We are constantly fighting the clock. We are wishing (no, begging) for “just one more hour” in our day. Whether it is for the hour you planned to get your workout in, or the hour to catch up on laundry, or the hour you needed to watch your favourite show on Netflix. You just don’t have enough time to do it ALL, let alone live the healthy lifestyle you dream about. The most common response I get from patients who are finding it difficult to make healthy lifestyle changes is, “I just don’t have time”. Well, what if I told you I can give you more time in your day while still advancing your health? Sounds magical, right?
Here are 3 easy ways to squeeze more time out of your busy work week, so that you can actually accomplish it all while working towards your health goals:
1. High-Intensity-Interval-Training (aka. HIIT)
By now, you’ve likely heard about HIIT. I like to say it’s “a little pain, for a lot of gain”. HIIT is scientifically proven to help you reach your weight loss goals without needing to spend hours in the gym. Furthermore, there are major health benefits of HIIT beyond the extra calories burned. HIIT basically means repeated sessions of brief, high-intensity bouts of exercise, followed by short rest periods. And when I say high intensity, I mean it. These sessions should leave you huffing and puffing. The huge advantage is that a workout only lasts from 5-15 minutes. I know, it doesn’t sound like a lot but it has been shown that even as little as 6 sessions of 15 minutes of HIIT over 2 weeks can provide major benefits to exercise performance [1]. In addition to improved performance, HIIT helps manage blood sugar, increases the formation of mitochondria (the powerhouses inside our cells that produce energy), helps with fat metabolism and protects against insulin resistance [2-6]. For those of you looking to increase your fitness and maybe lose some excess weight, but are finding it hard to fit a workout into your busy schedule, HIIT is for you. Next time you’re looking to get sweaty, set a timer for 10 minutes. Try exercises like sprinting, burpees, jump squats, and push-ups, and go all-out for 20 seconds then take 10 seconds to catch your breath. Repeat this until the 10 minutes is up and then you’ll understand the “a little pain” part! There are so many great free resources online too- with a quick search on YouTube you’ll see a variety or HIIT workouts that will never leave you bored! Here’s a great example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=51&v=hyAHaodoob0
Intermittent Fasting
There are many different forms of intermittent fasting (IF). The premise is that you have a specific number of hours in the day that you eat (your feeding window) and a specific number of hours that you fast, without decreasing your daily calorie intake. For beginners, I like to start with a 12-14 hour fast. This means that if you finish your last meal or snack of the day at 9pm, you will wait until 9-11am to break your fast, or eat “breakfast”. Once you get the hang of it (and really, it’s pretty simple) you can try to increase your fast to 16 hours. IF will save you time as fasting simplifies your day by reducing how many meals you will need to prepare. Science shows that fasting practices have the potential to impact many modifiable health behaviours. A nightly fast of at least 14 hours resulted in less food intake throughout the day, decreased weight, improvements in sleep satisfaction, feeling of fullness at bedtime and improved energy [7]. In another study, similar results were seen but with the addition of decreased cholesterol, blood sugar, insulin and inflammatory markers, even when weight loss was not seen [8]. Intermittent fasting is much easier to stick to than traditional diets because it avoids major dietary changes, while achieving great benefits for overall health.
Sunday Meal Prep
Maybe you’ve heard the saying, “if you fail to plan, then plan to fail”. Well, anyone who wants to make changes in their diet MUST know that if you fail to prepare your meals, you should prepare to “fail”. Now, fail may be a harsh word to use here, but it is much easier to succeed with healthy eating if you are prepared. We all know the feeling of getting home from a long day, completely famished, with not an ounce of desire to cook up a healthy meal. Well, if this sounds like you, then having food prepped and ready will keep you on track to sticking to your goals. Not only will it keep you on track, it will save you so much time each night when you get home from work wondering, “what should we make tonight?”. Personally, I like to use Sunday’s to organize my meal plan for the week, but you can use any day that you have time. All you need is a few hours and a grocery list (and a whole bunch of glass containers!) and you’ll be off to the races.
Here is an easy guide to get a good start to your week:
- Pick your favourite slow cooker recipe that has a protein and lots of veggies: most recipes will make 4 servings, so you can use this for a couple lunches and dinners
- Boil 1-2 cups of quinoa
- Arrange 2-3 salads with mixed greens, quinoa, veggies (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, etc.), nuts/seeds, and goat cheese and fill 2-3 small containers with a homemade dressing
- Bake 4 chicken breasts: add to salads or have as dinner
- Make a pan of roasted veggies: try cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, sweet potato and beets
- Wash 5 apples and put a tbsp. of almond butter into 5 small containers
- Hard boil 5-10 eggs: these make great snacks and can be added to salads for protein punch
It is commonplace to struggle with a jam-packed schedule, especially when you are using your free time to hit up the gym 3-4 times a week and make healthy meals each night. By incorporating intermittent fasting, high-intensity interval training and preparing the bulk of your meals for the week ahead of time, it will free up your schedule so that you can spend it with family or friends, try a new hobby, or get some well-deserved R&R.
References:
- Gibala, M & McGee, S. 2008. Metabolic Adaptations to Short-term High-Intensity Interval Training: A Little Pain for a Lot of Gain? Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews: 36(2), 58-63.
- Burgomaster K. A., Howarth K. R., Phillips S. M., Rakobowchuk M., MacDonald M. J., McGee S. L., et al. 2008. Similar metabolic adaptations during exercise after low volume sprint interval and traditional endurance training in humans. J. Physiol. 586, 151–160.10.1113/jphysiol.2007.142109
- Burgomaster K. A., Hughes S. C., Heigenhauser G. J. F., Bradwell S. N., Gibala M. J. 2005. Six sessions of sprint interval training increases muscle oxidative potential and cycle endurance capacity in humans. J. Appl. Physiol. 98, 1985–1990. 10.1152/japplphysiol.01095.2004
- Helgerud J., Hoydal K., Wang E., Karlsen T., Berg P., Bjerkaas M., et al. 2007. Aerobic high-intensity intervals improve VO2max more than moderate training. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 39, 665–671. 10.1249/mss.0b013e3180304570
- Talanian J. L., Galloway S. D., Heigenhauser G. J., Bonen A., Spriet L. L. 2007. Two weeks of high-intensity aerobic interval training increases the capacity for fat oxidation during exercise in women. J. Appl. Physiol. 102, 1439–1447. 10.1152/japplphysiol.01098.2006
- Richards J. C., Johnson T. K., Kuzma J. N., Lonac M. C., Schweder M. M., Voyles W. F., et al. 2010. Short-term sprint interval training increases insulin sensitivity in healthy adults but does not affect the thermogenic response to beta-adrenergic stimulation. J. Physiol. 588, 2961–2972. 10.1113/jphysiol.2010.189886
- Gill S, Panda S. 2015. A smartphone app reveals erratic diurnal eating patterns in humans that can be modulated for health benefits. Cell Metab. 22: 789–98
- Chung H, Chou W, Sears DD, Patterson RE, Webster NJG, Ellies LG. 2016. Time-restricted feeding improves insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis in a mouse model of postmenopausal obesity. Metabolism 65: 1743–54