How To Find Time To Be Healthy

I’ve spoken to a few youth ministers and they tell me that the #1 biggest obstacle they face when it comes to healthy living is time.

Courtesy of Fabiola Medeiros/Creative Commons License

Every one of us has 24 hours in the day – so it’s up to us to decide how we use that time.  If you want to be healthy, you need to start by carving out time in your day to be healthy, so here are a few tips to help:

PRIORITIZE

I’m going to paraphrase Jesus and say, “Where you spend your time, there your heart will also be.”  (Luke 12:32-34)  The tops priorities for youth workers should be: God, family, and health.

• Making these things a priority means planning your day AROUND them instead of “fitting them in.”

• Determine a time for each of these priorities and stick to it.  Don’t let smaller priorities spill over into these time frames.

BATCH

• Exercise 
  • Whenever you take a phone call – go for a walk/pace around the room
  • Use a push-mower to do the lawn
  • While you’re folding laundry, do wall-sits

• De-stress
  • Pray while you de-stress
  • Use exercise as your de-stresser 

• Healthy eating
  • Prepare all your meals for the week in one day (Sunday) 

• Hydrating
  • Challenge yourself to drink water each time you do a specific activity: check your e-mail, answer your phone, walk past a water fountain, etc.

LITTLE BITS OF TIME

• Exercise
  • Find a 20-30 minute workout on youtube that you can do at home

• De-stress
  • Take 10 minutes to pray at lunch time
  • Take 30 minutes before bed to de-stress and turn off all screens

• Healthy eating
  • Prepare or purchase on-the-go healthy snacks so you’re not tempted by on-the-go unhealthy snacks

• Hydrating
  • Use a larger water bottle so you don’t have to re-fill so often

Making time for your health is SIMPLE, but it’s not always easy.  Flexibility is important, and being patience with yourself is key.  Lastly, when you begin prioritizing your health, make sure you let others around you know so they can encourage you and help you out!

If you’re looking for a healthy community, I want to invite you to join our private Facebook group so find me there and i’ll connect you!