There are a lot of things that can happen every day. Your life is a balance between obligations and personal goals. With the constant give and take of your time, you have to make choices and prioritize. Unfortunately, your fitness and health goals usually suffer because of it.
If you stopped exercising, put personal projects on hold, or eat takeout to make more time, the sooner you can forgive yourself for backburning your health, the quicker you can get back on track. Let’s look at some of the more common killers to your fitness and health goals and tips to avoid them.
Sleep
You are likely not one of those people who can survive and thrive with less than 6 hours of sleep every night. You may think so because you get through the week with less than ideal sleep and then sleep more on the weekends. This strategy will only lead to sleep deprivation and leave you feeling exhausted both physically and mentally. The more exhausted you feel, the less motivated you are. As a result, you begin to procrastinate to feel some relief. Moreover, you skip important self-care activities, such as preparing meals, exercising, or doing the things you enjoy, even if they require minimal effort.
To get back on track, you must get enough sleep every night and establish a consistent sleeping schedule every day of the week, including weekends. If you already have to wake up most days at a specific time, you can figure out the right time to go to bed to get enough rest to recharge your body and mind.
Daily Schedule
If your schedule is filled with meetings and appointments, it likely doesn’t include exercise. If you don’t have a daily schedule, creating one can establish a structure for your day. Scheduling time to exercise can help you get in some physical activity to maintain your fitness and health goals.
Fortunately, exercise can be as little as 10 minutes a day. Also, it can break up your day to clear your mind and help you refocus. If you can’t get away from work, schedule a morning workout to invigorate yourself early or an evening workout to burn off stress from your day. Regardless, scheduling exercise can improve your fitness and let you reap the benefits of regular exercise.
Stress
Stress can come from many places, such as work, personal relationships, health, or exercise. Thankfully, stress from exercise can be fixed by taking a break or engaging in less strenuous workouts for a few days so your body can recover.
On the other hand, stress from work and personal life isn’t as easy to address. Stress can easily creep up on you. Therefore, you must remain mindful of sources of stress and attempt to manage it before it becomes a problem. If stress is already out of control, then you should examine the sources of stress and try to reduce or eliminate them. Thankfully, exercise can help relieve some of your stress.
Low Energy Levels
Low energy results from various factors such as stress, lack of exercise, poor diet, or inadequate sleep. If you frequently experience these factors, you will feel tired and lethargic. Furthermore, you can quickly compound your to-do list by procrastinating on tasks because you feel tired and burned out. This can lead to negative self-talk, feeling overwhelmed, and perceiving that you have no time.
Unfortunately, drinking caffeine and energy drinks isn’t the solution. Instead, make positive changes to improve your sleep, eat a balanced diet, exercise more, and reduce stress. If you have several changes to make, then start with one. Once you address one problem, you can make other changes and slowly improve your energy level. In time, you will have enough energy to meet all your obligations and have more time to do what you want.
Poor Diet
Proper nutrition from a balanced diet is critical to provide your body with the nutrients it needs. As a result, you’ll have more energy and the building blocks to help keep your body in working order. Unfortunately, you will feel tired and lethargic if you frequently eat fast food or skip meals. Furthermore, you’ll only compound the problem if you aren’t drinking enough water.
Fortunately, you don’t have to follow a specific diet. Instead, eat meals with a variety of healthy fats, protein, fruits, and vegetables. If you can accomplish that, your mind and body will thank you by improving your energy levels and mood.
Age
Age is but a number. However, if you haven’t exercised in a while, you may feel tired, out of shape, and old. Thankfully, you can turn it around with some basic movement. You can start with small changes such as walking, stretching, or yoga. In time, you can work up to more vigorous activities like biking, hiking, or running. Whatever you do, exercising improves your fitness and helps you feel stronger, more positive, and energetic.
The Takeaway
You want to stay healthy and fit throughout your life. However, life can derail your efforts, making it harder to keep your health and fitness goals a priority. Therefore, eating right, maintaining a healthy weight, managing stress, regularly exercising, and getting enough sleep is important. As a result, you’ll keep your energy levels and mood up, feel more balanced, and be ready to tackle every day.
FitTrend’s mission is to help you along your self-improvement journey, promote an active lifestyle, and help you achieve your goals. Our journal can help you track your workouts, weight, mood, calories, and more. Also, FitTrend allows you to connect supported gadgets to your account to make it easier for you to update your journal automatically. Create your account today and start using FitTrend for free!
Disclaimer: No content on this site should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
