Can you really lose weight at your desk? Give this a definite yes. Dr. James Levine at the Mayo Clinic showed that you can walk on a treadmill at about 1 mile per hour without interfering with your ability to do your office work. Although he was not overweight, he shed pounds when he started to use the treadmill during his daily work. He approached Steelcase to develop a treadmill desk. It is expensive, but if you have a treadmill already, there are ways to rig it so that you can exercise while you work.

Walking at 1 mile an hour has several advantages:

• You're unlikely to break into a sweat.
  
• It's easy on your joints.
  
• It allows you to concentrate fully on your work.

Yes, on that last one, you may take a little while to adapt to the movement. But when you consider what people do while driving - talking on the phone, listening to music, eating meals and snacks, and drinking coffee - it can definitely be done by anyone.

Walking while you work will burn more calories than exercising intensely for a short period five days a week. You can expect to burn about 100 calories an hour. Eight hours at your desk would translate into using up 800 calories in a work-day. You could end your day feeling more relaxed, yet energetic. This is a whole new approach to fitness!  Exercising before work or at the end of the day would become unnecessary, although strength and flexibility training would still be a good idea. Strength training does not require a lot of time, anyway.

Contrast this with other ways of getting fit while you work at your desk, and there is no contest. Using weights, doing isometric exercises, or whatever, may distract you from your work, but you may be able to do it while reading documents or looking at your computer screen. Sitting on an exercise ball may burn calories. But all of these methods won't consume as many calories as a working at your treadmill desk.

Now all you have to do is persuade your employer to get you a treadmill desk! While this is the wave of the future, most employers are not ready to embrace it. Cost of the desks and safety will likely be their main concerns. They may also think that if one person gets a treadmill desk and is very happy with it, others will want it. Your employer may not want to replace perfectly good desks with a more expensive option. On the other hand, they could save a lot of money by having a healthier workforce.

If you work at home, you can make money and get fit at the same time.

The first time I came across Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), it was in the context of weight loss. A young woman had tried it at a video arcade, became addicted to it, and shed a lot of weight. See Tanya Jensen's story. This was after diet and exercise had failed. Then I actually saw someone using it at a video arcade and it looked pretty strenuous.

Of course, it is available nowadays as a video game on the Wii. The DDR mat that plugs into the video game console comes with the software. Some people jump around making it more of a workout, but that can be high impact and may hurt your joints. It can be done smoothly. The game varies from a slow easy pace to I-don't-know-how-they-do-it. There is a selection of dance music to choose from as well as different levels of activity.

Dancing has so many benefits. It's not just your body, but your brain. Learning new dance steps is a way to exercise your brain at the same time that you exercise your body. If you're young, you want to exercise so that you can look hot (or at least better)! If you're older, you may be more concerned about being able to get around and avoiding Alzheimer's. Dancing has many benefits for your health, whether you're a kid, in the prime of life, or a senior citizen.

But enough about the benefits. The main thing is that it is just plain fun. If physical activity is fun, you are just plain more likely to do it. As with the treadmill desk, the more ways you can find to increase your physical activity the better. Dara Torres who won a silver medal in freestyle swimming at the olympics was asked about her diet. Maybe this is not an exact quote but she said that she works out so much that she eats whatever she wants.

Having a Wii with DDR can make socializing with your friends more enjoyable. Watch out though. Don't get too competitive and overdo it.  Check out theTanya Jensen and DDR video below to what DDR looks like in action.