Scheduling Sleep, Meals, and Exercise

Scheduling Sleep, Meals, and Exercise
by Andrew Nelson for www.getfitnyc.com
andy@getfitnyc.com

In our busy lives, we have to schedule everything: Family time, exercise, spiritual practice, reading, eating, relaxing, socializing, and sleeping. All our activities can add up to maybe 25+ hours of activity in a 24 hour cycle. If you do not put your schedule in writing, or at least in your BlackBerry calendar, you will not keep to your schedule.

Sticking to a schedule can keep you more focused, efficient, and productive. Eating, sleeping, and exercise are very important to overall health and keeping your body in balance. Put these into your schedule.

Scheduled, planned, and structured eating may seem to take the fun out of it, but it can cut down on unwanted and unnecessary eating binges. When you give the body fuel at the same time every day then it will want food at these regular times. Scheduling your eating and making a list of what you want to eat beforehand have the added benefit of making you more conscious of what you are eating; and may cut down on excessive calories.

Scheduling workout time can ensure that you exercise daily. The CDC, the AMA, the AHA and a host of other organizations say we should get at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day. The USDA, on their website www.mypyramid.gov, give some simple advice about maintaining healthy body weight.

Scheduling sleep time can be a bit trickier. Sometimes we try to complete items from our “to do list” late in the evening; this makes it hard to get to bed early enough to get enough sleep. If you have managed to efficiently schedule the early part of your day, then getting to bed at the same time every night should be manageable. 7-9 hours of sleep is a healthy habit. If you are getting less than 7 hours on a regular basis, then you are not allowing the body to rest, recover, and rejuvenate. Sleep deprivation can also lead to unhealthy food cravings.

Some tips:

1- Design a schedule and keep to it.

2- Do not over-schedule. If you think something may take 30 minutes, schedule 40. If you have "extra" time, then start the next task early.

3- It takes time to get used to scheduling if it’s new to you. Give yourself a break-in period. It is a skill that takes getting used to.

4- Do not schedule your eating time too short. Take time to eat slowly. If you finish early, go for a walk with the extra time.

5- Make time to be social. Try blending your workout time with your social time.


Be healthy.