With summer here, especially in the humid tropics, that means Bikini season. I pretty much live, eat, and work in my swim suit daily with quick swims and long walks along the beach. I’m able to run and do some yoga poses daily, but finding time to exercise and eat healthy it not always easy. Guest blogger, Paige Johnson offers this advice.
4 Nutrition and Fitness Tips for Busy People
Being a hardworking professional and busy parent often means that you put your nutrition and fitness last. While it can be difficult to find ways to be healthy while you’re trying to squeeze everything you have to do into 24 hours, there are some ways to fit healthy habits into your busy lifestyle. We share four nutrition and fitness tips for busy people below so that you can work on your health throughout the year.
Image via Pixabay by skeeze
Most busy people skip breakfast because there is so much to do in the morning before you head out the door to drop off kids at school or make it to the office on time. The problem is, skipping breakfast is an unhealthy habit that you should break as soon as possible. Research shows that skipping breakfast can increase women’s risk of diabetes, cause hypertension and insulin resistance, elevate blood sugar, increase the risk of heart disease in men, and impair cognitive function related to memory.
If you want to eat breakfast but don’t because you don’t think you have time to make something, try preparing smoothies for your morning meal ahead of time. Begin by cleaning and freezing fruit such as berries and bananas that you can pop into your blender in the morning with Greek yogurt and whichever liquid you prefer. Some people opt for milk, juice, coconut water, or almond milk. If you don’t think you’ll have time to blend your smoothie in the morning, you can make it the night before, freeze it, and allow it to thaw on your commute so you’ll have a cold smoothie to enjoy throughout the morning.
If you work in an office, find a co-worker to be your workout buddy who will walk with you during a break or your lunch time. It’s worth noting that walking during lunch does not mean that you should skip eating lunch; rather, you should use your lunch time to go for a walk and then eat a healthy lunch at your desk. If you work from home or are a busy parent, find a neighbor or fellow stay-at-home parent who will walk with you while your child sleeps in the stroller or who will work out with you in your living room while your children play or nap together. You’ll stay more accountable if you know someone else is counting on you for workout time.
If you cannot stick to a lunchtime walking routine or have trouble making a workout a habit, pencil it into your schedule just as you would a meeting or appointment. You need to make your health a priority, so put yourself on your schedule by blocking out at least four 30-minute exercise times per week. You may have to find a schedule that works best for you and be flexible, but commit to penciling in workout sessions for a month to help develop fitness habits. You may find more time on the weekend or in the early evening. You also may realize that you can jog laps around a baseball field while your kid has practice or that you can climb the stairs in your building or do lunges while checking email.
You may find that you actually have more time than you thought for preparing healthy meals and working out when you audit your time. When you look at your day, you may discover that you are wasting time checking email frequently throughout the day instead of taking care of it in a few large chunks. Or, you may be losing more minutes to social media and web surfing than you realized. When you truly audit your time, you will identify time sinks that you can schedule at another time or avoid altogether. Be as productive as possible during timed segments of your day to free up some time for healthy behaviors.
Even the busiest of people need to make time to develop and maintain healthy habits. You can do so throughout the year by preparing breakfast smoothies ahead of time, finding a workout buddy, scheduling workout time, and auditing your time to find a few extra minutes each day for healthy activities. Nutrition can help you overcome all kinds of obstacles, including those related to mental health.
Paige Johnson loves offering her advice on weight lifting and strength training on learnfit.org
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