5 Fitness Tips for Working Professionals

We have all read a lot of stuff on how to be great at the workplace. But what about the workplace called life? Being a hardworking professional probably means that most of your time is spent either commuting or at the office. It can be difficult to find time to get your daily workouts in, which is why so many professionals slowly get more and more out of shape over the years.

Since “Health is Wealth” is a generally accepted truism, I want to list the 5 tips that I personally follow to make time for health in my busy professional life:

1. Start the day with a healthy breakfast

I love a healthy breakfast because it gives energy for the entire day! With the hectic work and travel schedules of working professionals, making sure you have breakfast as a priority meal for the day is important. Packing your breakfast with grains, carbohydrates, proteins and fiber will give you the wholesome nutrition that your body needs to kickstart the day.

2.Take the Stairs

This is something I try to do as often as possible despite being a lazy bum! Take the stairs both up and down any time you need to enter or exit the building, and you’ll do a leg workout that’s great cardio as well. It burns calories, works out your heart and by the way gives you more time to chat with colleagues ;-)!

3.Accept no Excuses for not working out

I try to be as professional about health as I am about work so I don’t accept excuses for not working out AT ALL! I believe it is OK to be selfish about health. Working late? Don’t let that stop you from hitting the gym after work, or getting up a bit earlier for your run. It can be hard to work out earlier in the morning or later at night, but if it’s the only way to actually fit it in, then do it!

4.Find office buddies with a passion for fitness

:This is a wonderful technique which helps all the office buddies get fit. Need help to motivate yourself to get your workout in? Find a friend at the office that will work out with you, and go for training sessions together. Make it your daily goal to motivate each other. I have found this to be a great technique which makes the competition healthy-literally!

5.Eat healthy at work and when you travel

The hardest thing that most of us find difficult to do is to consciously eat healthy at work. I try to ensure that I eat home cooked food whenever possible, no matter how much tempting the food at the local restaurant is! Besides saving your hard earned money, you give yourself the gift of health since you avoid unknown oils, fats and other unhealthy stuff used by restaurants.

Most often travels are planned. And if you travel often it is very important to take that extra time to find good, simple places that have options for you to eat healthy.

Avoid oily junk foods and try to work on light balanced meals like soup and salads along with a toast or similar options that you would normally eat at home.

Fitness is definitely something I am very passionate about and I would love to know other ways of getting and remaining fit. Drop in some of your very own techniques in the comments!

This article originally appeared here.