Your job may make it difficult to stay healthy, but don’t make this your excuse.
How often do we use the excuse of work to justify our bad habits? From giving in to the workplace nibbles, opting for the triple chocolate brownies after lunch, or taking the lift instead of the stairs.
So many of us use work as an excuse for why we may not be as healthy as we could be, but we all know this isn’t always true. Yes, work may take up time and energy, but if you want to commit to a healthy lifestyle you have to balance the two for it to be successful.
From having a lot more energy, to a more positive outlook and a clearer way of thinking, eating well and exercising has many benefits.
Here are some tips to help dodge the cravings, eat well, and get those legs moving:
Prepare your food
It’s easy to grab a coffee and breakfast on your way into work, especially if you saviour those extra moments in bed over packing up a lunch in the morning.
Making an unhealthy choice is perhaps more easily made if you’ve got a bistro full of delicious pastries round the corner to your office. One way to avoid this is by meal prepping, either each evening or once a week.
There are plenty of easy prep meals that are not only quick to prepare but also taste great. One example is overnight oats, great for breakfast, lunch, or cheeky snack. Simply, oats and milk left overnight to soak and absorb, so essentially, your ‘cooking time’ is occurring whilst you sleep! I also mix in a banana and some protein powder to give me an extra boost, before topping with mixed berries. If you’re not a fan of topping yours with fruit, try honey, cinnamon or peanut butter.
Prepping lunch also works in the same way – stops you from buying anything unhealthy during your day at work, which also saves you money. If you’re spending around £5 a day on lunch and work five times a week, you could save yourself around £25 a week – that’s £100 a month! Having a source of protein alongside some vegetables or salad is a perfectly nutritious meal prep for lunch and is so easy to make! Many like to create a large batch and store each meal in containers for the week, even freezing some to keep them fresh. A great lunch option could be chicken, sweet potato and greens or a tuna salad.
Don’t forget your snacks! Take fruit with you to work to satisfy your sugar cravings and stop you from reaching for those office chocolates! If you’re not a fan of fruit, opt for a bag of nuts which act a protein-packed snack, but be careful of your portioning as they are high in fat – but it’s still the good stuff!
Book yourself into a fitness class
“I don’t have time to exercise”, “I’m too tired after work to go to the gym”, “it’s too late to workout” – sound like you?
Stop making work an excuse and book yourself into a fitness class. Most classes are 45 minutes to an hour and gyms/sports centres generally offer reasonable rates with ideal membership types that allow you to get classes at a discounted rate if you’re frequent. The majority of classes run until late and if you’re daring enough, you may even be able to start your day off by attending an early session!
If you book into a class, it will not only help you follow your healthy lifestyle, but the endorphins released will put you in a good mood with a positive mindset, whilst also being a great way to focus your mind elsewhere, instead of work.
Opt for healthier alternatives
I know this is a fairly simple one but that’s what makes it is so easy to do. Instead of grabbing a chocolate bar, grab a piece of fruit, instead of taking the lift or escalator, take the stairs – every little helps. Gradually these habits will become second nature.
Try out some hiit
Hiit workouts are great if you have limited time, want to burn fat fast and are maybe not a fan of going to the gym.
15 – 30 minutes can have you sweating like mad after a hiit workout and for anyone who doesn’t know what it stands for – high intensity interval training. It’s based around the idea of quick bursts of intense exercise with small breaks in-between – this gets your heart rate up and helps to speed up your metabolism.
This type of exercising has increasingly became popular for its proof in successfully burning fat.
The best thing about doing hiit is that you can do it practically anywhere, the gym, at home, in the garden… there’s basically no excuse.
If you’re stuck for ideas on what workouts to do, have a look on YouTube where there are hundreds of different types of hiit that target different parts of the body. Someone who actively promotes the advantages of hiit is Joe Wicks – fitness enthusiast, he also has a great Instagram account to maintain inspiration and motivation to keep up a healthy lifestyle.
An excuse for new clothes?
Now this excuse is an acceptable one. If it’s motivation you’re lacking, use it as an excuse to buy some new clothes… fitness attire.
Whether a reward for successfully hitting the gym, or as motivation to get you there in the first place – there’s just something about it that works! Buying new fitness clothes is good for motivation because after all, you’ve bought them, so now you have to wear them!
