Work is important but so is your health. Many people find it difficult to balance work while keeping a healthy lifestyle, but it’s not as hard as it seems. There are three things that sync together to help you maintain a healthy lifestyle: your nutritional health, physical health, and mental health. Keeping a healthy lifestyle makes you feel good, which can influence the way you work or the way you feel.
Nutritional Health. When it comes to your diet it’s always important to know what you’re consuming. There are many alternatives when it comes to choosing food. It’s not always easy though, it’s hard letting go of those fatty delicious snacks such as the spicy, tasty Hot Cheetos but it’s not impossible. Choose healthier alterations such as fruits or healthy nutrition bars. Try to make a schedule for your meals. For some people meal prepping works. For others, nutritional apps, such as My Fitness Pal, work as well; find out what works for you. Make sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day and lay off those sugary substances such as soda and energy drinks. Plus, you don’t need those anyways, drink coffee like any normal, sophisticated person just make sure to choose the right kind sweetener. Also, when you’ve done such a good job in eating healthy it’s okay to have a cheat day; however, don’t make this cheat day continuously because it defeats the purpose of maintaining a healthy diet.
Physical Health. Sometimes tasks at work consume most of your time, and by the time you’re off, you’re too tired to do anything else. However, it’s good to do some physical activity to release some stress and help strengthen your body. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services “Less than 5% of adults participate in 30 minutes of physical activity each day; only one in three adults receive the recommended amount of physical activity each week.” To change these statistics, here are a few tips to stay physically active as you manage work: try to park farther away so you can have a longer walk when walking to your job. You can always go on a walk during your lunch break or when you’re finally off work. It’s hard to get stuff done as you’re working, so it’s best to do your physical activity before or after work. Join a gym and seek advice from the fitness experts, go for a jog at a park, find an activity you enjoy and do it more often, whether it’s riding your bike or playing tennis with a friend. Simple things like that can help you be stronger, more active, and less stressed. So, when you go home after being physically active, you can eat a good healthy home-cooked meal, relax, get some sleep and be up and ready the next day.
Mental Health. To be physically strong you need to be mentally strong. If you enter work and think “Oh, its Monday, everyone hates Mondays. I need to deal with my boss and coworkers. I just want to go home and eat and sleep and not deal with anyone” you are already coming in to work with a negative perspective which can ruin your whole day. The same thing goes for being healthy and managing work, “Oh it’s a Monday and I have a lot of work to do, I don’t have time to exercise because by the time I’m off I’m too tired.” No, it shouldn’t be like that it should be more like, “It’s a Monday. Let’s see how much I can get done before my workout, so I can look good when I go to the beach on Friday.” This is a better attitude. What I’m basically trying to say is that if you put your mind to something you can do it. You just have to be mentally in it to win it. And I get it. It’s hard sometimes which is why you need to mentally encourage yourself and challenge yourself. Ways you can encourage yourself is by treating yourself for something you’ve accomplished. For example, if you ran a mile every day for two weeks, treat yourself by buying yourself new jogging shoes. Simple things like that encourage you to keep on going.
Therefore, don’t let work get in the way from helping you maintain a healthy lifestyle. Follow these tips and they’ll help you have a better nutritional, physical, and mental health which all sync into creating a healthier lifestyle for you.