How to Stay Fit Despite Busy Schedule
Fitness is about much more than one looking good in their bathing suit. It is about one’s body being in top shape, which makes them ready to combat illnesses and physical hardships alike. It is about one’s self-confidence and their ability to feel good about their own body, which also makes it relevant for their long-term mental health. To make a long story short, fitness is a health-related issue and no matter how busy your schedule is, health always comes first!
Still, it is not like you have to choose between your job and your fitness, seeing as how it is entirely possible to coordinate between the two and get the most satisfactory results. This, however, requires a no small amount of organizations. Here are a few tips to help you out.
1. Change your commute
Normally, the first step on this path would be to change your commute and start cycling or walking to work instead of driving or using public transportation. However, a person with a busy schedule cannot afford to take a commute that is too long. As a compromise, you might want to start parking just a bit further from work, which can give you a decent cardio at least two times per day.
By taking two 20-minutes long strolls, you can drastically increase your calorie burn and do your cardiovascular system a massive favor. Apart from this, those who work from early in the morning might find this practice to be a perfect way to raise their alertness. In other words, apart from being great for fitness, it also boosts your productivity.
2. Workout at home
One of the reasons why people avoid going to the gym is due to the fact that the commute alone may cause them to waste the time they don’t have. As a solution, you can always workout at home. This doesn’t even require any substantial investment on your side, seeing as how most exercises can be done with your own bodyweight.
Squats, sit-ups, push-ups and pull-ups don’t require barbell or machines. Still, you might want to install a pull-up bar inside of your household. This is not only great for exercise but for stretching as well. In order to notch-up your training sessions a bit, you might want to try and emulate the gym atmosphere inside of your own home. To do so, you might want to make a playlist for exercise and even purchase active wear equipment for your workouts.
3. Rethink your meals
At the end of the day, when it comes to fitness, your nutrition matters as much as your training do. For this reason, you need to rethink your eating habits. First, you want to eat as soon as you get up in the morning. Second, you need to make your own lunch for work. Third, you shouldn’t eat past 8 pm or 9 pm.
Even more importantly, the nature of the nutrients you consume matters as much as their quantity does. There is a widely spread misconception that carbohydrates or fats are bad for you, which couldn’t be further from the truth. What you need to avoid are refined and processed carbs and consume ones found in whole grain foods. As for the fats, in order for your body to work as intended, you need to consume unsaturated fats and avoid saturated (trans) fats.
The best thing about all of this is the fact that it doesn’t disturb your schedule in any way. It only requires you to show a bit more awareness when you go for a grocery run.
With these three suggestions alone, you can become much fitter and much healthier even while leading otherwise sedentary life. Unfortunately, nothing good ever comes for free. Sure, setting aside time for two 20-minutes long walks each day, one 40-minutes long training every other day and preparing your own food may sound like a lot but when compared with what you get in return, it is definitely more than worth it.