How To Make Time For Health and Fitness
By Sheila Viers
When you have a super busy and hectic schedule, it’s tough to find time to fit in “extras” like workouts, healthy meal-plan prep, and taking care of yourself.
Today I’m going to show you how to make time for your health and fitness, because when you physically feel your best, you get the most out of life. On the other hand, when you feel run down, stressed out, and when you aren’t taking good care of your body… life pretty much sucks!
With a little planning and attention, you can find time for taking care of yourself in even the craziest schedule.
Here are my top 3 tips for making time for your health and fitness:
1. Calendar Everything
When you try to think about all the things you have to do this week, it can be quite overwhelming. That’s why the first step is to sit down with your calendar and fill it in with your to-do’s in segments, or blocks of time.
This not only provides a feeling of relief, because it gets it out of your head and onto a calendar that you can see, but also allows you to get a big picture overview of exactly where you are spending your time.
Be honest, and fill every hour in for the purposes of this exercise. This is your REAL schedule, not your “wishful thinking” schedule.
This includes things like:
- TV time
- Work
- Driving to and from work
- Time with friends and/or significant other
- Workouts
- Getting ready (shower, etc)
- Sleep
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner – specify dining out or dining at home
Once you have your calendar filled in for the week, ask yourself some questions:
Are all of the things you doing really necessary, productive, and good for your health?
How does this calendar line up with who you really want to be?
Do you see any areas that need adjusting? For example, are you staying up late at night watching TV or going out when you could go to bed a little earlier, so that you can get up in the morning and get a workout in first thing?
2. Prep Ahead
The more you can prepare for success, the more success you will achieve. This applies to everything from your career to your workout routine.
Schedule time into your calendar for your health and fitness prep.
Choose 1-2 days a week to make your meals in bulk and portion them out for your lunches for the week. It doesn’t take much time to throw a few chicken breasts on the grill, cook up a batch of quinoa, and chop up veggies for a few salads when you do it all at the same time.
Another way to prep ahead is to pack your gym bag at night before you go to bed and leave it in front of the door with your keys on top of it. You could also buy multiples of your make-up, shampoo, conditioner, etc and have one set for your gym bag and one set for home. That way you don’t need to waste time putting it in and out of your bag on a regular basis.
3. Surround Yourself With Things That Make Life Easier and More Fun
Life is more fun when you feel supported, whether that is by the people you spend time with or the tools you use throughout your day.
Isn’t it more fun to workout when you have great gym buddies? Isn’t it easier to make meals at home when you have sharp knives and high-quality pots and pans?
And doesn’t your workout routine go much more smoothly when you have gear that is made well and supports you? This is what inspired my husband, Ryan, and I to create our line of kickass premium fitness bags. We had a lot of really crappy gym bags over our health and fitness journey that fell apart or were not very intuitively designed and we knew that people that were serious about fitness like us, needed gear that justworks.
Invest in your health and fitness by putting your time and money in what matters to you most.
Those are my 3 tips. Now take some time to adjust your calendar to fit what you really want for your life, versus what you’ve been doing out of habit. Treat your health and fitness like any VIP appointment that you have, because if you don’t have your health, then what do you really have?
About Sheila
Sheila Viers is the co-founder of the premium fitness and yoga bag brand, Live Well 360, inspired out of her and her husband, Ryan’s, search for the perfect gym bag.
Live Well 360 bags were recently named one of the 5 best sports bags by Men’s Health, and have been featured in various top fitness publications including Oxygen Magazine, the German edition of Shape, and Experience Life Magazine, as well as, on Livestrong.com and Shape.com to name a few.
In addition, Sheila is also the author of the ROCK Your Dream Body Program and the healthy comfort food cookbook, Eat Well 360. After years of yo-yo dieting, over-exercising, and issues ranging from food sensitivities to hormonal problems, Sheila transformed her relationship with food, her body, and her life, and as a result, healed her body and now maintains a 35 pound weight loss.
To learn more about Sheila and Live Well 360, visit www.livewell360.com and www.sheilaviers.com.
Also, Live Well 360 has offered a super VIP 10% discount (they RARELY discount their bags) especially for YOU! Just enter the promo code "ARFIT" at checkout, but it's only good through Friday, so get your Live Well 360 bag now!
Twitter: @livewell360