Peer pressure issues aside, it’s not actually easy to find a healthy alternative drink in the pub. Sure, there are other drinks than beer or JD and coke, but most are still bad for you. Fruit juices are very high in sugar and while fine in moderate quantities are not really suitable for drinking by the pint. Some wines are ok, but reds are no good over a glass or so.

5. White Spirits

That’s spirits, plural, not spirit. Don’t go getting confused.

White spirits like vodka, gin and bacardi are generally comparitively very low in calories. Cocktails (low-sugar ones) and with mixers are both ok.

4. Dry White Wine

Of the wines, dry whites tend to be the lowest in calories. Most pubs in Britain now not only sell wines, but they even take the time to teach their staff the differences between their wines.

3. Bitter

If you’ve got to have a pint (and remember, nobody is forcing you) then stick with draught bitter. It’s usually significantly lower in calories than lagers and other by-the-pint drinks. Some of them even taste good too.

2. Diet Soda

Diet coke tastes awful. There’s no arguing on this one - it’s dire. However, if you can stomach it (or the myraid of alternative “diet” drinks), it’s very low calorie and you can drink it pretty much guilt-free. There is some debate about whether the aspartame in diet coke is bad for you - you have been warned.

1. Water!

Yup, they sell/serve water in bars and pubs. With ice, with cordials … plenty of options, and all very low calorie. True, it’s not exciting, but most people don’t drink enough water and you could save yourself burning off a serious quantity of calories by replacing just a few beers with water on a regular basis.

Christmas is a tough time for most people, both financially and in terms of health. Too much expense, too much booze, too much food, too many late nights … you have to wonder why we still bother. I’m sure it all use to be fun.

I’ve long thought the people who jet off to a nice beach somewhere have the right idea - avoid the whole thing. But for those of us without a ticket to paradise, there’s still plenty you can do to avoid spending the next couple of weeks hungover and starting the new year with a few extra pounds.

1. Drink Smart!

Between office christmas parties and glass after glass of mulled wine, port, sherry, champagne, you’ll be lucky to avoid some nasty hangovers and awkward moments in the following weeks. You can avoid over-doing it with just a few simple tricks.

First, drink a soft drink to start the evening. Most people are thirsty when they first arrive at a party and so their first drink vanishes quickly. That one will go to your head faster than the others too (which just sets you up for an over-the-top evening). Quench your genuine thirst first, before you start on the alcohol.

Next, alternate your drinks. You’ll still have plenty of alcoholic drinks in the space of a night but you’ll end up keeping yourself better hydrated (alcohol dehydrates you), and drinking slower.

Finally, when you do drink, aim for lower alcohol and/or volume where possible. Drink bottles of beer instead of pints. Half-fill each glass of wine (there’s plenty more).

Chances are that with just those few changes (most of which you’ll barely notice during the evening) you’ll end up drinking a third of the quantity of alcohol you otherwise would. You can still embarrass yourself if you like, but you’ll at least avoid the hangover and so the following day won’t be wasted.

2. Make Time For Yourself

With all of the rushing around, travelling, cooking and last-minute shopping, it’s very easy to forget to take a few minutes to relax. Don’t fill every day up. Most people take time off work around now, so make sure you spend at least a little bit of that on you. Your family will still be there, and still be happy to see you, in January. You don’t have to see everyone in a week!

3. Avoid Financial Stress: Spend Within Your Limits

Nothing will make christmas worse than stress, especially if it’s caused by money worries. If you spend too much, you might well end up worrying about money for the whole of christmas instead of enjoying it and relaxing. Quality time with family is never quality time if your mind is on your finances and you’re stressed because you don’t know how you’ll cope.

There are plenty of ways to spend less on presents, from making them yourself to shopping around for a bargain. Even charity shops can be a help if needed. Spreading the cost out can help, but putting presents on credit cards is disastrous. There are people out there still paying for presents they bought last year. If you need to put it on a credit card, you can’t afford it - buy something else (or nothing at all - friends and family are understanding people).

4. Eat Slowly

You’ll spend a lot of time in the next few weeks with mountains of food in front of you. Plates piled to the ceiling. Enough gravy to swim in. Eat everything put in front of you and you’ll put on a lot of weight in a very short space of time. That’s not too hard to avoid though. Drink a glass of water before you start eating, and talk to the people around you. Chances are your brain will realise you’re full before you finish eating.

If that’s not working, or too much trouble, don’t fall into the trap of trying to undo the damage by making a new year’s resolution to do more exercise. They never work. Instead, look at ways to make sustainable changes to your lifestyle. Those few extra pounds you add in december will go, in time, and you don’t need to do much to make that happen.

5. Get Some Sleep

Between getting up at 5am to cook turkey and going to sleep at 5am after a christmas party, your body takes quite a battering over christmas. You’ll be more active than usual, do more travelling than usual, and eat and drink more than usual. You will most certainly have more late nights and early starts than usual. Make a point of getting a good night’s sleep, every night. If you can’t, then a powernap once in a while will help you avoid feeling lethargic and tired.

