The Work-Life-Fitness Balance: How To Do It All
This past year, I’ve struggled to balance life and fitness. Yes, a personal trainer whose life revolves around fitness struggles to balance out having time to exercise himself. Balancing a business, life and also fitness is a tough line up to manage. But, it is possible. I get tons of people asking how I cope, and how I manage to do everything. To be totally honest, most of the time I don’t. It’s stressful, I’m not going to lie. It requires a lot of sacrifice. Not to mention, a lot of planning. But it is possible when we are realistic with ourselves, and our time.
Work-Life-Fitness Balance
Finding the right balance is something that I’m not sure I’ve mastered yet, what I do know is without balance we’ll eventually burn ourselves out and end up falling short at both life, work and everything in between. There’s no reason to be bodacious about overworking yourself! When I first got started with my business, I thought working hard and “grinding” at all hours of the day was the only way to succeed. I was COMPLETLY wrong! Don’t get me wrong, balancing life, fitness, and a business isn’t easy, and does require some level of dedication. But, work shouldn’t take priority life and/or leisurely activities. We should live to work, not work to live. Scheduling in “me” time is an important part of our mental wellbeing, and you’ll be happier in the long run. So definitely include activities into your weekly routine that look after your wellbeing, and relieves your stress levels.
Enjoy Your Workout
Personally, I love fitness and it’s my “happy time”. However, that isn’t the case for many people. There is an important thing to remember, and something I mention quite frequently. It sounds cliché, but do something that sets you love. As we lead busy lives, you’re only going to make time for fitness if you’re doing something you genuinely enjoy. If you’re working an 8 hour day and hate running, but planned to run after work, you’ll most likely not go on that run! There are plenty of options that you could take to get active. Find one, and stick to it! Doing something is better than doing nothing!
Eat, Eat, Eat
Healthy eating is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. When people think of healthy nutrition they normally connect it to weight loss, or the physical benefits that someone might benefit from nutrition. Very few will connect eating habits with productivity at work or their mental health. The foods we eat have a direct impact on our overall daily performance. If you want to increase your productivity, you should pay close attention to your eating habits. Sometimes we feel as if we can endure not eating a meal because we have work to do, but in reality your body is crying for food. When it comes to balancing nutrition, it can be tough and there are numerous barriers surrounding nutrition such as food availability or time constraints that might hinder our ability to get our nutrients. Personally I recommend planning out your time to eat. If I don’t plan my meals, I either forget to eat because I’m constantly on the move or I end up eating anything in sight due to convenience. To me, I think this is extremely important because nutrition plays such an enormous part in my wellbeing and health. So, if you want to stay on track, and see results it’s important to work around your lifestyle. Spend some time figuring out when you can have a home cooked meal, or when you need to prepare double to cover lunch the next day. Plan what meals you’re going to eat, and make up a weekly shopping list. Ultimately, it’s all about thinking ahead, preparing in advance and staying on top. You got this!