Staying fit and healthy requires commitment, knowledge and a dose of good luck in the genetic lottery. One of the most important ways you can regain control of your health is to stick to a schedule. Here are the key elements you need to plan around.
Exercise picture from Shutterstock
Make Time In Your Diary For Exercise
“I don’t have time to exercise” is one of the most common excuses for being unfit. The solution is simple: make time, literally, by putting an appointment for exercise on your calendar. And treat it like an unskippable work meeting: this is something you have to do.
When you schedule that will depend on your on planning and your daily cycle. But if you consistently tell yourself you’ll head to the gym after work but then never do that, it’s time to break the pattern. Set your alarm an hour earlier, and go before you hit work. (Yes, you can train yourself to become a morning person.) Clothing picture from Shutterstock
Embrace Meal Planning
The first step on the road to obesity is grabbing food on the run all the time, instead of planning what you’re going to eat. Working out a weekly meal plan gives you a much better chance of achieving nutritional balance — plus you’ll save money compared to drive-by gorging.
Check our in-depth guide to how to plan your meals. This doesn’t require heaps of time every day — do some cooking on the weekend and you can be good to go all week. Picture: Daniel Hanson
Schedule Time To Improve Your Health Knowledge
Health and fitness is an area that’s rife with myths and fallacies. If you’ve convinced yourself that microwaving food ruins its nutritional value, you’ll waste a lot of time in the cooking process. If you’re trying to burn fat in specific areas through spot training, you’re on a hiding to nothing.
The way to overcome ignorance is knowledge, and the best way to build knowledge is to schedule time occasionally to do thorough research. Seek out information from real experts, not marketers. Picture: Army Mil
Have An Annual Medical Check-Up
Especially when you’re young and feel healthy, it’s easy to skip an annual medical check: who wants to waste the time and spend the money? But that’s a dangerous way of thinking. If there are issues, the earlier you’ve identified them, the earlier you can deal with them. So make an annual appointment part of your routine
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