Making Time for Your Health

Photo by Jordan Benton: https://www.pexels.com/photo/shallow-focus-of-clear-hourglass-1095601/

Most of us lead pretty busy lives. Between work, family obligations, keeping up a home, and doom-scrolling our social media feeds, it can be a challenge to find time for things like exercise and fixing healthy meals.

Some years ago, I had young woman patient who was pouring all of her time and energy into a business venture. Despite her youth, the long, stressful hours would periodically take their toll, resulting in some pretty major episodes of neck pain and headaches.

When those symptoms finally built up to the point at which she could no longer tolerate them, she’d come to see me, always in a rush, always keeping a close eye on the clock, and always muttering to herself that she “didn’t have time for this.”

I learned that she was working insane hours and was not getting any exercise. She was mostly eating fast food on the go, and not doing anything to manage her stress – she was just grinding it out day after day. She was using caffeine and other stimulants to keep her going and to compensate for getting minimal sleep.

She was fully caught up and absorbed in her work, but not in the reasonably healthy, “I love my job” kind of way, but more like the “I’m going to be successful if it kills me” way.

After a few episodes of pain crisis management, I brought up the fact that it seemed like a big part of her problem was stress and overwork and I suggested she re-consider some of her priorities to try to achieve a more balanced life. I think it’s fair to say that she immediately dismissed my suggestion as ridiculous, judging by the look of derision and intense eyeroll she gave me.

But I finally did get through to her… a little bit, when I said, “You have a choice. You can choose to take better care of yourself on your terms and on your schedule, or your can keep going as you have been and your body will eventually demand attention - and it’s most likely going to do it when it’s least convenient for you.”

She did improve somewhat after that, walking when talking on her phone and eating meals (still mostly fast food, but at least somewhat healthier options) at home or at her work desk, rather than while driving. She also started coming to see me when the neck pain and headaches started, rather than waiting for weeks for them to intensify to the point where she couldn’t stand it.

Ultimately, she wound up burning out, changing jobs, and moving out of state. I like to think that at some point she started taking better care of herself.

Being driven can have its rewards, but not when you drive yourself over a cliff!

Most people aren’t quite as extreme as she was in terms of neglecting their health in favor of work or some other perceived obligation, but it’s still pretty common for people to be more consistently unhealthy with their habits and time than healthy.

A few hours of exercise per week along with a few more hours of healthy meal preparation and stress management activities can pay off big in a lot of ways.

In addition to reducing the chances and frequency of a variety of health crises, living a healthier lifestyle usually improves one’s energy, mood, and motivation and typically makes one more effective and efficient in their work activities and carrying out what needs to be done in their personal lives.

It can be difficult to re-prioritize and re-allocate your time to allow for exercise, eating well, getting plenty of sleep, and controlling your stress, so my suggestion is to do it a little at a time, rather than making massive changes across the board that may add up to too much of a change to stick to long-term.

My recommendation is to choose one thing to work on and figure out how to fit it into your schedule. A lot of times, there’s things we imagine to be important and useful ways to spend time that upon further review are not really serving us. For instance, surfing your social media feeds can kill a ton of time and probably is not enriching your life very much. The time spent on those things that feel important but actually aren’t is a good first choice for re-allocating to healthier activities and habits.

Once you’ve developed one healthier habit, choose another to work into your life.

One thing that often helps is to figure out ways to save time on the healthy habits you choose to do, thereby making them easier to stick to long-term.

For example, going to the gym at less busy times will often allow you to get through your workouts quicker. You could also shift some or all of your exercise to your home or office, cutting out the drive time to and from the gym. Even just driving 10 minutes each way adds up to a full hour in just three round trips.

Similarly, if you’re using the services of a health professional, you may be able to have some of your sessions be virtual and/or choose professionals who will come to you – again saving you significant travel time in the long run.

When it comes to healthy eating, a big time-saver is making extra to have leftovers for additional meals. Leftovers sometimes get a bad rap, but well-prepared, well-stored meals can be as good (sometimes even better) than those freshly-prepared at meal time. While making more than you need for one meal does take a bit more time, the time for preparation and clean-up on a per meal basis is typically a lot less.

Finally, I have found ways to save time by combining healthy activities that can be effectively done together. For example, I go for a walk every morning when I first wake up. Rather than doing something mindless like listening to music while I walk, I usually do some meditation and mindful reflection to help deal with stress and work on challenges that I may be facing.

You can also add healthy activities to less-than-healthy ones, such as exercising while watching television or surfing social media. While it would probably be significantly healthier to just exercise and eliminate the television and social media time altogether, combining the two is a whole lot better than doing it the other way around and skipping the exercise like a lot of people do!

Another time-saver is combining types of exercise, so you get the benefits of both without needing the time to do both separately. For instance, I combine leg strength exercises with balance training by doing things like calf raises and body-weight squats on a wobble board.

With a little effort and creativity, just about everyone can probably figure out ways to bring more healthy habits into their lives and reap the benefits of feeling better both physically and mentally and being more productive overall.

You can do it if you choose to make your health a priority – preferably before your body decides to demand it!

Until next time…

George F. Best, D.C.