I love lists.
Lists order our world. They’re check-off-able. They’re useable action plans in small, discrete steps. Golly, I love lists.
Maybe you do, too?
Here’s my newest {love} list: the top 5 things you can do to both save yourself time & improve your state of health {your vibrancy. your radiance. your good looks. what Ayurveda calls ‘ojas.’ all that.}
I presented this list-o to the world last week in the form of a talk & people loved it! So I’m sharing the love with you, dear readers. {If you love this list, you can share it, too}. Be sure to read on to the end – I’ll include the link to the talk & the fancy pdf accoutrement. Holla!
Top 5 Time Saving Secrets to Vibrant Health
1} Streamline your Fiber Intake
Unless you’re living under a rock, you know that increasing your fiber intake is one of the best things to do to improve your heart health, reduce your weight, & regulate your digestion. But how many times have you wanted a salad, or some broccoli, or some yummy green things but didn’t have the 15, 20, or 30 minutes to prepare said items? Or found yourself in a vegetable vaccuum? I live in a small town, so vegetables here are potato chips, french fries, or fried okra. Hmmmm.
Yeah, you get fiber from things like whole grains but sometimes those are even harder to come by if you’re busy or if you’re racing around all over creation.
Here’s my solution: the green drink. There are SO many versions of this puppy, so I’ve streamlined it all for you in a neat lil’ pictograph. {another thing I love!!!} Feel free to share this one, too! In 5 minutes or less you can have yourself a mouthfull o’ magnesium, soluble & insoluble fiber, manganese, potassium, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, iron, calcium….need I go on?
It’s a whole lotta bang for your buck.
2} Excuse-proof your excercise
We’ve all been there. We want to exercise. It’s so easy to find an excuse NOT to, though. Solution? Find ways to excuse proof your fitness. I love these::
–> clear a space in your home for yoga if you want to have a home yoga practice
–> sleep in your running clothes
–> pack your gym back the night before & load it in your car
–> schedule yourself an alarm if you want a fit in a mid-day workout
–> change into your yoga/gym/running clothes before leaving work
Small steps like these can make all the difference in whether you spend your day blissed out from your yoga-high or frustrated by your lack of energy.
3} Take a day
Across cultures & throughout time, humans have held the idea of a day of rest, or Sabbath, sacred. Yet it’s easy to forget this when we have constant, ready-now, instant-access to anything & everything. Give yourself the opportunity to go stone age once a week. Unplug your electronics, forget about Facebook, spend time with your family or friends, & stop thinking about your J-O-B or how to build your business. Doing so sends your body the message that you’re taking time to rest, recharge, & reboot.
This one simple step helps reduce your stress load and lower your risk for chronic disease.
Chronic stress is the most insidious of the stress factors. Chronic stress unconconsiously reaks havoc on your immune system, your insulin response -a risk factor in diabetes, your digestive system, your metabolic system & your neurological activity. And high levels of chronic stress are correlated with chronic inflammatory diseases & autoimmune disorders like arthritis, ulcers, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, ALS, & fibromyalgia. Need more convincing or just wanna read more about the link between stress & disease? I’d recommend starting here or here.
4} Embrace the wisdom of time-blocking
I LOVE this concept & many many thanks to Racheal Cook of the Yogipreneur for sharing this technique {you can check out her awesome blog post to walk you through the exact steps here}. I’ve always been a ‘scheduler’ but this is such a different – more freeing! – approach that I think even you Type B’er’s out there will like this version.
Time blocking is NOT a rigid do-this-right-now schedule. It’s a method of organizing your time so you’re more effectively accomplishing tasks. I’ve added a little spin on this; if you’re a morning person, who does your best thinking/creating/developing/working in those morning hours, then block your daily tasks to reflect that natural tendency. Likewise, if you’re naturally a little low energy during the later afternoon or evening hours, choose small tasks that are no-brainers for those hours of your day {example: paying bills, doing your daily social media posts, light housework or organization}.
I’m a creative type who needs time to read & write every day; I also like to keep up on my weekly housework by doing a little every day. And, I’m a mommy with an 18-month at home who {Praise BE!} still usually takes 2 naps a day. So I group my meditation, client calls, content creation, & work stuff during her naps or daycare time, my studying & reading time before she wakes up, & my light housework during my later evening hours. My model calendar looks like this:
Yours might look similar – or totally different based on your strengths, your family situation, & your daily tasks. The important thing to remember is that this is a ‘soft’ plan to encourage doing certain things at the ideal time for you.
for our last Time-Saving Secret, I want you to bear with me until I make a case, ok?
5} Prepare your own food
Many of my clients struggle to eat healthfully on a busy schedule. One of the things I hear the most from people is that they want to eat better but they don’t cook. I get it. I used to be the same way. When I started college, I was your stereotypical college kid – eating from the cafeteria, pizza, take-out, frozen foods, you name it. BUT, I really wanted to avoid the ‘freshman 15′ AND my roommates were vegetarian. Vege-whah?
I jumped on the veggie bandwagon {yay for positive peer pressure!} and abso-friggin’-lutely had to learn some kitchen & food prep basics because all I knew how to cook was lasagna, hamburger helper, & tuna fish casserole. As a poor college kid, my options {& resources} were limited…so, I started hanging out with chefs.
Nowadays, you can take a kitchen basics class for under a couple hundred bucks. Or you can do what I did & find some chef friends. Or you can get some kitchen basics & learn how to cook ‘template’ style {no recipes or cookbooks needed!} in my virtual program.
Learning how to prepare your own food will save you thousands of dollars & over a week of your life just this year.
Sound like something you’d be into? Thought so…head on over here to get the time-saving party started!…
Sign up now
{ 0 comments… add one now }