Your ability to lose weight successfully is determined by many different factors, like the availability of healthy foods, how close you are to a gym, your motivation level, and your current weight. One factor you might overlook in your fight to get your weight under control is your available time.
If you don’t have much free time or you aren’t sure how to make some extra time in your life, then losing weight can be tough. Here is how your time management affects weight loss and what you can do about it.
No Time to Make Food
The kinds of foods you eat have a big impact on your weight loss efforts, arguably more than any kind of workout regimen you might do. What you put into your body determines if there is a calorie surplus at the end of the day. The food you eat can boost your metabolism or hurt it. When you take time to prepare your food, you can ensure that the calorie count is low and that you are only using healthy ingredients. If you are rushing out the door each morning and eating on the go, then you are less likely to make healthy, diet-friendly choices. If you can make the time to fix food for yourself as much as possible, it will be much easier to stick with your diet plan.
No Time for a Workout
Not having much time to exercise is hurtful to your diet plans too. How can you lose the weight you want to if you rarely have time to hit the gym or do a workout? If you are not able to exercise consistently, then you might be struggling to burn off the pounds like you planned to. When there is little time to do any exercise, you will find that the bulk of your weight loss efforts fall to your diet, and that can be tough on you. Not everyone has the self-control to lose the weight they want to on dieting alone. So, making time to hit the gym or do a workout at home is very important if you are going to achieve the weight loss goals you have set for yourself. When you learn how to manage your time and make extra time in the day for the things that are important to you, you won’t have to skimp on the workout or feel too burnt out to do a workout.
How to Manage Your Time Better
Hopefully, you see the importance now of making the most of your time and ensuring you have enough time to prepare foods and work out as needed to lose your excess weight and get in shape. Now, let’s talk about what you can do to carve out more time in the day and not waste as much time each day.
- Waste Less Time with Focus Training
How you spend your day is very important, if you are hoping to get more done and have time to work on weight loss. How many times have you told yourself that you just didn’t have enough time to cook up food or do some exercise? How frustrated and disappointed did you feel afterwards when you noticed that you weren’t making good progress toward your goals? You may be lacking focus in your life and the discipline to spend your time wisely.
A lot of people suffer from poor self-control when it comes to their electronic devices. If you are one of them, then you can start to get that usage under control by setting specific limits for yourself. For instance, you can put the devices away by a specific hour each night. You can limit yourself to a set number of hours for the devices each day. Eliminate apps that waste time and block websites that sap your day as well, and you should see your focus improve.
You can also improve focus by giving yourself short, timed breaks throughout the day, getting enough sleep at night, and setting clear goals for each day. These are simple changes everyone can make to boost their focus and have more time each day.
- Reduce Your Housework Load
Does it feel like some days you have to choose between keeping your home clean and working out or mowing the lawn and fixing healthy food? If that sounds familiar, then you may need to take some steps to lighten your workload at home. Are there some chores that you can get your roommates or family members to help out with? Could you pay Orlando cleaners (or cleaners in your area) to do some of your housework? Maybe you could hire someone to cut your grass or do the landscaping for you. These don’t have to be permanent expenses for you, but investing in these services can give you the extra time you need to achieve your weight loss goals. Once you get into the shape you want, then you can start to take over some of the housework and yard work again.
- Break up Your Weight Loss Tasks
You might not have enough time each day for a full workout of 30-40 minutes in one stretch, but do you have time to do five minutes here and five minutes there? You might even be able to get in some of the workout while you are at your job, on a coffee break or during your lunch break.
Take the same idea and apply it to preparing healthy meals. You might not have enough time to cook up a full meal every day in one stretch, but do you have enough time before you leave for work to cut up veggies and then time after work to finish preparing the meal? Maybe you could put rice up to cook as soon as you get home and while you are changing your clothes or going for a shower. Think of the tasks you can get done when you have small breaks in your time, and pretty soon you will have enough time for everything.