Balancing Your Waist Trainer With a Demanding Schedule

In 2019, Onepoll did a study on diet and exercise. The results found that 42% of Americans didn't have enough time to fit a workout plan into their busy day. Let's take a look at some tips to help you balance your diet, exercise, and a waist trainer with your schedule, even if you work 12-hour days throughout the year.

Prepare your meals at the start of the week

Eating healthy starts with making time to prepare the right foods. More than half of Americans take their meals to work with them, according to joint research done by the Harris Poll and the American Heart Association. People who take healthy meals to work tend to start early in the week:

• They often do their shopping on the weekend and have a list of healthy ingredients that they need.
• They spend about an average of 45 minutes preparing their meals for the week and have suitable storage for transporting their food.
• Furthermore, they often have their work meals planned two weeks in advance.

Eating healthy at work with meals prepared at home has both monetary and health advantages. According to WealthFit, the American who takes their meal to work saves about $1,222. Additionally, those who take their meal to work will consume 300 to 500 calories during lunch, compared to the 700 to 1200 calories consumed by those who eat out.

Eat foods that will help you sustain energy throughout the day

Whether you decide to do your workouts in the morning or at the end of your day, you are going to need to change your diet to maintain energy and sustain weight loss. Here are some guidelines to help you eat right when you are on the go:

• Make sure to eat plenty of food with fiber, such as leafy green vegetables. Fiber will help you feel full.
• Blueberries are a great snack because they have a low glycemic index. This means that you won't have sugar spikes or drop-offs, and you will have sustained energy throughout the day.
• Spinach has plenty of iron, so using it in a salad will help you maintain natural energy levels throughout the day.
• Green tea will help you stay alert, without the pitfalls of getting your caffeine from beverages like soda.
• Almonds have naturally occurring complex B vitamins to help you sustain energy. If you add these to yogurt or a smoothie,

Eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, white lean meats, dairy products like Greek yogurt, and other protein-rich foods will help you maintain a decent level of energy while working on your muscle tone and overall physique.

Find a job that has an on-site gym

An on-site gym makes fitness with a busy work schedule both affordable and convenient. There are a couple of benefits associated with using them:

• You can manage your wellness at your convenience.
• You can balance your work life a little more easily.
• Furthermore, you'll be able to handle your stress at work a bit more effectively.
• Furthermore, you won't have to make a separate trip every day for working out or pay for a gym membership.

If you have an hour or longer commute each day, using your workplace gym will help you fit in a workout to reach your fitness goals.

Find a few workouts that you can do anywhere

There are workouts that you can do anywhere without having access to a gym. These workouts can help you burn calories and focus on cardiovascular health and endurance:

• Most people will burn a minimum of 300 calories per hour with a brisk walk.
• If you take the elevator in your building, try taking the stairs. Every fifteen minutes you walk on stairs will burn about 60 calories.
• Planks are a great exercise, where you contract your muscles and hold them in place. These burn a few calories every minute, but will help you get the tone in your abdomen muscles.
• Exercises like desk push-ups will also help you exercise without having to be in the gym.

Maintaining good posture also helps you with fitness

While maintaining good posture throughout the day doesn't necessarily burn a lot of calories, it will help you have success when you go to work out in the gym. While your waist trainer will start giving you some posture correction support immediately, you should make it a goal to prioritize good posture. Here are some of the benefits to maintaining good posture throughout the day:

• You'll be less likely to sustain an injury while working out, and your workouts will go more smoothly.
• You'll use the muscles and joints in your body more efficiently when doing workouts.
• Likewise, you won't experience muscle fatigue as quickly when you go to work out.

Make your social activities part of your workout schedule

Not every workout session has to be on your own and in the gym. Before the pandemic started, nearly 40% of people participated in group fitness activities or worked out together. There are several benefits to group workout sessions:

• There is often more structure to the workout session.
• When you are working out with someone else, especially when they are spotting you, there is more accountability and your workout partners will be there to make sure that you are doing the exercise correctly.
• Some activities, like racquetball, are social activities that burn a lot of calories.
• Group workout sessions also make it possible for you to share what is working and not working.

Keep a fitness diary

Fitness diaries not only tell us what is working or not working, they also remind us that we need to fit time into our schedule for fitness. People who chart their fitness activities are twice as likely to reach their fitness goals in comparison to those who do not. If you find yourself busy throughout the week, here are some ways that you can leverage a fitness diary:

• During the first week of using your waist trainer, be sure to chart your build up from a few hours per day to the full eight to ten hours.
• If you are preparing your meals for the week, be sure to include the meal that you plan for each day as well as your targeted calorie budget.
• If for some reason you miss a day, your fitness diary will help you identify patterns in your schedule.
• Lastly, you can use your fitness diary to block off times on your work calendar for fitness.

Make fitness part of your commute

If you work in a major urban area, there are three ways that you probably could get to work, either by taxi/car, public transit, or on foot. Recent studies indicate that in some major cities, a cyclist may be able to get to work faster on their bike. During rush hour, a cyclist may be able to average about 10 miles per hour by getting around busy traffic on bike paths. Cars, on the other hand, tend to slow to a stop. On average, the typical American driver will need to add 30 minutes to their commute time if they plan on going to work during rush hour. In fact, Americans waste more than 54 hours stalled in rush traffic each year.

Cycling also has other benefits if you choose to use your bike to get to work:

• Cycling can burn as much as 500 calories per hour.
• You get the opportunity to improve your muscle tone as well as your cardiovascular fitness.
• You will also build muscle and improve your immune system.

Motivate and reward yourself for making fitness part of your schedule

Rewarding yourself for making fitness part of your schedule will motivate you to try and find more time for it. Here are some ideas to help you treat yourself for finding the time to work out:

• Buy yourself something useful for your fitness goals, like a waist trainer, when you meet certain goals that you set for yourself.
• Plan something fun for yourself each week on days when you are off when you work out and meet all of your goals for the week.
• Schedule time off from work for reaching major fitness milestones. This can let you get some much-needed relaxation time away from your busy schedule.

Participate in a work wellness program if you have one

Some companies have major employee wellness programs. These were created by employers to create a healthier workforce. Draper, Inc. is an example of a company that has an outstanding employee wellness program. Employees get access to subsidized gym memberships, can earn cash prizes, and more. Some companies also structure health insurance programs for employees to motivate them to stay healthy. If your company has an employee wellness program, participation will help you work towards your fitness goals.