Working at home vs. Working in an office vs. Working Out

At 33 years old, I started my very first "conventional" office job.  Until now, I've always had jobs where I have worked from home, or worked evenings, or worked outside, or worked at a school and was finished in the early afternoon.  In my previous job which I did from my home office with a fair amount of travel, I always marvelled at runners who worked 9-5 in offices.  How did they fit training around that?

Having the luxury to mold my day as I saw fit, I could start work at 8, go for a run at 10, or whenever the sun was out, take a mid afternoon break to do some yoga, or fit in a class at the rec centre.  As long as I was fitting in my 35 hours (plus) a week, it didn't matter when I did it.  Not once in the past 5 years did I get up before 8 am to run.  I thought I was lucky that I didn't have to do it.  I could not have imagined that faced with a more traditional 9-5 schedule, I too would be hitting the streets before the sun was up to fit in a run before work.

No one could be more surprised than me to find that I like this new running schedule.  I'm not going to lie - it's tough getting out of bed (see my goals for this month), but I love the feeling of getting my run done and out of the way before starting work.  I feel more alert when I get to work on those mornings, and am certain I am more productive before noon on the mornings I have been out for a run or got up early for yoga.

Working in an office has other benefits too, which I would not have thought of before.  When I worked from home I had some bad eating habits.  Not just in what I ate, but when.  Often, I would get out of bed and go straight into my office.  All of a sudden I would look at the clock, it would be 11am, I'd have worked since 8 in my pjs, and I would not have eaten breakfast yet.  Or, having had a good breakfast, I would get engrossed in work and keep working straight through lunch.  In either case, I would be likely to grab a less healthy snack rather than a proper meal.

Working in an office, I get up in time to make myself a healthy breakfast (almost) every morning, and always take my lunch when everyone else in the office is taking lunch.  Also, having to pre-pack a lunch means that I am pre-thinking about what I want to eat.  The cupboards with tempting snacks aren't just a few steps away.     If I don't pack cookies, I won't eat them.  (But sometimes I do pack them, in moderation, of course).  There are temptations at work too - the store downstairs with chocolate bars, Starbucks down the street, Tim Hortons across the parking lot, but they all take a few extra steps to get to, and the extra cost makes a difference.  If I've already packed a healthier snack in my lunch, I'm less likely to go out for sweets.  (I don't care what anyone says, homemade cookies are healthier than a chocolate bar).

Do you work from home or in an office?  What are the pros and cons for you?