How to Fit the LEANNESS in!
Happy Wednesday Squadies!
With the holiday season upon us, it may seem difficult to make time for fitness and nutrition. Holiday shopping, Christmas events and family gatherings, all crammed into the next few weeks! How is is possible to workout, or cook healthy and nutritious meals?! Well today I am going to tell you how you can live your busy life, during the holiday season or not, while still having time for LEANNESS!
1.Wake Up Early!
It is crazy how we can get so much more done by just waking up even an hour early. If you live a busy life, most of the time, your days are pretty well booked up for the most part. By waking up early, you have a full extra hour or so, (depending on how much earlier you wake up) for leanness!
There are a ton of things you can get done in that extra hour, such as meditating, cooking, cleaning, or my favourite thing… WORKING OUT! Working out in the morning has so many benefits! If you practice intermittent fasting, workout in a fasted state can help you burn MORE fat throughout your workout. Morning workouts also allow you feel more energized and ready to SMASH THE DAY! If you want to learn more about morning workouts and intermittent fasting, check out this blog post!
2. Utilize HIIT
HIIT, or high intensity interval training, is the perfect kind of workout for the average busy person! Rather than spending a few hours at the gym doing low or medium intensity work, you can get the heart rate up and get the body burning in less than an hour! The LEANSQUAD is all about short and intense workouts that help you burn fat and build muscle quick! Check out one of my quick workouts here.
There is a huge misconception surrounding HIIT. Some people believe HIIT is only meant to help you burn fat. The reality is, you can burn fat yes that is true, but you can ALSO build lean muscle! Whatever your goals are, you can utilize HIIT to reach your goals. Wake up early, do a nice quick workout and you are already halfway to the leanness before 7 am!
3. Meal Prepping
If you are exercising on a regular basis but are still not eating healthy, you are definitely not going to see the results you want as fast as you want. Of course exercise is super important, but you NEED a healthy diet along with your exercise in order to live a healthy lifestyle and be feeling your BEST! If you are constantly running around or working and don’t necessarily have time to cook yourself healthy meals and snacks multiple times a day, you have to try meal prepping! With meal prepping, all you need is a couple hours a week aside and you can have healthy home cooked meals all day long! I like to take aside a couple hours over the weekend to shop and cook, then I am ready to go for the next 4-5 days! It may seem like a big chunk of time all at once, but overall, you end up saving a ton of time!
Throughout the holiday season, it is super easy to get tempted into unwanted whoopsies! With extra snacks and treats floating around the office, or those baskets of holiday treats your grandma makes you every year, it can be hard to resist the temptation! Meal prepping gives you a great reason to say no to unhealthy snacks and instead, eat the healthy food you already have prepared! Save your whoopsies for the holiday parties and family gatherings instead!
4. Recipes
Now that you have decided to start meal prepping, in order to get it done in only a few hours you need to get yourself some quick and easy recipes! At the LEANSQUAD, all our recipes are super quick and easy to make, but most importantly, they are LEAN! You can check out some of our recipes here. Picking recipes that have a ton of ingredients or a ton of prep will make it hard for you to get your meal prepping done in a short period of time. Joining the LEANSQUAD, you will get your own set of leanmazing and easy recipes, perfect for meal prep!
Another great way to save time while meal prepping is by using a slow cooker or instant pot. Although a slow cooker takes around 6-8 hours to cook but all you have to do is throw some ingredients into a pot and turn it on! It’s that simple! With an instant pot, again, just throw some ingredients into the pot, set the pot to the propper dish/time, and have a fully cooked meal in minutes!
5. Plan, Plan, PLAN!
Most people who live a busy life while keeping up with a healthy lifestyle will tell you that planning is a MUST! It can be hard to sort through all your thoughts, tasks and errands without writing things down or scheduling in some kind of way. Taking some time to schedule out your days, weeks or even months can help immensely, especially during busy times of the year!
If you are a beginner and are just getting started on your lean journey, make sure to scheudle your weeks. Especially when just starting out, it may be difficult for you to know how much time you will need to get a workout done or to cook, you may also have trouble figuring out where is the best time to fit in these things! By creating a schedule and alotting some time for each, you can make the transition to a leaner life a lot easier!
There you have it Squadies! My top 5 tips to fitting the leanness into your life even during the holidays!