6 Tips for Balancing Career & Health
Maintaining the balance between a healthy lifestyle and successful career is HARD. It often feels like a juggling act to eat properly and exercise when you’re dedicating so much of your time to climbing the corporate ladder.
But I am here to tell you that you DO NOT have to give up one for the other. It is absolutely possible to maintain your health while totally ROCKING your career.
Before becoming a full time online health coach, I was a young logistics professional with an EXTREMELY time consuming career. My role required me to be on call 24/7, which meant my hours were ALL over the place ALL THE TIME. Some days I was finished working at 3 pm. Other days I was up at 3 AM. In the midst of all of the craziness, I was also sticking to a very consistent training schedule and still managed to compete in a bikini competition amidst all the madness. I can’t pretend it was easy. But it’s absolutely POSSIBLE.
If you’re truly ready to make a lifestyle change for yourself and prioritize your health, you will make it happen. That being said, here are my top tips for balancing your boss babe career with a bangin’ fitness routine!
-
Set a schedule that you KNOW you can commit to.
Unpopular opinion here but I’d rather you UNDER schedule than OVER schedule your training. Psychologically, you will feel much more encouraged and able to stick to a routine if you’re conservative with your expectations to start out.
I highly recommend starting out with a 3 day split. 3 days is a reasonable time commitment each week for most women and still allows you sufficient recovery time. Plus, it gives you wiggle room for those long days where you just know the gym simply isn’t in the cards!
You will find that this strategy will leave you feeling motivated by your ability to better commit to the routine. If you launch into a 6 day training split right off the bat and then can’t maintain it, you’re more likely to give into the f*** it mentality of “I already ruined my progress so I might as well give up.”
Want to give a 3 day training split a try? I have some awesome free workouts for you HERE.
2. Prep your food ahead of time and always have snacks portioned out and ready to go!
The easiest way to ensure your success for the work week ahead is to utilize your weekend to meal prep. I was always most likely to fall off my diet when I didn’t have any food readily made for my return home from work. When I’m tired from a long day, there’s almost 0 chance I have the energy to cook something. I realized that’s when I’d immediately turn to junk food and high calorie snack options that were ready made and at my fingertips.
Not to mention, even when I would force myself to cook after getting home from work, I usually mindlessly snacked my way through the whole process! Don’t do this!!
I recommend meal prepping ALL of your food on the weekend. Even breakfast if you’re someone that likes to have something hearty in the morning! As far as snacks go, weigh and pre portion them into baggies. You can even scan them into My Fitness Pal ahead of time so they’re already accounted for in your macros for the day.
Which brings me to my next point.
3. Create a flexible meal plan for yourself ahead of time.
I do not recommend sticking to a meal plan full time because I believe that you have to enjoy flexibility with your diet to live a full, happy, healthy life. All of my clients are coached with a flexible dieting approach. However, some weeks, “winging it” just isn’t feasible.
When your work week is looking extra busy, I recommend setting loose meal plans for yourself! Schedule out and weigh all of your food ahead of time so you don’t have to deal with the stress of measuring, counting, and finding foods that fit your macros in the middle of a stressful day.
4. Take a small exercise break mid work day.
Every day at 10 am and 2 pm, my entire office would drop what they were doing and do a 6 minute plank challenge - yes, 6 minutes!! Doing that twice a day was a great way to squeeze in some core work and get the blood flowing between working at the computer all day.
It’s a great way to get some quick stress relief and it shortened my time in the gym after work because I knew my core workout was already done!
5. Have a list of healthy options from your favorite restaurants readily available to you!
Some days, meal prepping just ain’t happenin’. Some days you’re stressed out and all you wanna do is hit your favorite drive thru for some comfort food! Crappy work days can be your downfall if you run to junk food every time your day is chaos. But they don’t HAVE to be your end all!
Make a cheat sheet of some of your favorite quick and easy places to pick up your happy foods and find options that won’t blow all of your macros in one meal! Especially when I was on bikini competition prep, I found this extremely helpful!
Here are some of my own favorites:
- Spinach & feta wrap from Starbucks
- Grilled chicken nuggets from Chick fil a
- Chipotle chicken burrito bowl with white rice, fajita veggies, salsa, corn, lettuce, and cheese
These were my go-to’s when I really just needed to eat something delicious and hearty without cooking myself!
6. Get some resistance bands and dumbbells for home.
Some days, making it to the gym feels like pulling teeth. You come up with every excuse in the book because you just don’t have the energy. Skip the hours of trying to talk yourself out of the trip and get some equipment for your home!
On days where a trip to the gym just won’t happen, you can squeeze in a nice little at home lift with very little equipment! You’ll be glad that you stuck to your workout commitment and you can skip the drive to and from.
I recommend getting a set of band loops with different resistance levels and at least two pairs of weights: a heavier pair for lower body and a lighter pair for upper body.
I hope these tips were helpful for you! Good health and a shining career does not need to be an either/or scenario. You CAN have both and you deserve to have both!
Are you struggling to maintain the balance? Is it feeling impossible to juggle 9-5 life with the gym? Do you find yourself making crappy decisions with your diet because of work stress? Do you get home from work and make every excuse in the book to avoid getting up to hit the weights?
I can work with you to create a customized training and nutrition program that will get you results WITHOUT interfering with your career aspirations! If you're ready to find the balance between your career and a healthy, happy lifestyle, you can Apply Here for Customized Training & Nutrition Coaching.
Once I receive your application, if I believe you are a good fit for this program, I will reach out with information about the program/pricing and answer any questions you may have!
