Living a Harmonious Life

The term work life balance has been tossed around for years and let's face it, most of the time it's not a 50/50 when it comes to work and life. Most of the times we spend more hours doing one thing over the other, therefore the term work life harmony better suits a fierce women's busy lifestyles. So how do we maintain a harmonious life filled with health, wellness, and happiness while still spending 40+ hours working?

 Here are a few tips to help you live a more harmonious life:

• Get into a routine. Create a daily routine and stick to it. This can be a morning routine or evening routine. Personally, mornings are a more productive time and I like the feeling of getting things accomplished before 8am. Some of the most successful business owners will tell you that the hours from 4am-8am are their most productive hours, your mind is clear and there are less distractions during this time.
  

Mornings are my time to wake up, stretch, take my vitamins with 8oz of water, floss  and brush my teeth, and do some form of physical activity. That physical component can be hitting the weights, going for a run, doing some yoga, or simply dancing about my room like nobody's watching. Either way it is 15-45 min of some physical activity, my time to myself before my crazy busy day begins.

If afternoons are more your style then simply pack your gym bag the night before, place it in your car along with some snacks. Therefore you have no excuse on why you can’t hit the gym after work. You are not tempted to rush home grab a bite to eat and change your clothes. Most likely if you head directly home after work, you will be less motivated to go to the gym. Personally, I know that when I head home, I lounge around and before I know it it's dinner time and then 8pm and I tell myself, oh it's too late to go workout and just call it a day. Don’t let temptation ruin your workout session, go from work directly to the gym and make sure you eat your snack an hour before your workout.

• Create a Schedule. Schedule in your workouts, your work, your family time, and your non-negotiables and “me time.”Non-negotiables are the things that you do not give up. That can be your hour of reading or watching your favorite show,  a yoga session with your friends, dinner with the family, or a spa day. This is your most valuable time and no matter that happens you do not negotiate this allotted time.

 

•  Set boundaries. This goes hand in hand with the previous two tips. Don’t overload your schedule, or you will become stressed out. Learn how to say no to people and have boundaries on how much time you are going to allocate to things are not your top priority. I am currently working on setting my own boundaries. My boundaries are turning off my phone from 10pm-7am so I can relax and not scheduling anything on Sunday unless it is with my family. Sundays are officially my personal and family time.

  Tips to staying healthy during your busy work week

• Cook more often or cook larger portions. I love the crockpot for busy women. Lets face it who has time to cook for 45min to an hour every evening? On those busy days when you know you have meetings lined up after work, all you want to do is come home to a hot meal. I have become a pro at prepping crock pot meals in advance. Example: chop up all of your veggies and your meat and freeze them. Then simply, pull them out of the freezer the night before to defrost. The next morning, dump them along with your seasoning packets and liquid into the crockpot, set the timer and go to work. You will come home to a healthy, home cooked meal without slaving in the kitchen.
• Leftovers are your best friend. I love leftovers for two reasons: 1) they are my healthy, budget friendly lunch, or  2) they are dinner the next evening. Leftovers stops me from going out to eat at work and buying something unhealthy and they save me from spending money. Make your coworkers jealous with a hot cooked meal for lunch.

 

• Load your office drawer with healthy snacks and drinks. I buy in bulk and bring bags of healthy snacks to work. I am not tempted to buy something out of the vending machine. This save me money and wards off unnecessary pounds.

 

• Start an exercise group at work.  If you have an hour for lunch why not spends part of it working out. It can be as simple as going for a walk, or run, or doing a full 30 min cardio workout if you have the space. I have friends who do this daily. They run on their breaks or do a 30 min workout DVD with their co-workers during lunch. If you do this I advise bringing baby wipes, travel deodorant, and body spray with you so you can feel fresh and clean after your lunch break workout.

 

• Take the stairs and park far from your building. Yeah, you have heard about this before take the stairs and park as far away from the entrance as you can. You will be surprised how those extra steps add up.

 

•  Buy a fitness tracker. Motivated by friendly competition? Then purchase a fitness tracker and create group challenges. This keeps you motivated to take those extra steps or the stairs.
• Money motivated? Join a fitness challenge. I host frequent fitness challenges for my clients that consist of them tracking daily activities such as: drinking water, completing 10+ minutes of exercise, eating green vegetables, eating lean protein and so forth. The entry fee goes towards prizes and my clients love seeing how their points stack up against others.  Go to Fiercewomenlift.com and subscribe to the email list to be notified of our next challenge and enrollment date.