Being healthy is a struggle. Not just physically, but time-wise. With everything going on in your busy life and managing to get some recovery time, when are you going to fit in time to go to the gym or make yourself a great meal every night or make a meal plan for a week?
I struggled with this for a long time. In gaining a lot of weight in a short amount of time, I had to find exercises and practices that would fit into my eighteen credit school schedule. What I found was some very easy, not-so-time-consuming exercise tools, which also kept me motivated to get in shape when I did have time (as much as I could, at least). I’ve written on this before but I have decided to narrow my steps down to only three this time around for the purpose of simplicity.
- STOP Driving and Using Public Transport So Much!
While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with owning a car or using public transport, how often do you drive when you could walk or ride a bicycle (if, of course, you have one)? In my college experience, friends and I would drive to Campus while living in a five minute walking distance. Sometimes, we would even drive from one side of Campus to the other. Not only is this lazy and expensive, but you’ll do physically better for yourself by walking or riding your bike anywhere conveniently close to you. How about you walk to the store that’s a ten minute walk from you? Or save time and ride your bike. The more you get used to going short distances without driving, the more you’ll be open to going longer distances, and thus your time management skills as well as your overall health will improve.
- Bedroom Exercises
This sounds ridiculous, I know. But doing push-ups and sit ups in my room every night before going to bed legitimately made me gain a good amount of muscle, or at least begin to, and kept me motivated to walk and bike more, because I wanted to balance out the kind of workouts I was doing. I bought some weights for curls and similar exercises as well. I later found a list of bedroom exercises that are beyond simple push-ups, sit ups, etc. which I now use when I can’t get to the gym I regularly attend – I would recommend using some of these for the purpose of diversifying your home workouts. However, even just push-ups and sit ups can be helpful.
- Plan For Leftovers!
Be willing to eat the same food twice or more. What you should be doing is preparing a larger portion of your meals, so you are set for multiple meals. Essentially you’re saving time on making more individual meals, obviously. To even out your food groups, I recommend buying simple fruits and vegetables that you can keep munching on in each meal as well – such as a large bag of baby carrots or a bunch of bananas. It’s an excellent idea to get two or three lunches prepared at once. This stops you from going out last minute and spending money on fast food, which is not healthy in the least.
There is a lot more you can do to keep yourself healthy in a busy schedule – keep in mind, these are just starting points. A little bit of thought and creativity can go along way. Do you have other ways you stay healthy in a business schedule? Send them to me at rachelpharlain@gmail.com
Author Bio: Rachel Pharlain lives in Meridian, ID with her two dogs Phoebe and Monica. She is a graduate of Boise State University and when she is not working or writing for websites like this one, she can be found at the gym, wine tasting, or wedding planning with her fiancé Ryan.