Bonus: 6. Pig Out (and Watch TV)

That might sound counter-productive, but as bad as worrying about money over christmas is worrying about your health, counting ever calorie, measuring every drink. It’s a chance to relax, unwind and enjoy yourself, not to put so many limits on yourself you can’t have a good time. Eat, drink and be merry, just try to be smart about it!

Rest days are critical (or so I hear) to a good exercise regimen. If you exercise every day, you run a higher risk of injury (as you give your body no significant time to recover) and I suspect you are also likely to end up missing out on real life - there is more to it than just exercise.

Of course, there are plenty of people who like to feel they are doing something constructive on those days, to counter feelings of laziness or missed opportunities. There might also be a nice hour or half-hour gap in your schedule to fill, occupied by exercise on other days (especially if regular exercise has helped you adopt a better daily routine). So to help you feel like you aren’t wasting this time, here are 5 suggestions for ways to fill it.

5. Nap

You might not see this as constructive, but your body does. This is, after all, a rest day. Sleep, by the way, is incredibly important for good health and recovery.

If you usually exercise in the mornings, get up later on rest days and enjoy a more leisurely breakfast. Make yourself something unusual for breakfast (oooh … waffles!) or just unwind for a few minutes. Maybe make and keep an appointment with yourself.

If your gap is in the evenings then the same applies. Take a bit more time cooking dinner. Go to bed early. Watch a movie.

Whatever you do, make sure it’s relaxing and rewarding. You’ve earned it.

4. Cook

I assume you have a job - many people do. And at that job, the chances are you need to eat food. Lunch, of some description. A huge number of people eat junk food for lunch, or buy rubbish overpriced sandwiches from nearby shops. If you have an hour, you can make yourself enough food to last you several days worth of lunches - decent, homemade food.

I’m not going to go into detail with recipes, but personally I try to make dishes that are easy to reheat and tasty. Bolognaise, Chilli con Carne, Tuna Pasta, Chicken and Rice, Fruit Salads, Pasta or Tomato Salads (check out WebMD’s 10 Tips and Tricks for Healthy Summer Salads), Potato Salads … the list is huge. It’s cheaper than buying when at work, it tastes better than anything I can buy near work, and I know exactly what I’m eating. What could be better?

3. Review

Most people’s needs change over time. In my case, I am starting to undo the effects of years of desk work and bacon. I have a plan than currently involves playing squash, improving what I eat, and jogging. That plan is unlikely to be ideal for me forever. If you have a short space of time to occupy, maybe spend it looking at what you eat, and when, and how you exercise, and when.

It might be that when you decided to start going to the gym you wanted to increase your strength - but maybe you’ve reached your goals there and need new ones. Maybe it’s your stamina you want to improve next. Maybe you have a specific event you are training for now, and your existing routine isn’t making the best use of your time. Maybe you’re not eating enough or eating too late in the day. Maybe you don’t have goals at all (I’d recommend setting yourself some, even if they seem trivial - helps to keep you motivated).

2. DIY

There are few things as satisfying as doing things yourself. And a bit of time in the evening (or maybe the morning) can be enough to get some shelves up, or fix a leaky tap, or give your car a quick checkup - all those small jobs you’ve been putting off.

Few of these things are stressful, and almost all home projects along these lines will give you a sense of accomplishment - helping you to feel you’ve not wasted time.

1. Read or Write

If you have an hour a couple of times a week, it might be that that is all the time you have to yourself, especially if you work long hours or commute, and even more so if you have a family.

You already have a nice slot of time to yourself on days you exercise though, so make sure you keep that slot of time for you on the days you don’t. Read a book (something most people claim to not have time to do), or write something (letters, diary, even a book - though I’m recommend staying away from a computer).

Mental strength is as important as, if not more important than, physical strength. Occupy and improve your mind on the days you give your body a break.

And finally …

There’s no reason you necessarily need do only one of these on all your rest days. Mix them up! Personally, I’m trying to get in the habit of reviewing things once a month and the rest of the time I cook or get up late and have a nice breakfast. Mostly I get up later. As a commuter I get to read on the train - otherwise I would certainly spend the time doing that.

Images courtesy of MorgueFile.

There’s just no denying it - the worst thing about starting down the road to better health is that it involves, at some point, avoiding a few stops in snack town. For many desk-bound geeks, cutting out the snacks is one of the fastest, easiest and most beneficial things it is possible to do.

Cookies, drinks, chocolate - all these things must be avoided - or at least consumed in serious moderation - if your aim is to trim off a few pounds. Some foods, more than others, must be avoided at almost any cost. These are the most fattening - and also, of course, the very tastiest - of the snacks that I have encountered during my years of slothful decadence. They are the ones that - just occasionally - I shed a nostalgic tear for.

10. Toffee Crisp

12.2g of fat per 44g bar. 227 calories. Takes the equivalent of approximately 12 hours of solid knitting to burn off.

