Your Health and Your Home Based Business: How Are They Related?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 09:12PM If you have a home based business, chances are your health may not be what it could be if you worked outside the home. Health challenges may include extra trips to the kitchen, skipped gym visits and general lack of activity. A lack of focus can make your work day unproductive and mentally tiring. Working from home can boost your wallet but you don’t want it to boost your waistline. Your health and your home based business are definitely related.
Think back to when you worked outside the home. Do you feel that you were more productive when you worked a 9 to 5? I think that when we are deprived of a lot of personal time, we are more organized and efficient because we have to be. You probably made every minute count trying to fit it all in.
When you have a home based business, your day needs to be more structured than ever before.
In order to stay in shape while working at a desk or talking on the phone, you’ll need to schedule blocks of time to be active, or most of us will suffer with a lowered metabolism. Not only will you lose valuable lean muscle, but you may pack on extra pounds.
My suggestion: If you can’t get a full workout in every day, your goal should be to move around….a lot! Set your online calendar to alert you that it’s time to get up and move around. Run the stairs…do some pushups…jump on a rebounder, which is great for the lymphatic system.
Schedule times in the morning to jog, walk, or bike if you don’t want to go to the gym. Going to the gym can take a huge chunk out of your day, so you may prefer to workout at home. Videos offer sound training advice and can be motivating and time efficient. They can usually be viewed in segments, or broken into upper and lower body. Don’t forget the pleasure of a late afternoon or evening workout to rejuvenate the body after a long mentally challenging day.
As an Internet Network Marketer in health and wellness, I know from experience that neck, back, and wrist problems can set in from sitting too long at a desk without proper amounts of activity that gets the blood pumping and the muscles engaged. Getting oxygen to the brain on a daily basis can be a deciding factor in protecting yourself from cancer and other degenerative diseases. Getting up every 30 minutes and moving around can make a big difference.
What you eat is the other half of how healthy you really are.
A lot of people miss the connection between diet and exercise. Both are equally important; with diet taking the lead. You are what you eat. If you approach your diet by choosing every food for what it offers you nutritionally, you are doing well. If you choose processed foods, with preservatives and artificial ingredients, you are setting yourself for health problems later on, if not now.
I know it costs more to eat well. Some say “pay now or pay later”. I don’t think it has to be that hard. It just needs to be a constant effort. Most mainstream food choices offer very little in the way of whole foods, unless you’re choosing fresh fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and healthy fats. Part of structuring your day will involve planning time to purchase healthy foods. Since you work at home, you’ll be tempted to grab whatever is available; and it’s rarely a good thing.
Try to avoid foods without any nutritional value. Bread is a good example. There are very few supermarket choices for an unprocessed nutritional loaf of whole grain bread….just a lot of pretenders with the word “whole grain” on the label. Read the labels to see what your really getting, and make sure you know what’s in your food.
By now we know that most foods, no matter how healthy, do not contain the vitamins and minerals they used to even 50 years ago. You’ll need to supplement your diet with nutrients you cannot get enough of, or that are missing from your diet, in order to achieve optimal health. Make sure your choices of nutritional supplements contain nutrients that can be utilized and absorbed by the body and will not be merely flushed away. For the most part, you get what you pay for in regards to nutritional supplements.
The most important aspect of your home based business is your brain.
What you eat and how active you are can affect your brain and how productive you are. Your nutritional choices affect your brain. Your activity level affects your brain. You use your brain to run your business. Your diet and activity affect your attitude and mental health. Your brain controls everything. You want both your attitude and your mental state to be well in order to excel at your home based business. It all comes full circle.
Protect your investment in your home based business by investing in your health. Taking time to exercise your body and mind, while feeding your brain with good nutrition, creates a positive attitude and a mentally capable home based business owner. By protecting your health you will affect every aspect of your life and your work. You deserve to enjoy the relationship.
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