Stress, chores, responsibilities, not enough time to sleep, no time for yourself, struggling to eat properly, and a general feeling of underachieving and fatigue. Nobody wants to feel like this but it’s all too common when you are busy juggling a job with family commitments, while trying to stay on top of running a home too.
You probably can’t remember the last time you actually sat down to eat breakfast, relaxed in a hot bath, did some exercise you actually enjoyed, or had some personal time to do just what you wanted to. If this sounds painfully like your life then it’s time to take a step back, and get things in order.
By introducing and maintaining both a healthy diet and a fitness routine which suit your lifestyle, tastes, and interests you can transform your life; and enjoy the many benefits these changes will make to both your social and your work life.
What is a good diet?
There’s no one simple answer to this question; after all, if you look at every country around the world you’ll see many of them favor quite different types of food  and styles of eating; with potato, rice, pasta, beans and other items as staples, cultures where eating early in the day is normal, and others where dining mid-evening is standard. Some diets consist mainly of fresh and unprocessed foods, while others are based around convenience and speed — designed to be eaten at speed and quite possibly alone.
Rather than debate the benefits of high protein, low fat, or indeed any other kind of eating plan it makes sense to assume a healthy diet is one which does what it is meant to. If you have enough energy, you look well, you feel satisfied but not bloated after eating, and you are not gaining or losing weight then you are probably eating okay.
How about a good fitness routine?
The usual figures quoted recommend, (depend on age and current physical health), doing something which gets us out of breath for more than an instant — several times a week. However, this does not have to mean trudging to the gym every second day- unless you really want to, of course. Doing something you enjoy, or incorporating exercise into daily tasks and chores, is just as good.
The benefits of maintaining a good diet for your social and work life
For most of us food is fun. It’s something we share with others, a reason to get together, something we give and receive as gifts — from homemade cakes to chocolates on a birthday; and food tastes great, or at least it should!
On the downside, getting into a bad way of eating, whether that’s caused by choosing the wrong kind of foods or struggling with average portion sizes, can lead to both your social and work life suffering.
Let’s look in more detail at the benefits you gain both socially and work-wise from both establishing, and then sticking with, a good diet.
Maintaining a good diet:
- helps you sleep better, which gives you the energy to enjoy a social life after work and at the weekend
- helps you perform well at work, and reach your full potential
- makes you feel good about yourself, which makes it easier to form and maintain friendships and romantic relationships
- makes you say yes to doing more than you would otherwise
- helps maintain a good level of health so you can avoid being ill as often
- contributes to healthy weight maintenance, which gives you the freedom to feel good in everything you wear
- widens your palette as you get to eat food from a variety of different cultural cuisines
The benefits of maintaining a good fitness routine for your social and work life
Physical fitness is a topic which seems to be all over the media these days, with various experts promoting their particular opinions on how to get fitter, and the benefits of doing so.
Few people would disagree with the basic idea that regular exercise of some sort should be part of our lifestyle and routine, though that may be an overwhelming thought for those who are seriously out of shape.
Perhaps the answer is to consider all physical movement an achievement, and to build that up gradually into a more considered fitness routine as that becomes more realistic. For example, you don’t need to run up and down several flights of stairs, instead try walking down one flight at work or home instead of taking the elevator, and when that becomes comfortable increase it to two, and so on.
You will soon start to notice the many benefits a good fitness routine offers for your work and social life, and here we consider those in a little more detail.
A good fitness routine:
- improves self-image, which boosts self-confidence and the ability to achieve
- releases endorphins – a chemical in your brain which banishes stress and makes you feel positive and happy
- helps people feel empowered, that nothing they want in life is impossible
- makes you feel good about yourself, which in turn makes it easier to form and maintain positive relationships with others
- is also a good way to make new friends and contacts — as you have at least one thing in common
- creates discipline in your life, which can help achieve more and improve your performance at work
- is an excellent way to reduce, and begin to manage, anxiety and depression related conditions which can really hold you up both career-wise and socially
- can help you regulate appetite and maintain a healthy weight naturally, with less need to think about calories or restrict certain foods
There are lots of great online resources around, such as DietFitnessKing.com, which have useful article and tips on living a healthy lifestyle. Could today be the day when you get started on making the changes you want to see in your life?
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