The short answer to this question is preparation and consistency.
Here at Club One Hundred in Leigh on Sea, Essex we have helped and are still helping many people achieve a wide range of health and fitness goals and become healthier and happier individuals.
Although the personalities, time restraints and work and family commitments of these people have been extremely diverse, one thing remains the same throughout.
Whether they want to lose excess body fat, gain muscle, reduce pain in the body or increase cardiovascular health they ALL needed to prepare and plan a way to achieve their desired goals.
Just think, how many times have you either missed a workout or eaten something ‘on the road’ rather then something good for you?
Were you forced into doing that? The answer you’re looking for here is no!
Did you prepare your lunch the night before?
Did you plan to get up early to get a healthy breakfast in before the ‘morning rush’?
Did you plan to get up earlier to exercise before work?
Did you prepare your gym bag with your kit and a towel the night before?
Now we know some of you will argue that you don’t have the time to exercise before work or prepare meals for the following day, but we think that EVERYONE has the time, after all we all have the same 24 hours, it’s what you do with them that counts.
TOP PREPARATION TIPS FOR HEALTHY EATING
COOKING IN BULK
Ok lets say you are extremely busy Monday-Friday with work, commuting, family/ social commitments etc. Use the weekends to prepare your healthy meals for the week, for example on a Sunday evening spend an hour or so, preparing and cooking a variety of vegetables, meats and fish and distributing them into different containers and either freezing them or keeping them in the fridge ready for the week ahead.
If you have a bit more time, say a spare half hour each evening then you could and should prepare your meals for the following day each night.
Nuts such as almonds, macadamias, brazils, hazelnuts, walnuts as well as berries like blueberries, blackberries and raspberries plus seeds like pumpkin, sesame, and sunflower are all great snacks as they are ready to eat and good for you!
Choose a selection of your favorites and bag them up and leave them on your desk, in the car or in your travel bag so you have no excuse if you get caught ‘out and about’!
*Obviously check that you are not allergic to nuts first!
QUICK BREAKFAST IDEAS
Breakfast is one of the main things we see people struggling with, normally due to a lack of time.
Now before we share a few quick breakfast meals with you ask yourself this question.
‘If I were to get up 20, 30 or even 60 minutes earlier would I have time for breakfast then?’
We’ll touch more on that in a moment, but here are a few quick breakfast ideas that I use or suggest for my clients:
- Scrambled eggs with veg
Pick 3-4 cold veggies that you like (think beetroot, tomatoes, spinach, watercress, peppers, onions etc) chop them up and put them on your plate the night before, then in the morning it will take you about 3 minutes to crack 2-3 eggs into a mixing bowl add a little pepper for flavour if you like, then whisk it up, put it in the pan, heat it and add it to your veggies.
- Healthy cereal!
Without going into too much detail, because of the levels of dairy and grains, normal cereal is BAD for you!
As an alternative use either coconut or almond milk with a few of your favorite nuts, seeds and berries for a no dairy, no grains, very time efficient, healthy breakfast!
- Seafood salad
Again another quick and easy meal that could even be made the night before!
Just chop up a few of your favorite veggies, add them along with some prawns or mussels or crab sticks or a few of each to a plate and there you are!
GET UP EARLIER!
This one is self explanatory, although can be the hardest thing to do, BUT you will feel a lot better for it if it means the difference between ‘running on empty’ and having a nice, healthy breakfast!
TOP PREPARATION TIPS FOR REGULAR EXERCISE
CREATE A WEEKLY SCHEDULE
By creating a realistic exercise schedule you will see that 2-3, 30 minute sessions a week will be easy to fit into your life, it doesn’t have to be much to start, as long as your working hard and progressively improving each week.
PRIORITISE EXERCISE!
Exercise is important, treat it that way!
It has been proven that exercise improves your mood by releasing hormones called endorphins into the brain. It is also a great way to improve mental alertness and productivity at work.
If you add this to the health and fitness benefits then you can surely appreciate how important exercise is for you.
What we suggest is to use your smart phone or diary and PRIORITISE your exercise sessions as an important or the MOST important part of your day, treat it as a crucial work meeting or family commitment.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Hopefully this article has helped or will help you to eat and move more frequently and in a more healthy manner.
As we stated at the beginning of this article consistency is massive to achieving a healthy lifestyle. Add some of the above points into your days/week and then make sure they become a consistent part of your new healthy lifestyle.
We hope you start to reap the benefits soon.
‘If you don’t prepare, you’re preparing to fail!”
The Team at Club One Hundred