Nestle’s Toffee Crisp is a work of art. Definitely at the “lighter” end of the chocolate bar market, it is composed of crisped rice bound with caramel and encased in a milk chocolate shell.

[Aside: My mouth is actually watering and I’ve only written the first of ten items … not good.]

9. Frazzles

5.8g of fat per pack. 121 calories. If you’re going to snack at all, these might not be a bad choice!

Smiths Bacon flavoured Frazzles are pure class. Let’s face it - anything that tastes like pig is good. Not only that, but these beauties actually taste of bacon - a rare treat among crisps that claim to taste of bacon.

8. Coca-Cola

139 calories per 330ml can. Almost all sugar. Might not sound like much, but for a drink that’s high.

Coke really needs no introduction. Unfortunately, though I know it’s bad for me, I drink it once in a while. It really is something I know I should avoid, but it does taste good. Damn that coke. I tried Diet Coke but that made be want to burn my own tongue so I didn’t have to taste it any more.

7. Cadbury Caramel

2.1g of fat per 50g bar. 240 calories. Not bad for a chocolate snack, that’ll still cost you a couple of hours brisk walking.

Surprisingly the only entrant from the mighty Cadbury on the list, the Caramel is easily the nicest of the Cadbury brand of bars. Each carefully crafted piece of chocolate conceals within itself a lake of caramel. Decadent. Delicious. Mmmm, caramel.

Unfortunately, it seems it is almost impossible to find the original Caramel these days. The only ones I seem to be able to find are the gigantic Dairy Milk with Caramel things. Not nearly as good.

6. Twix

24.4g of fat per 100g bar. 493 calories. That’s a couple of hours on the bike.

Twix from the Mars people is a caramel, cookie and chocolate bar, and an old favourite of mine. You get two sticks per pack (which means a greater surface area of chocolate covering than some comparable snacks), and a classic, honed-to-perfection-over-time taste. Can’t go wrong with Twix.

5. Yorkie

21.5g of fat per 68g bar. 367 calories. You’ll need to spend about an hour chopping wood (or something else equally manly) to use up that many calories.

Nestle’s Yorkie Bars have been going for 31 years. That’s impressive by any standards. You can understand why though - they’re just big chunks of pure chocolate. No messing around. The Yorkie is definitely Man Chocolate. Not for girls.

4. Ben Shaws Cloudy Lemonade

I couldn’t find any nutritional info for this. It seems Ben Shaws, the company, is rather behind the times. Their website is dire, and completely lacking useful content. Never mind though - I buy drinks because they taste nice, not because the manufacturer has a decent site.

A lesser known contender, Ben Shaws Cloudy Lemonade is an older-fashioned lemonade and a perfect drink for a hot summer day.

3. KitKat Chunky Peanut Butter

15.8g of fat per 50g bar. 269 calories. Around an hour of social badminton will counter the effect of one of these beauties.

Nestle’s next entrant in the top is something of a newcomer to the chocolate snack market. What it lacks in history and experience though, it makes up in explosive taste. KitKat was already the UK’s best selling brand of chocolate bar, and this new variation doesn’t stray far from the tried and tested formula. It is simply a KitKat chunky with a layer of peanut butter inside - and it tastes just as great as it sounds.

2. Maryland Cookies

2.6g of fat per cookie. 56 calories. Unfortunately, there are around 18 of these little beauties in a pack, for a mighty 900 calories per pack. To balance that kind of calorific content, you’re looking at 3 solid hours of squash. It is SO worth it.

McVities might have been trying to get themselves into the cookie market recently, but Maryland Cookies from Burton’s Foods still has this market completely sown up. These cookies are made of happiness, dreams and love. And chocolate chips. It is an oft-lamented fact - proven repeatedly in labs - that it is impossible to eat only a portion of a pack. It’s all or nothing.

Also available in - gulp - Double Chocolate.

1. Jaffa Cakes

0.97g of fat per 12g cake. 46 calories. There are 12 in a pack (552 calories, or 2 to 3 hours of running). So if … ok, when … you finish the pack, you have in fact eaten 12 whole cakes.

McVities might not own the cookie market, but that’s only because Jaffa Cakes are not considered cookies - they are cakes. More precisely, they are chocolate-covered sponge cakes with a “smashing orangey bit”, and damn are they tasty.

In 1991 McVities got themselves embroiled in a legal fight with the UK tax man to prove that Jaffa Cakes were actually cakes (which are not subject to VAT) and not cookies (which are). How did they win? They baked a giant one to prove the Jaffa Cakes were simply miniature cakes and not biscuits. Genius.

They, unsurprisingly, also have released variations of the product including Blackcurrant, Lemon and Lime and the awesome “Completely Covered in Chocolate” Jaffa Cakes.

And that’s it for the top 10. If I can last the rest of the day without heading to the nearest shop to pick up a truckload of the above to stuff my face with, it will be nothing short of a miracle.