I think it's pretty hard without a radical shift in career. Your training correlates well with sitting/standing & thinking, then writing/typing things.

What worked well for me though was to be quite intentional about a few things:

* started at minimum walking to work - I know this doesn't work for everyone, but some variation (e.g. part way) might. This meant that regardless of how crazy my day got at the very least I had 1 hour of brisk walking - I moved to a 30 min walk from my office.

* got out of the office for a walk of at least 15 min at lunch, pretty much every day

* sit/stand desk and used it, changing position 4x a day usually (i.e. sit for a while, stand for a while, lunch, sit, stand)

* got intentional about some meeting scheduling. e.g. this is going to be a whiteboarding exercise, put it at 10am to break up the morning sitting.

* have a proper fitness routine, and stick to it. Could be activities you like or could be the gym or whatever, but don't let yourself "get busy" and miss too many days. It should be somewhat intense, and somehow cover core & hips & shoulders

You have to go to the gym every day. At least 5 days a week. Heavy workout where you train intensively your upper and lower body. I do this now for about 10 years and the difference is like day and night. Both mentally and physically. The "don't have time" argument is in my opinion not valid. By exercising you gain so much more time just because you work more efficiently.

Exercise a lot, especially focusing on cardio and strength+flexibility in your hips. Doing this massively mitigates the adverse effects from my job for me; if I stop my routine for a week or two the soreness, tightness and discomfort come roaring back.

Mind you, I'm not a health professional, but here are some ideas. Take a walk at lunch. Try hobbies that aren't simply sitting. Even something like woodworking or gardening would have one standing and moving; it's not aerobic exercise, but it's still better than sitting. If you do do woodworking, you could build a little stand for your laptop or keyboard to convert your desk into a standing desk :)

You could keep doing the work you're doing, but without the sitting: get a stand up desk (if money is an issue, you can get a cheap hand-cranked desk from Ikea) and get an under desk treadmill (harder to avoid spending at least $1k, sadly). I get in about 5 hours of walking per day this way, at 4 mph (I'm 6'2", so that's right around my typical walking speed). I feel infinitely better this way, and it's also an incredible way to burn off calories with minimal intensity.

There's no white collar job that I know of that doesn't require a lot of sitting. Even if it isn't programming, office jobs require you to sit a lot since almost everything is done by computer. The key is to take regular breaks and walk around. Exercise regularly and eat a Mediterranean diet.

If you look at some statistics (can't find it now) I seem to recall sales and marketing have lower prevalence of obesity. Meanwhile construction workers have higher. I think what matters more is less stress in a job, eating healthy and doing physical activity regularly.

If you can work from home (big if) then you might consider looking into a standing desk + treadmill.

There are some decent options available. The "Autonomous" desk is great, I purchased JUST the legs and use an IKEA top to save money.

Now, I'm looking at the "Treadly" treadmill. Technically, this isn't an "under desk" treadmill, but it's the thinnest treadmill on the market and can be operated without the bars upright. So it's perfect for going under your desk, and then under a bed or a couch when you're not using it.

Just recently I got a desk which can be lifted and lowered. About one hour a day, I would lift the desk up, and have a standing desk. I also move around, especially when I have phone conferences. I even pace around the room. Although it is a small, I am able to detect a small change in my health and energy.

Thank you all for the ideas! I'm blessed to work at home and think I'll definitely look into either building (trying to improve my wood working skills) or buying a standing desk. Maybe a gym membership should be in my future too or bulking more gardens haha.