Whether you’re a busy entrepreneur writing a book, an established author or content writer it can be hard to carve out time to write and stay healthy. Writing is a solitary pursuit and long hours of sitting can be bad for your health.
Even if you’ve managed to incorporate writing in with your busy schedule it’s easy enough for unhealthy habits to creep into your day; snacking while you write, lack of movement, weight gain, eating unhealthy food are just a few.
It’s so easy to ignore your health rather than make it a priority, and when you do, you find that you’ve soon lost inspiration to write.
Writing and health go hand in hand but it is easy enough to balance and maintain both.
So how do you get started?
Start with these five simple steps:
Step 1. Find time to exercise
Plan out your day. Write down on your calendar everything you do in a day. Identify things you can give up, cut back on or delegate to others. Can you cut back on watching television? Can you have your children help with chores? Say “no” to extra activities that pull you away from exercising.
Step 2: Make an Appointment with Yourself
Identify your best times of the day, morning, afternoon or late into the night. Look at your calendar and write down a specific time to exercise each day – or at least several times a week – during your best time of the day. If you’re a parent, your best time of day might be early morning before your children get out of bed, or in the evening after you’ve tucked in your kids for the night. If you work a regular day job, your best time might be during your lunch hour.
Step 3: Plan What Exercises You Will Do
Just as you would plan your writing content think about what types of exercise you like to do. Is it easier to spend time at the gym where there are others around you to provide motivation? Are you more in tune with nature and a good walk will get your blood pumping? Do you prefer to exercise to videos or use your own home gym equipment? Finding out what works for you will make it that much easier to reach your goals.
Step 4: Set a Daily Exercise Goal
Scheduling daily goals on your calendar will help you stay on track with your exercise. A goal can be an amount of time, repetitions, toning exercises, or weight loss. Each exercise session can have different goals. Say you wanted to walk on Monday – do you want to do a certain amount of steps, miles, or speed – how fast you can walk. Tuesday – do you want to do some weight lifting on your upper body? Wednesday – abdominal exercises. Thursday – leg day exercises. Be sure to add in some rest days and don’t exhaust yourself with the exercise or you won’t be motivated to write. Make sure to check with your doctor if you’re doing more strenuous exercises.
Step 5: Reward Yourself
Exercising is about staying healthy and not trying to get in shape all in one day. When you complete your exercises reward yourself with stickers, smiley faces, or a nice food treat but make it healthy – fruit instead of candy.
Just as your writing time is important and necessary so is your exercise time. Your calendar can be a valuable tool to creativity, productivity and longevity. It’s said that exercise and it’s benefits can add years to your life. Use your calendar with these five simple steps and in no time at all you’ll be on the road to good health and inspired to write on a regular basis.
Helping You Write and Publish!
Rebecca
I’m author and book writing coach, Rebecca Camarena, and I would love to connect with you! If you’re a first time author or an established author please connect with me and I’ll gift you a copy of my kindle book, Out of My Comfort Zone: Stories of Courage, Perseverance and Victory.
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