Lifestyle habits can play a significant role in keeping you healthy. For example, making smart choices can help you maintain a healthy weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. It also helps support emotional well-being. Unfortunately, a busy schedule can challenge even the best intentions. So when life gets in the way of your efforts, try implementing these tips to stay on track.
Stock Up on Healthy Go-To Snacks
Fast food can seem like an inevitability for busy people. However, you can avoid falling victim to that trap by keeping snacks that support your health goals. Nuts, fruit, and vegetables are all excellent ideas. In addition, some health-focused meal bars are great for a quick bite.
A satisfying snack bar packed with natural flavors can help stave off hunger until mealtime. With a genuinely delicious snack made with real ingredients, you can feel good about grabbing a quick bite on the go.
Schedule Self-Care Activities on Your Calendar
There is increasing awareness of the need to address mental health as part of overall wellness. Including self-care activities is an integral part of this process, but, unfortunately, they often take a back seat to other tasks. One way to change that is by adding your self-care acts to your calendar. Then, when you do, set a reminder, so you don’t forget to take this valuable time for yourself.
What you choose to do for self care can be almost anything as long as it brings you joy or helps you feel renewed. Some popular activities include meditation, gardening, and creative pursuits. However, your release might be hitting the local MMA gym or a weekly book club meeting. There are even studios where you can go and smash dishes for a fee if that’s your thing.
Take Advantage of Meal Prepping
Meal prepping is one of the biggest time savers you can use to ensure health-supporting meals are on your table each evening. There are two main approaches to choose from.
In the first approach to meal prepping, you will spend one day each week or month chopping and combining ingredients for meals. These are then either cooked and then frozen or packaged and frozen raw. The result is a freezer full of ready-to-heat meals you can get on the table in a hurry. However, this method has some disadvantages, including needing an extra freezer and a sizeable up-front grocery bill.
If that is more than you are ready to take on, you might prefer the second method. It is much simpler and involves getting your meals prepped in the morning. You can leave ingredients in the fridge or toss them in a crock pot so they can cook while you get things done.
Squeeze Mini Workouts Into Your Day With You
Experts generally recommend adults get about two and a half hours of exercise each week to maintain health. That sounds like a lot when your schedule is already jam-packed with activities. However, it breaks down to only 10 15-minute mini-workouts, which sound much more doable.
You might be surprised if you are wondering what you can accomplish in 15 minutes. You can cover a full mile during that time by walking at a brisk pace. You can also finish out a three-set Tabata with an added cooldown. You might also try one of the many short yoga videos available online to target flexibility.
Carry a Refillable Water Bottle
Look no further than your favorite water bottle if you want a simple way to support a health-focused lifestyle. Once you spot it, pick it up and carry it around with you. This is a great way to ensure you are getting enough water, which will help keep biological processes running smoothly. It will also help keep dehydration and its adverse effects at bay.
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is possible even with a busy schedule. Making time for yourself, including healthy meals and snacks, and sneaking mini-workouts into your week can all help you stay on track.
