We’re all aware that we need to eat well and that we need to exercise thoroughly and regularly in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This is a given and something that has been drilled into us from childhood. But when you have kids of your own, you can quickly begin to find that maintaining and managing a healthy lifestyle alongside an often hectic and cramped schedule is a lot more difficult than it sounds. So many of us slip into bad habits – skipping workouts, opting for junk food or convenience food to cut down on cooking times and cleaning up, and much more. This is understandable. You have little ones to raise. Work and chores to do. Social schedules to try to keep up with on top of this. Healthy and clean living might not rank that highly in your immediate list of priorities. But the good news is that it is possible to fit these things into your lifestyle by force of habit. They are things that should become routine and a given. This way, you can live your life and be healthy at the same time. Here are a few suggestions that can help you to achieve this!
Manage Your Calorie Intake
So many of us end up eating too many calories or too few calories on a daily basis. This isn’t okay! Even as a one off, it can impact your health. As a regular part of your routine, it could have hugely negative consequences on your wellbeing. So, understand how many calories you should be eating on a daily basis and try to meet this figure closely. It’s recommended that active women below the age of 30 should have 2400 calories a day, while sedentary women under the age of 30 should have between 1800 and 2000 calories a day. Active adults over the age of 30 should consume between 2000 and 3000 calories daily, while sedentary adults over 30 should eat between 1600 and 2400 calories daily. If in doubt, ask your doctor for some guidance and advice. This may sound complex, but once you’ve found this information out once, you can stick with it for a long time and manage your calorie intake without even thinking much about it.
Meal Prep
Meal prepping is key to maintaining a healthy diet when you have little spare time on your hands. Rather than calling for a takeaway or going to a drive thru, you will have the ingredients for your meals ready and waiting to simply be heated up, thrown in a pressure cooker or cooked in a small amount of time. Dedicate set evenings in your week to meal prepping and this will take pressure off you when you have less free time.
Ask Your Doctor About Specialist Diets
There are, of course, a number of specialist diets out there, listing specific foods to eat and when and how you should be eating them. These can be effective as a short term kickstart to your weight loss journey. Some diets will offer bars, meals or different flavour shakes that are convenient for those of us who are on the move or who don’t have much time to prepare healthy meals throughout the day ourselves.
Hire a Personal Trainer
Exercise is also an extremely important part of keeping fit. You should get one hundred and fifty minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week or seventy five minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise a week. When it comes down to it, even the busiest of us can spare this time spread out over some days or packed into a couple. But many of us simply don’t feel like we have the energy or effort. To get yourself on track, hire a personal trainer. These professionals will encourage you to actually attend your fitness sessions – after all, you’ll be paying for nothing if you fail to go. You also can’t back out of workouts last minute, as they’ll be waiting for you.
Find Exercise You Enjoy
People are less likely to dedicate their rare free time to something if they don’t enjoy it. By finding a form of exercise you enjoy, you’re more likely to actively fit it into your schedule and attend. Remember, there are countless options out there. This could be something basic like going to the gym if you like controlled environments out of the elements. This could be going for an outdoors jog, run or cycle if you do like exercising outdoors. It could be a sports team if you’re social. It could be a fitness class if you like to be guided. It could be anything you wish it to be – even more obscure activities like fencing, ballet or track and field activities.
Exercise With Your Kids
Kids need exercise. You need exercise. You may not be able to find care for your kids while you exercise. So, why not combine these things together and exercise with your kids. There are all sorts of activities that could not only improve your health, but could help you to bond and spend some quality time with your kids too. There are so many family orientated activities that you could try out. Going for a hike in a safe and signposted area. Going for a day at the local pool. Dancing in the lounge. Playing in the garden. These are all fun things to do that your kids will enjoy and that you don’t have to source extra time to engage with!
These, of course, are just a few suggestions. Hopefully, some will help you to maintain a healthy lifestyle around a busy family schedule! Each step could prove extremely beneficial, so they’re worth taking into consideration and maybe even trying out!