Young Professionals - how do you make it work?

barely. between work, exercise, meal prep, dog walking, house keeping and errands it's all a blur and still things slip through the cracks. most days i get about an hour of down time before i crash. but i feel a lot better than i did when meal prep and exercise was drinking and crap food. now i'm just a weekend warrior (when i'm not too sleepy to party).

If something is important enough to you, you'll make it happen. If you don't have the time to work out, you can start by being very mindful of what you eat. Anytime you have a little extra time, go for a walk. Start small. Good luck!

IDK...I enjoy eating well...not sure what healthy eating means to you though. My day generally feel incomplete without some exercise. I feel better and I'm happier when I'm exercising on the regular...I start feeling pretty crappy when I miss a lot of exercise...I'm more tired and sluggish and my performance at work suffers and I'm just generally not all that happy and don't feel good when I miss a lot of exercise days (just coming off 12 weeks of IR)

I will say this...anyone can make 30 minutes in a day for some exercise...nobody is that busy.

I plan my meals ahead, workout on my lunch hour, and make it a priority to be active. I'm a working professional who works long hours, plus I am a single parent. You have to start scheduling things and making healthy habits.

1. Meal prep - taking a couple hours on the weekend to get all your meals for the week prepped and ready to go (I'll even go so far as putting each day's snacks and lunch in a plastic bag in the fridge to grab-n-go) makes a HUGE difference to my diet - it means I don't forget my lunch or get up too late to make it. I have no excuses.
2. Using lunch time as exercise time - I walk 1.5 miles most lunch breaks. It's not much...but it helps.
3. When you have the time to exercise, do what you love - most of my exercise is riding my horse and swimming at the local YMCA. I've never been someone who enjoys exercise, but I've found activities that make me happy and don't really feel like the dreaded "aerobics"

Don't know if that helps at all; of course we are all different, what works for me may not work for you, but maybe it will give some ideas to experiment with. Just find what works for you, stick to it, and enjoy life!

Age has nothing to do with it. I'm 52, own and run an engineering business with 50 employees, have a husband and teenager at home, and I make it work. You have to figure out where your priorities lie. You've heard the expression "pay yourself first?" Same principle. You will devote time and energy to what matters most to you.

Be brutally honest with yourself and figure out why you want to eat well and move more - is it to lose weight to attract women? To have more energy for your business? To fit back into old clothes? To stave off the health problems that might crop up as you get older? Etc? When you know the answer to that, you'll have a better idea of where "eat well and move much" fits in with your other priorities.

So, since husband is ten years older than me and we plan to retire very soon, and because I want to model good health habits for my teenager as he approaches adulthood, my first priority is my family's health. That means eating well and exercising.

How do I do that, you ask?

I plan the family's meals a week at a time. (OK, I plan MY meals and they eat what I eat.) I log those meals a week ahead so I know exactly what I'm eating every day. I shop for those meals once a week and buy only what's on the list. Period. It's how I keep junk food out of the house because if it's there we'll all eat it. (Yes, teenager complains but too bad. He's eating real food instead.)

Husband and I work out every morning at 5 am. Have done this for 25 years. If I don't do it at 5 am, it might not get done because the day often fills up with too much other s**t.

I'm competitive and goal oriented, so in order to keep myself motivated to train, I sign up for competitive events. This past year it was sprint triathlons. Next year it's a half-marathon in April and an Olympic length triathlon in June (others will follow). Teenager is training for the half-mary with me, so we're accountable to each other.

Those things take time and energy that I could be devoting to my business, there's no question. But what's the point of working my @$$ off to grow my business if I'm not healthy enough to enjoy the fruits of my labor? I'm much more effective at work when I take care of the moving and eating first. My body and brain just work better. My immune system is stronger than it's ever been.

Someone above mentioned "when you have time to exercise" - no no no no no no no no. You MAKE time to exercise. You MAKE time to eat well. Otherwise we both know they will not happen. This requires discipline. You're a business owner, so you must have some of that in you. Apportion some of it to your health. Even if it's not at the very top of your list, any health improvement you can make will benefit you. And don't try to fix everything at once! Make a commitment to yourself to make one small change, even if it's just giving up that nightly beer with dinner or going for a 15-minute walk at lunch every day. Then stick to it until it doesn't hurt anymore. Repeat.

You're not seeing anything here that isn't discussed above. I'm just being a little more emphatic about it! Other people have done this. You can do this.

I totally understand...you just gotta find something you love then you'll make it a priority because you'll actually look forward to it. For me it was hiking and joining a recreational volleyball league...and once you find what works for you, everything else usually falls into place