Balancing Fitness, Work and University
It’s harder than it sounds…and it sounds pretty damn hard!
Most of you are probably aware that I am a final year university student, and my fitness journey began just last year in the midst of my final semester deadlines for second year. So I've been able to develop a loose routine of fitness, going to work, and completing my university studies.
Sometimes balancing all three is absolutely unbearable. Whilst training for my debut unlicensed fight, I was in the midst of completing my dissertation, three other deadlines and trying to earn a steady wage at work. I was regularly put on unlicensed shows every other weekend, too. As you can imagine, this did not bode well for me in my debut and I just had a complete meltdown. I was burning the candle at both ends way too quickly. I needed to step back and reevaluate how I was prioritising my time, how I was spending my time and how I could be as productive as possible and meet my goals whilst still fulfilling my academic and work responsibilities. It is hard, and it will wear you out at times, but it is possible. You just need to be sensible, listen to your brain and body, and know when enough is enough.
I'm going to give you five simple tips on how you can juggle your work life, social life, and fitness lifestyle. These tips aren't particularly challenging to follow, it is just a re-adjustment of mindset and priorities to get where you want to be, because we all know that juggling a 100 different things at once may seem like the only feasible option but it only wears you out and prolongs the journey to your goals...
1. 8 + 8 + 8 = 24
A bit of simple maths to start the post for you and you are probably why. Hopefully, you get at least eight hours sleep at night. The average shift duration/day at school/college or whatever is eight hours. So that's sixteen of your twenty four hours. Now you're probably wondering what the hell you're doing with those remaining eight hours. Even two of those remaining eight hours are spent getting an early night, housework, winding down, etc., you still have time to put in a good graft at the gym. We just don't tend to think of our days like this and it's normal, and we just let all these things pile up or waste the day. All it takes is sitting down for half an hour at the beginning of the week and working out when you have these spare eight hours, even if they are scattered throughout the day, to make time for your workout. Obviously it may not go to plan, stuff may come up, but then you've planned the rest of your week and know the slots where you can make up for it!
2. Preparation
This is going to be a common theme in my blog posts, because if you fail to prepare then please prepare to fail. It applies for both nutrition and exercise. A lot of people who have asked me about nutrition work long shifts, sometimes away from home and have asked me why they are putting on weight. I find it more reasonable that people working away on commission of labour jobs have less time to exercise, but their job is very intense anyway. However, the biggest problem is eating on the go. Of course, A Sainsbury's Chicken Fajita 'On the Go' wrap isn't the worst thing in the world you could eat. But if it's on a regular basis, you just need to look at the fat content and it is telling you all you need to know about what you are putting into your body and how it's affecting your waistline. The best way to do this is batch cook a load of food, say about four to five recipes so you have variation for each day, over the weekend, whack them in the freezer and then defrost them for as and when you need them so they are ready to go to work with you in a cool bag. It's also going to be a lot easier on your wallet, too!
Fitness is the same principle. I often see a lot of people wondering around the gym aimlessly between each set, trying to work out what they are going to do next and this wastes so much time. It also extends your rest times a lot so you're not really testing or pushing yourself! Before your planned sessions, look at what area you need/want to train, look at exercises that target that area and jot down what you want to do for how long. Limit yourself to how long you want to spend in the gym. So when I was balancing my uni work and training recently, I limited myself to an hour and a half maximum (which included time to stretch off and cool down). I made sure my planned exercises fit into this time, I didn't dally around and it reduced so much stress!
3. Surround yourself with like-minded people
I hate the phrase because it's corny and makes me feel sick every time I see it, but your vibe really does attract your tribe! Throughout uni I have been in a few friendship groups but I have been so lucky, in the most important year, to have an amazing friend who has been so like-minded and wanted the same goals and outcome and it has just lifted me up so much more! I think if I stayed in any of my previous friendship groups I would have been happy plodding through my degree, eating sh*t and getting wrecked every other evening at the boozer. I'm not shaming people who want to do that, but that lifestyle just wouldn't allow me to reach my personal goals. Even if you are motivated in different areas of your life, surrounding yourself with equally motivated people will provide you with a network of people to turn to if you feel down or like you just cannot do it, and vice versa if your mates need someone to lean on. If you're feeling that your friendship group is dragging you down, you don't have to cut yourself off completley but just distance yourself whilst you're working. It's then up to them if they want to support you or leave you be. You never know, seeing you balance all these commitments might even inspire someone else!
4. Only handle one paper at a time
This is something I have learned through teacher training, but I think it can be applied to all walks of life. I've always been told by previous teaching mentors, when you get given a piece of paper with a request, report deadline or whatever, handle it there and then and then file it and put it away once it's been completed. That way, you are keeping control of your workload without letting everything spiral out of control and having a complete meltdown! It can be applied to something as small as washing up a plate once you're done with it. When something presents itself, address it and you are already minimising stress and your workload without even realising.
5. It's completely ok to say 'no'
This is something I wish I'd learned a lot sooner than I did. It's completely human that when you get immune to multi-tasking, you try to see how hard you can push yourself and accepting new responsibilities and commitments without realising the repercussions on your other responsibilities and ultimately, your well-being. My analogy for this is when you see waiters collecting empty plates (bloody hell, I'm loving the plate analogies and examples this evening, aren't I?), they get comfortable with taking back two plates at a time, so they try and bump it up to three or four before they are ready or because they've seen a more experienced waiter do it and...smash (starting to think this is a really sh*t analogy but oh well.). It's important to persevere through what is humanly possible, but when you start saying 'yes' to everything that is asked of you, then you're imposing unnecessary stress on yourself and that is not ok. Prioritise what is most important, and say no to things that are not going to benefit you whilst you're dealing with those priorities. You need to make as much time for yourself as you do for your work/fitness/crocheting/whatever else you do with your life. Please, please heed this point from me because I have juggled so much over the past year and it has not enabled me to reach my goals any quicker, it's not improved my health, it's just caused inconvenience and exhaustion.
