How to Stay Healthy With a Busy Schedule
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Staying fit and healthy isn’t always easy, especially when you are juggling a job and a family. But if it’s important to you, you will find a way to make it work. Busy people just like you find time for health and fitness every day. You just have to get creative and plan ahead. Here are several things you can do to make it easier.
Break Your Workouts Up Into Micro Sessions
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that adults get 150 minutes of exercise per week. But according to Women’s Health, micro workouts are just as effective as getting all your exercise at once. Do you have 15-minute breaks at work? Consider getting up and walking around the building for 10 minutes. Or why not march in place while cooking dinner?
Look for 5-to-10-minute segments in your day where you can add some activity. Some other ways to sneak workouts into your day might include:
- Doing jumping jacks during commercial breaks while watching TV
- Planking for as long as you can each night before bed
- Taking a short break in the office to do chair dips and lunges
- Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
Meal Prep
You’ve likely heard the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen,” and it’s absolutely true. But poor nutrition not only contributes to a flabby middle. It’s also the cause of some of the deadliest diseases, such as diabetes and heart failure, according to health.gov. It’s for this reason that good nutrition is vital, but how do you fit cooking healthy meals into your schedule?
One way that seems to be working for a lot of people is meal prepping. Meal prepping might seem like a chore, and it does require some time and planning. But you should be able to get it all done in one afternoon and have the rest of the week free just to reheat. There are lots of great sites on the internet to get recipes and prepping tips. Just be sure you are fitting in all your nutritional needs for each meal.
Find Activities You Enjoy
We are much more likely to stick with an exercise we enjoy rather than suffering through something we hate. So, experiment with different things to see what you like. For example, consider attending a local yoga class before work in the morning. It will help to relax you and center you at the same time.
Alternative methods of exercise like yoga, meditation, and swimming are all activities you can try when you want to break away from the norm. These methods are great for the body and the soul. They’ve even been proven to help with addiction recovery. This is because these activities allow you to focus your mind and can relieve stress and anxiety, both of which are triggers for relapse in many individuals who are in recovery.
Include Your Family or Friends
Studies show that workout habits increase significantly when done with friends, so why not ditch the after-work drink for a leisurely walk at the local park? You will still be unwinding but in a much healthier way. Likewise, instead of vegging out with the kids in front of the TV, try taking a bike ride and exploring nature. Your kids are much more likely to remember your fun afternoon bike rides than the latest episode of Spongebob.
Never allow yourself to say you don’t have time to stay healthy. Make some adjustments to your schedule and fit some time in for your well-being. By following these tips, you’ll be able to find time for health and fitness every day.
Written by member – AlexisHall