Prioritizing Health and Fitness for Professionals

We get it, you are busy, but you’ve got time for your health and fitness. There is always time – just ask multimillionaire entrepreneur Jesse Itzler who learned a hundred push-ups and sit-ups can easily be done between meetings when he hired a seal to follow him around for a month in his book, “Living with a Seal.” Fitness can easily be added into your busy corporate schedule – you just need to make it happen.

Schedule and prioritize it.
On Sunday afternoon take a look at your week and spend a few minutes throwing your workouts in your calendar. If a day looks impossible to get a workout in, figure out where you can pencil in 5 minutes to do some basic body weight exercises such as squats, push-ups, or sit-ups. Three continuous rounds of 10 squats, 5 pushups, and 10 situps is an infinitely better workout than nothing and takes just a few minutes. You have 5 minutes somewhere, I promise.

Share your goals with co-workers.
Tell your fellow coworkers about your fitness goals. This will not only make them real, but hold you accountable to them. You will also be better understood when you say no when Fred asks you to go to lunch or Barbara offers you cake for Jackie’s birthday.

Master your morning.
There is a reason some of the most brilliant and successful people wake up super early. The morning can be your time to get your workouts done. Your family is probably still asleep, you don’t have any chores to do, and your boss doesn’t expect you to respond to an email at 5 am. Waking up early will also give you more mental strength and empower you to succeed at your goals. A morning workout can lead to more energy throughout the day both physically and cognitively.

Get the office involved.
You aren’t convincing everyone to go sky diving with you. Everyone at the root of it would like to be healthier, so get your office involved in your new fitness habit. Ask you boss about sponsoring a weight loss challenge, hold a push-up contest on Friday afternoons, or start a petition to leave tempting treats like cake, donuts, and cookies out of the office kitchen.

Be proactive, especially with your food.
Don’t wait for shit to happen, make it happen for yourself. Plan out what you are going to eat on a daily basis and bring yourself enough snacks to get you through the day. Don’t wait until lunchtime to decide what you are going to eat, know ahead of time. If you are going on a business lunch, check out the menu ahead of time to see how it can fit into your nutrition for the day.

​Get it done.
All this sounds good and great, until it comes down to actually doing it. Don’t just read articles like this that give you the stepping stones for success. Put them into practice and hold yourself accountable.