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Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you stick around for more and get some motivation out of this blog. Make sure to follow now so you don't miss a thing and I will be writing the next post as you read this, so keep your eyes peeled!
I'm going to give you five simple tips on how you can juggle your work life, social life, and fitness lifestyle. These tips aren't particularly challenging to follow, it is just a re-adjustment of mindset and priorities to get where you want to be, because we all know that juggling a 100 different things at once may seem like the only feasible option but it only wears you out and prolongs the journey to your goals...
1. 8 + 8 + 8 = 24
A bit of simple maths to start the post for you and you are probably why. Hopefully, you get at least eight hours sleep at night. The average shift duration/day at school/college or whatever is eight hours. So that's sixteen of your twenty four hours. Now you're probably wondering what the hell you're doing with those remaining eight hours. Even two of those remaining eight hours are spent getting an early night, housework, winding down, etc., you still have time to put in a good graft at the gym. We just don't tend to think of our days like this and it's normal, and we just let all these things pile up or waste the day. All it takes is sitting down for half an hour at the beginning of the week and working out when you have these spare eight hours, even if they are scattered throughout the day, to make time for your workout. Obviously it may not go to plan, stuff may come up, but then you've planned the rest of your week and know the slots where you can make up for it!
Your week plan doesn't have to be this detailed, but this is just an example of how you can balance out and plan your time efficiently and just shows how productive you can actually be!
2. Preparation
This is going to be a common theme in my blog posts, because if you fail to prepare then please prepare to fail. It applies for both nutrition and exercise. A lot of people who have asked me about nutrition work long shifts, sometimes away from home and have asked me why they are putting on weight. I find it more reasonable that people working away on commission of labour jobs have less time to exercise, but their job is very intense anyway. However, the biggest problem is eating on the go. Of course, A Sainsbury's Chicken Fajita 'On the Go' wrap isn't the worst thing in the world you could eat. But if it's on a regular basis, you just need to look at the fat content and it is telling you all you need to know about what you are putting into your body and how it's affecting your waistline. The best way to do this is batch cook a load of food, say about four to five recipes so you have variation for each day, over the weekend, whack them in the freezer and then defrost them for as and when you need them so they are ready to go to work with you in a cool bag. It's also going to be a lot easier on your wallet, too!
Fitness is the same principle. I often see a lot of people wondering around the gym aimlessly between each set, trying to work out what they are going to do next and this wastes so much time. It also extends your rest times a lot so you're not really testing or pushing yourself! Before your planned sessions, look at what area you need/want to train, look at exercises that target that area and jot down what you want to do for how long. Limit yourself to how long you want to spend in the gym. So when I was balancing my uni work and training recently, I limited myself to an hour and a half maximum (which included time to stretch off and cool down). I made sure my planned exercises fit into this time, I didn't dally around and it reduced so much stress!
3. Surround yourself with like-minded people
I hate the phrase because it's corny and makes me feel sick every time I see it, but your vibe really does attract your tribe! Throughout uni I have been in a few friendship groups but I have been so lucky, in the most important year, to have an amazing friend who has been so like-minded and wanted the same goals and outcome and it has just lifted me up so much more! I think if I stayed in any of my previous friendship groups I would have been happy plodding through my degree, eating sh*t and getting wrecked every other evening at the boozer. I'm not shaming people who want to do that, but that lifestyle just wouldn't allow me to reach my personal goals. Even if you are motivated in different areas of your life, surrounding yourself with equally motivated people will provide you with a network of people to turn to if you feel down or like you just cannot do it, and vice versa if your mates need someone to lean on. If you're feeling that your friendship group is dragging you down, you don't have to cut yourself off completley but just distance yourself whilst you're working. It's then up to them if they want to support you or leave you be. You never know, seeing you balance all these commitments might even inspire someone else!
4. Only handle one paper at a time
This is something I have learned through teacher training, but I think it can be applied to all walks of life. I've always been told by previous teaching mentors, when you get given a piece of paper with a request, report deadline or whatever, handle it there and then and then file it and put it away once it's been completed. That way, you are keeping control of your workload without letting everything spiral out of control and having a complete meltdown! It can be applied to something as small as washing up a plate once you're done with it. When something presents itself, address it and you are already minimising stress and your workload without even realising.
5. It's completely ok to say 'no'
This is something I wish I'd learned a lot sooner than I did. It's completely human that when you get immune to multi-tasking, you try to see how hard you can push yourself and accepting new responsibilities and commitments without realising the repercussions on your other responsibilities and ultimately, your well-being. My analogy for this is when you see waiters collecting empty plates (bloody hell, I'm loving the plate analogies and examples this evening, aren't I?), they get comfortable with taking back two plates at a time, so they try and bump it up to three or four before they are ready or because they've seen a more experienced waiter do it and...smash (starting to think this is a really sh*t analogy but oh well.). It's important to persevere through what is humanly possible, but when you start saying 'yes' to everything that is asked of you, then you're imposing unnecessary stress on yourself and that is not ok. Prioritise what is most important, and say no to things that are not going to benefit you whilst you're dealing with those priorities. You need to make as much time for yourself as you do for your work/fitness/crocheting/whatever else you do with your life. Please, please heed this point from me because I have juggled so much over the past year and it has not enabled me to reach my goals any quicker, it's not improved my health, it's just caused inconvenience and exhaustion.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you so much for reading this post! I hope you stick around for more and get some motivation out of this blog. Make sure to follow now so you don't miss a thing and I will be writing the next post as you read this, so keep your eyes peeled!
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