Move every 30 minutes. Walk. Plan your meals. Drink enough water.
Khyati Mahajan suggests simple tips for women to stay active, fit and healthy.
Photograph: Kind courtesy Michie Peachie/Instagram
Modern day women are known to handle home and career simultaneously with great efficiency.
However, where they are lacking is handling themselves, their health.
For multi-tasking women, fitness and health becomes a major challenge.
Maintaining a balance between home, office and fitness can be tough but not impossible.
Of late, multiple health related problems have cropped up owing to negligence to their fitness routine.
If you follow these simple tips, you can try and make fitness a part of your schedule.
1. Become active
Walking is one of the easiest ways to stay fit.
Whether you are a housewife, a new mum or a working professional, do not be seated for too long.
Do not stick to a chair, bed or your desk for too long. Get up every 30 minutes.
Find interesting ways to make walking a part of your daily activities.
For example when you are talking over the phone, utilise that time to walk.
You may also walk after having lunch and dinner.
If you are unable make time to take a walk, use the time you get while doing your regular tasks.
Instead of driving or taking a vehicle, walk to the nearby shopping mart.
You may also opt to drop your kid to his/her tuitions or a playschool if it is nearby. Or you could simply walk and take them to the park.
In office, if you have to communicate to your colleague, choose to walk up to their desk rather than drop a message over hangouts or calling them.
2. Be attentive to your posture
Wrong posture has become the key to all back issues these days.
Most of us are bothered about comfortable sitting positions without remembering its repercussions.
While you sit, make sure you sit in the right posture, keeping your back, neck and shoulder upright.
If your job requires you to sit on desk for long hours, make sure your chair is comfortable for your back, eyes and legs.
Adjust the computer screen to your eye level so that there is not much pressure on your eyes.
If the seating is not comfortable, you can add a cushion to suit your spine.
If you are driving to your office and back home, ensure you keep some sort of back support.
3. Allot dedicated time to your work-out
Living in this not-so-scheduled world, it is important that you have dedicated 20-30 minutes to your work out.
Take a walk, exercise, do yoga or whatever is convenient to you but do not skip working out.
Burning out calories is important to stay healthy and in shape.
If you do not have time in the mornings, utilise your evenings by stealing some time for yourself.
If gyming is not possible, keep some exercises in your laptop or phone and turn your home into a gym.
Even at work, you can have some relaxing exercises in the form of stretches.
You can do overhead stretches, wrist and leg stretches to relax your muscles and keep yourself active.
4. Eat Healthy
The root cause of most health problems is unhealthy food practices.
Irrespective of your busy schedules, do not skip your meals.
Plan and pack your breakfast or arrange for someone who can cook lunch and dinner for you.
Maintain a healthy, balanced diet and keep track of what you consume through the day.
If you follow an intensive workout plan, do not miss out on pre-workout snacks as they give you the energy to have a healthy workout session.
Avoid too much of refined carb-rich food like cookies, chocolates as they give a hike to your blood sugar level which further produces insulin and adds more fat to your body.
If you don't have time to cook, keep a list of quick fix meals in your kitchen which include fruits, salads, brown rice, veggie sandwiches, nuts and wraps.
It's only when you don't have healthy options, you pick unhealthy alternatives.
5. Drink enough water
Staying hydrated, which means 5 to 6 litres of water a day is very important for the proper functioning of our body.
Keep having a glass of water at regular intervals and save yourself from getting dehydrated.
A few simple habits if done right can help improve your overall health and energy.
While fad diets and workouts may seem cool, do not focus on becoming slimmer to become beautiful because you are beautiful the way you are.
Your weight does not determine your level of beauty. Stay fit to stay healthy!
Lead image published for representational purposes only.
Khyati Mahajan is founder, MevoFit, a wearable fitness company.
