“Oh, but who has the time?” It’s become something of a mantra of late. Every time you see a delicious looking recipe, every time a relative extols the virtues of their new exercise plan, every time a colleague tells you you really ought to be getting more sleep, that mildly outraged response pops into your head, “Oh, but who has the time?”. We tell ourselves that good health and fitness are the preserve of a wealthy elite. Those whose schedules are not so punishing; people who have the time to consult with personal trainers and dieticians. If they start to feel under the weather, they don’t have to plead with their boss for a little time off work to make a doctor’s appointment. Nor, in all likelihood do they have to work through their next lunch break to make up for it. They have armies of staff and consultants to help them get in tip top shape and are free of the work and familial constraints that make looking after our bodies so difficult for the rest of us.
Many of us are working harder and for longer hours than ever before, taking on additional work and over time just to break even in an era of wage repression. Given the hectic schedule that most working people, especially working parents, have normal people can’t possibly look after themselves to the extent that they should, right?
Right?
Well… Not necessarily.
We all have the opportunity and the responsibility to take care of our bodies. And while the frantic pace of modern living (and the abundance of temptation that’s out there) can make this harder for us than it may have been a generation or two ago, anyone can take greater steps to look after their bodies. Here are some ways in which even the busiest of us can make efforts to look after our bodies…
Go to bed earlier
Okay, so this is easier said than done, but the fact remains that when you don’t get enough sleep everything becomes more difficult. Not getting enough sleep affects our concentration and mental agility, making it harder to focus at work and potentially leads to mistakes that need to be rectified, thereby diminishing your productivity.
While you sleep your body fights off illness and infections making you more prone to sickness when you don’t get your daily dose of shut eye. What’s more, if you aren’t getting enough sleep, you won’t get the results you want from your exercise regimen no matter how much time you spend at the gym. While we’re asleep our bodies repair muscle tissues damaged in exercise to help them grow back bigger and stronger. Sleep loss also has a profound impact on the efficiency of your metabolism, making it harder to shift stubborn body fat when you don’t sleep enough.
I completely understand that when your free time is so sparse, you want to squeeze the value out of every minute of spare time you have. Nonetheless, your body will get way more value out of an extra hour’s sleep than from watching one more episode of Game of Thrones!
Embrace meal prep
It’s okay to admit it. The last thing most of us feel like doing after a gruelling day’s work is setting up shop in the kitchen and cooking a delicious meal from scratch. Yet, when we don’t have a nutritious home cooked meal to come home to, we’re far more vulnerable to temptation. In the era of Deliveroo, Just Eat, Postmates, Uber Eats and other such services all over the world bringing our favorite take out treats to our doors in minutes, temptation is harder than ever to resist.
While a treat is absolutely fine every once in a while and can actually help you to achieve your health and fitness goals, the fact remains that succumbing to temptation day in and day out can only ever derail them. This is why meal prep is especially important when you’re short on time through the week. Making big batches of these delicious plant based recipes over the weekend and doling them out throughout the week is a great way of keeping your diet on point and giving yourself the nutrients you need to live a health life and maintain stable energy levels.
While you may have to sacrifice a few hours of your Sunday to meal prep, your body will thank you for it throughout the week.
Take your vitamins
One question we all find ourselves asking is “Do I really need vitamin supplements?”. The answer is no… If you happen to live solely on organic foods grown in nutrient rich soil and farmed using the old methods which don’t rob food of their nutrients. However, in an era where GMO veggies and fruits grown using harmful pesticides the nutritional content of the food we eat has begun to decline. Thus, it can’t hurt to hedge your bets with vitamin supplements, especially if you’re on a vegan diet. There are certain vitamins such as B12 which are less abundant in the plant kingdom and it can be tricky to eat enough mushrooms and fortified nutritional yeast to meet your daily allowance. Thus, when following a plant based diet, it’s a good idea to take several supplements on a daily basis to keep your body functioning optimally. These include;
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin B12
- Long Chain Omega 3s
- Zinc
- Iron
- Calcium
In fact, most omnivores probably aren’t getting enough of these important vitamins and minerals either!
Use online resources
In the digital age there are a plethora of tools at your disposal to help make it easier and more time efficient to lead a healthy life. From myriad exercise apps to tools like My Fitness Pal which make it easier than ever to track your macronutrients and exercise and track your progress in your health and weight loss goals in just a few seconds of down time.
One of the biggest problems that busy workers have when it comes to their health is taking the time off to see a doctor when they start to feel the symptoms of something nasty coming on. They may be reticent to ask their boss for time off as they feel they may be met with repercussions later or they are too diligently focused on the task at hand to be able to sacrifice time away from it. The good news is that the digital realm can help here too. If you simply can’t spare the time to see your doctor, an online doctor service may be able to help. They can write or refill your prescription based on the symptoms you report to them and send treatments direct to your home via express delivery.
Find a reason to get away from your desk every half an hour
Finally, it’s oft stated that one of the most common obstacles to good health in the modern world is our increasingly sedentary lifestyle. As more and more of us spend the vast majority of our working day, commute and leisure time sitting this has a range of far reaching consequences for our bodies. Sitting is often referred to as “the new smoking” and while these are inflammatory words to be sure, the fact remains that like smoking sitting too much can dramatically increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes and even some cancers.
Thus, you owe it to your body to spend as much time on your feet as possible. Find a reason to get out of your desk for just a minute or two every half an hour. Go and discuss something with a colleague, get yourself a glass of water or take a brief trip to the bathroom. Just this simple step can go a long way toward mitigating the effects of all that sitting.
As you can see, no matter how busy or pressed for time you are, anyone can take meaningful steps towards taking better care of their bodies.
