Nutrition and Fitness Tips for the Uber-Busy: Making it a Part of Your Routine in 6 Steps
For busy entrepreneurs, executives, and parents, it can seem like a huge challenge to make health a priority. The constant demand on time makes it easy to just mindlessly eat something on the way to your next meeting or event or skip a workout for something else.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Even people who are extremely busy can fit time for their health into their tight schedules. Here are six nutrition and fitness tips to help you stay in shape even if you are pressed for time.
Commit to your health
The first and most important of any of the nutrition and fitness tips for busy people is making an honest commitment to getting healthy. Personal health is just that: personal. You have to truly want to improve your health and the way that you eat.
Plan for nutrition and fitness
Many people who are already busy have a calendar, to-do list, or another type of scheduling system that keeps them on track throughout their days and weeks. In this case, it should be easy to slot in time for a workout. If you purposefully block out time in your schedule for fitness or planning meals and treat it like a business appointment that cannot be missed, it will be easier to stay on track.
Wake up a little earlier
What do some of the most successful entrepreneurs and business leaders have in common? They wake up when most people are still deeply asleep. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, gets up at 4:30 AM and is exercising by 5. Other well-known professionals who wake up before 6:00 AM to exercise include Richard Branson, the multi-billionaire who founded Virgin Records, and Jeff Immelt, the CEO of GE.
Do things you enjoy
Whether it’s eating the meals that you like or making time to play your favorite sport, your health and fitness program should be enjoyable. As someone with many other priorities, the first thing to get taken off your schedule will probably be something that you don’t enjoy.
Build a support group
It’s much easier to achieve personal health goals when you have supportive people around you. For example, you might let a spouse or housemate know that you are committing to health and nutrition goals and ask them if they can help you with meal preparation. Even if all they can offer is some motivation or some verbal nutrition and fitness tips, it will help you maintain a healthy lifestyle when you are busy.
Stay flexible
As a busy person, you know that things happen unexpectedly. A child gets sick, an important client calls with an emergency, or a meeting gets rescheduled for a time that you had designated for working out. These things happen. It’s important to give yourself a break and realize that as long as you stay consistent over the long haul, a few slips here and there will not stop you from reaching your goals.
And to make the most of your valuable time, be sure also to focus on the recovery between your workouts so that you can get the most out of each session. Recovery tools and devices like the Marc Pro are available to help your muscles recover and grow stronger, so that you can get the most out of the time investment that you make for improving your health.