We all have good intentions when it comes to staying healthy, but when you’re working full-time it’s not easy.
Sadly, those good intentions soon become distant memories and you don’t even notice life passing you by.
The biggest problem people working full-time have is the expectations they put on themselves. Working hard on your health every hour of the day is important, but when you set unrealistic goals everything comes crumbling down.
The only way you’ll become healthier is by adding things into your life slowly and sticking with them until they become habits. Let’s look at some simple tactics you can start with.
1. Start Eating More Protein
This really is simple because you just need to swap your macronutrients around. Eat fewer carbohydrates and replace them with proteins, especially early in the morning. This works because protein is a lot more satiating, so you won’t feel as hungry throughout the day. It means you’ll eat less food overall, which will help you lose weight.
2. Always Find Time To Stretch
The majority of people working full-time and reading this will be sitting in a chair for at least 8 hours per day. It will have a devastating impact on your flexibility, but issues won’t present themselves straight away. You’ll feel it when you develop lower back pain further down the line. The best thing to do is download a simple yoga app to your phone you can use once per day.
3. Go To Bed Earlier At Night
It’s easy to burn the candle at both ends. Everyone can do it for a little while, but when you finally crash it’s not pretty. A lack of sleep causes a huge amount of problems, but one of the most common is an increase in cortisol. It’s called the stress hormone for a reason. If you go to bed earlier at night there is more chance of you getting enough sleep, and be able to memorize things better.
4. You Must Drink More Water
If you already drink enough water you are one of the few. It’s surprising how quickly you will feel alive again once you start drinking more water consistently. The trick is to take a gallon jug into work with you. Keep sipping it throughout the day and don’t leave until it’s finished. When you combine it with all the other water you consume you will hit your target.
5. Working Out In Your Living Room
Resistance training is essential if you want to build strength, which will help you in various aspects of your life. Forget about the gym at this moment in time. You can go down that route once you’re training regularly, but your body weight is enough to get started. Follow a basic program a couple of times per week and you’ll see great results.
6. Cycle To Work In The Morning
If possible you should cycle to work in the morning. It will force you to cycle home at night even if you’re feeling lazy, so you will get twice as hard a workout every day. Once you start doing this, you’ll suddenly find you are a lot more productive during the first couple of hours of the day. Even though it sounds tough, you’ll learn to love it.
7. Meditate After Waking Up
You don’t have to meditate for hours, but 20 minutes upon waking up will change your life. Tim Ferriss has now interviewed hundreds of world-class performers in different fields and 80 percent of them follow some kind of meditation practice. It might be the exact thing you need if you want to turn into a rock star in the office.
8. Clean Up Your Workspace
If you want to keep your mind healthy you need to cut down on the amount of stress you put yourself through every day. Did you know clutter is one of the quickest ways you’ll stress your brain at work? If you want it to stay as fresh as possible, get into the habit of cleaning up your workspace before you leave at night.
