Keeping busy and maintaining a healthy lifestyle don’t always go hand in hand. When you have lots of things to do throughout the day, you may find preparing a healthy meal or squeezing in a few rounds of exercise to be less important. You’ll end up feeling like there is no time for everything else, especially for workouts and healthy meals.
However, maintaining a healthy lifestyle is what allows you to keep going, even when you are incredibly busy. The body needs stamina and the mind must be calm for you to be effective. Not adding healthy habits into your schedule isn’t an option.
So, how can you maintain a healthy lifestyle when you are incredibly busy? We spoke to some of the busiest people in the world – professional nurses in today’s bustling healthcare industry – and gathered some tips and tricks you can use right away. Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
1.Stay Hydrated
One of the easiest things to do if you want to keep your body healthy is staying hydrated. Drinking enough water every day allows you to stay energized, even when you have a lot of problems to deal with. Drinking eight glasses of water also help to reduce stress and give you that fresh feeling you need to carry on.
2.Watch Your Stress
Speaking of reducing stress by drinking enough water, you can also manage your stress using other simple techniques like drinking tea or controlling your breathing. There are plenty of ways to manage your stress and MavCure has some of the best tips here on this site.
Stress affects your body more than you realize. When you try to repress stress rather than deal with the issue, your body’s immune system gets affected sooner than you think. Stress is also one of the primary causes of severe health issues like heart problems.
3.Meditate at Night
Whether you are stressed out about something or too tired to do anything else, going to bed at night can be a challenge when you have things on your mind. There is no easy way to get around this; you have to calm yourself down in order to improve the quality of your sleep.
A quick meditation session before going to bed is highly recommended. Similar to dealing with stress, you can also find articles on how to do a five-minute meditation here on MavCure. Combined with a relaxing natural remedy, going to bed at night will not be a problem.
4.Stay Away from Your Phone
When it is time to get some rest, put your phone and other gadgets down. As tempting as it may be to watch funny YouTube videos before going to bed, what you’re doing is keeping the brain active for longer.
You will notice a substantial difference in sleep quality when you start putting your gadgets away. That actually brings us to our next tip.
5.Quality Sleep Is Irreplaceable
Even when you can squeeze in a short nap during the day, nothing beats a good night’s sleep. Your body regenerates more effectively when you are sleeping at night. You need that optimum regeneration rate in order to wake up in the morning feeling completely fresh and ready to go.
The quality of your sleep at night matters. Don’t hesitate to go the extra mile to improve your sleep. Naps are good for recharging your energy during the day, but a good night’s sleep is irreplaceable.
6.Naps to the Rescue
Naps don’t need to be THAT long; in fact, they shouldn’t be. Naps that are longer than 15 to 20 minutes aren’t as effective as shorter ones. You will end up feeling more tired than before when the nap is too long.
What you want is a short nap of 10 to 15 minutes. A lot of companies offer facilities to help employees get a short rest during the day, including hospitals and big corporations. You can also pick up a comfortable neck pillow and get a quick nap in at your desk.
7.Manage Your Time
Time management is one of the most important nurse practitioner skills. By managing their time, nurses can maintain a balanced life even when they are incredibly busy. You too can benefit from good time management.
Don’t hesitate to write down the tasks you need to complete. Organize them based on priority and other factors and start working your way towards getting those tasks done in a timely manner.
8. Avoid Multitasking
Another thing about time management: stop trying to do multiple things at once. You may think that multitasking saves time, but you actually use up more time to complete a fewer number of tasks when you multitask too much.
Focus on a task, take a short break when you finish it, and then move on to another. This short-burst technique is known as Pomodoro, which is a popular methodology among nurses with busy shifts and tight schedules.
9.Allocate Excess Time for Relaxing
Why is it so important to manage time? Because you need the short breaks to allow your body – and your mind – to catch up. Remember that staying healthy is as much about maintaining balance as it is about exercising regularly.
Time management is how you MAKE time for healthy activities. When you have 20-minute breaks scheduled throughout the day, you can do meditation, perform lighter exercise routines, and have healthy snacks in between heavy tasks.
10.Take a Break
Just because you are incredibly busy, it doesn’t mean you cannot take a break. You are still entitled to a vacation or a long break every now and then. Make taking a vacation one of your goals so you don’t use lack of time as an excuse.
Yes, you can make time for a vacation too. Going on a road trip over the weekend or trying new restaurants in a culinary adventure are often more than enough to take your mind off the tasks and problems you are dealing with.
11.Prepare Healthy Meals
The next part of the equation is eating healthily, and that starts with preparing your own healthy meals. Meal prep isn’t as complicated as you think. You may find it challenging to try at first, but you can prepare meals for the entire week once you get used to the process.
At the very least, you want to prepare healthy breakfasts to keep you energized throughout the day. A protein-filled, healthy breakfast does a lot of (positive) things to your body.
12.Control Your Iron Intake
Your body needs iron and other minerals to maintain its rapid metabolism cycle. Iron also acts as a source of energy, which is why controlling your iron intake allows you to be more productive. Food items like oatmeal and lean meats contain a lot of iron.
Iron is also a necessary mineral to consume if you want to exercise more optimally. Iron boosts muscle strength, giving you plenty of stamina to get through everything from an exercise routine to a busy day.
13.Go with Simpler Snacks
Healthy snacks are your best friends. Even better, they don’t have to be complicated at all. Instead of eating sugary snacks and drinking soda, switch to oatmeal cookies and green tea. Sliced fruits are also great for the afternoon.
Again, you don’t have to go with complicated snacks at all. Add peanut butter and jelly to slices of apple, for example, and you can fill up before lunch like a pro. Eating mixed nuts or berries is also recommended.
14.Smoothies!
Smoothies are just as useful if you are incredibly busy and you want to stay healthy. You can prepare smoothies in bags over the weekend and have them ready at the office for when you are feeling a bit low on energy.
Smoothies can be stored for days when refrigerated. They are thicker and much more fulfilling than water or other beverages. At the same time, smoothies contain vitamins and minerals needed by your body; you just have to be clever with the ingredients you add to your smoothies.
15.Drink a Cup
Coffee – caffeine in particular – is good for your body, but only when consumed in moderation and with care. An espresso with no added sugar can boost your metabolism quite effectively. An Iced Tall Caramel Macchiato, on the other hand, will only get you high on sugar.
Drinking one or two cups of coffee a day is recommended. You can find caffeine from other sources too; tea works brilliantly and calms you while you enjoy it, making it a fantastic alternative to coffee.
16.Stick to a Schedule
Last but certainly not least, make sure you consume nutrients in a relatively scheduled way. You want to eat at roughly the same time every day to allow your body to react to the habit. Your body will actually prepare for the boost in energy once you start eating at predetermined times.
That’s it! With these tips in mind, you can get through your busiest days without breaking a sweat. Your body will get the nutrients it needs and the exercises it requires to stay active and energized. Enough rest at night completes the set.
