Stay healthy with a crazy, busy life

By LAUREN WILTSHIRE

Updated: January 27, 2013, 11:31 PM

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Find your state of balance. School, work, applications and relationships – where is the time for exercise, healthy eating and even a little bit of relaxation? Follow health major Lauren Wiltshire as she takes on this seemingly never-ending challenge to find her equilibrium. Look for new posts every Monday and Wednesdays online, only at www.lanthorn.com/blog.

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This is my first crazy, busy week of the semester. I work 30 hours, intern for eight, volunteer for 13, take my normal 15 credit load – and somehow manage to exercise and breathe for a few minutes.

I know that I am one of many students working through this weekly grind and really have no room to complain. I used to look at these kinds of weeks as daunting and scary but I have learned simple tasks that save me 15 minutes here and there and have also learned awesome time saving, multi tasking tools.

My number one time saving tool is to plan my week on Sunday. When I say plan my week, I don’t mean write my planner out. What I mean, is I plan things like my breakfast and my clothes for each day. While some my laugh at me for planning my outfits out on a notecard for the rest of the week, it consistently gives me an additional 15 minutes each morning and I guarantee you an extra 15 minutes of shut-eye at 7 a.m. feels like a lifetime. I am not saying I don’t veer off of the notecard from day-to-day, but it gives me a guideline in the morning. Planning ahead for breakfast also allows me to budget for special celebration meals and keeps me on track of eating healthy and starting my day right—even if it is a quick, on the go Nature Valley bar.

One other task that I refuse to give up is my exercise. While it takes an hour of work away, five times weekly, it gives me energy and confidence—two key traits I need to conquer my long to-do list. With energy I walk out the door ready to go and with confidence I am much more motivated to keep the feeling going. I feel ready to cross things off in an efficient manner—making phone calls as I walk between classes or writing emails while waiting for the professor to get to my class, rather than sitting there just thinking about how I might feel better when I get around to working out. Exercising daily also keeps your immune system up so we are prepared to fight those bugs that we come in contact with every day.

At the end of each day, just before I fall asleep I think about what I accomplished each day. In these few moments I take a breather and look at how efficient I was, what I did to make someone’s day brighter, what I accomplished to make myself better, and what I need to improve on. Never at this moment do I think of what is left on my weekly to-do list. Not only would that take away from the relaxing part of this, but it would keep me up forever! I ask myself to push harder and not breeze through these thoughts but really analyze and realize how much I got done. These few moments pull my day to a close, nicely sealed and lets me get my necessary rest to be just as powerful for the next day.

I challenge you to do one of these three tasks. Try it for one week—if the task you choose improves you, add another one. These tasks are simple and by all means- positive reinforcement of the potential you have.

“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.” – Muhammad Ali

- L

lwiltshire@lanthorn.com

Published January 27, 2013 in Equilibrium