In a working lifestyle we start to feel time poor, start to take short cuts, easy ways out, such as unhealthy quick and easy food, rather than a healthy meal and exercise. The busy life causes us to become sluggish and less conscious of simple things we could be doing to stay healthy.
Since starting a full time office job here in Hong Kong, I have definitely found less time to stay healthy, or ‘excusing’ myself for being simply too tired from the day’s work. I felt the guilt of unhealthiness, so I started to look for simple ways in my day to day life to make it better.
Tip and tricks I’ve been doing in my day to day:
– Less sugar the better. If you can, try not putting sugar into your coffee. If you feel the need to drink something other sweet, don’t make soft drinks your go to, change it to juice. My go to juice is Orange juice, its rich in Vitamin C, boosting your immune system, we can’t afford to get sick with our busy lives and full time jobs!
– Power walk/pacing stairs to and from work. Everyday public transport to and from work, is probably the most amount of active time I get. Power walking works your leg muscles and gets the heart pumping, if you’re working up a sweat you’re working up your health! On the bright side you don’t look silly, you blend into the morning rush, and once you reach work you are energised for the day!
– Stretch at work. Avoid the paranoia those office health scares, get up every so often, walk around and do some stretches. Look away from the computer screen every so often, rub your eyes in a circular motion, bend your fingers, to avoid the strain of staring at the screen too long and typing too much.
– Put running gear out ready to go. Changing to a full time job I am guilty of excusing myself from exercise due to tiredness of the day. I go home, sit down and wonder to exercise or not, in most times, the seat has won. Pre-lay out your running gear ready for when you get home, look at it, put it on, and get out of the house, don’t give yourself the chance to think or sit, it works for me.
– Tea up your water. No doubt we have to stay hydrated, so what I do is slip a tea bag into that water. If you’re worried about that caffeine hit at night, don’t worry, I have the solution; green tea in the day, chrysanthemum in the night. There are a lot of benefits to tea, in a nutshell, green tea is well known for antioxidants and boosting metabolism (makes me feel better sitting in a chair most of the day), while chrysanthemum is rich source for vitamin A, B and C.
– Stay away from instant noodles if possible! I know they are quick/easy and the soup is tasty, but once you have finished it all you are left full, yet with the urge to continue snacking.
– Replace snacks with healthier options. Such as nuts and fruit rather than junk food. I constantly snack, not because I’m hungry, just out of habit, and changing to a full time job makes it hard to maintain the amount of junk food I used to eat. These alternatives come with many health benefits you would not get out of junk food and my personal go to snack is the super food pumpkin seeds.
More than a month into my full time job, I’m feeling vitalised and healthy
. The simple things we do, or don’t do, in our day to day lives can make all the difference in bettering ourselves for the future.
by Cathy