7 Ways to Squeeze Healthy Habits Into a Busy Lifestyle
Are you looking to work on improving your health? If you’ve got a super busy lifestyle and aren’t sure where to start, click here for more!
Life is hectic. Between raising kids and going to work and paying bills and otherwise, it can be difficult to facilitate a healthy lifestyle for yourself. That said, it is possible; the key is in getting creative.
Wondering what this entails? Then keep on reading. Here are 7 ways to squeeze healthy habits into a busy lifestyle.
1. Buy Healthy Microwavable Meals
A healthy diet is vital to a healthy lifestyle. Unfortunately, in order to eat healthily, one must cook. And, as you might know, most cooking takes a good amount of time.
So, how do you get around this? The answer lies in microwavable meals. There are all sorts of healthy microwavable meals out there, all of which can be prepared in a quick and convenient manner.
2. Use Spare Time for Meal Prep
When you’re busy, you don’t have time to think about eating healthy. It’s much easier to run to McDonald’s and order a few chicken McNuggets.
This is why you need to plan ahead. By planning the coming week’s meals in your spare time, you can avoid unhealthy foods in the future. Since your meals will be planned, you’ll be able to prepare their ingredients and ready yourself to make them whenever necessary.
To help you with meal planning, consider installing a meal planning app. Two of the best are PlateJoy and Plan to Eat.
3. Sign Up for Meal Delivery Service
A trip to the grocery store can take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and sometimes even longer. This is a big chunk of time when you lead a busy life. As such, instead of going to the grocery store, you should consider signing up for meal delivery services.
When you sign up for meal delivery, you have frozen and ready-to-prepare meals brought straight to your doorstep. Not only do these meals prevent you from having to go to the grocery but they’re also exceedingly easy to cook. So, they’ll save you some time on food preparation as well.
4. Count Your Steps
You don’t always have the time to get to the gym. After all, a gym trip — complete with a drive there and a drive back — can last anywhere from an hour to 2 hours and maybe even more. There’s just no way to fit that much time into a busy schedule.
So, how can you exercise if you’re not able to make it to the gym? One strategy is to count your steps. This is as simple as putting on an exercise watch and seeing how many steps it reads in a single day.
This way, you can set a “steps” goal and use any of your spare time to try and reach it. No, you’re not going to get in a workout that’s the equivalent of running 4 miles, but you will get exercise nonetheless.
Set an appropriate goal and see if you can reach it. If it’s too high, adjust it to meet your schedule. If there’s time for an increase, knock it up a few steps.
5. Get Some Exercise in at Work
Work isn’t always the ideal place for an exercise session. But if you’re like a lot of people, your workday doesn’t consist wholly of, well, work. Odds are, you’ve got some moments of downtime throughout each workday.
How can you use these moments to your advantage? By squeezing in a quick exercise or two. There are all sorts of quick and discreet exercises you can do at work, from dips to leg raises and much, much more. You could even invest in a set of portable bike pedals, allowing you to pedal while you work.
Now, this might not seem like a lot of exercise at the time. But if you do this consistently throughout each day, you’re sure to get a decent workout in.
6. Choose a Gym That’s On the Way
One of the biggest mistakes that individuals make when signing up for a gym is signing up for a gym that’s out of the way of their everyday lives. When they do this, they force themselves to drive 10 to 20 minutes that they wouldn’t otherwise have to drive, thus wasting valuable time.
The solution? Choose a gym that’s on the way . . . to work, or to school, or to wherever else it is that you go throughout the day. The more convenient it is for you to go to the gym, the more likely it is that you’ll actually get there.
7. Schedule Everything
If you lead a truly busy life, every moment matters. Oftentimes, it’s possible to find spare moments by getting everything down in a schedule. Those who don’t schedule their days tend to waste time without even realizing they’re doing so.
Sit down and make a complete schedule of your week. Jot down every responsibility, complete with time constraints. Then, look for holes in your schedule; small windows of opportunity during which you might be able to squeeze in a healthy activity.
Maybe you could get a run in before you head off to work? Perhaps you could use your lunch break to engage in a 30-minute walk? Or maybe you’ve got a spare 30 minutes at the end of the day during which you could hop on an exercise bike?
Now, you don’t want to overload yourself. It’s necessary to take some breaks throughout the day. But if you can find 30 spare minutes, you can get in some necessary exercise.
A Busy Lifestyle Doesn’t Have to Be an Unhealthy One
If you lead a busy lifestyle, the tips above can go a long way in making it a healthy one as well. Utilize these tips, and your mind and body will be sure to thank you.
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