How To Fit It All In: Optimizing Time for Weight Loss
Ask anyone how they’re doing, and you’re likely to get this answer: “Busy!” We are, aren’t we? Families, careers, education, hobbies, housework, self-care, passion projects, and so much more fill our days. It can be so hard to squeeze one more thing into a busy day.
When it comes to your health, you might know you need to make some changes, and that those changes are going to take up some of your time. It can be overwhelming to think about how to add something new. How can we get more out of our time?
Stacking: New Habits, More Time
Habit experts, like James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, use a method called stacking to incorporate new habits into existing routines. By using an existing habit to cue a new habit, you take advantage of the pathways that already exist in your brain to train yourself to add a new behavior. If you already take a shower in the morning, you could add ten squats, ten jumping jacks, and ten push-ups to your routine by telling yourself, “Before I shower, I will do these movements.” Since you already have the cue to shower embedded in your routine and brain, you take advantage of that certainty to add a new dimension.
Author and movement expert Katy Bowman uses “stacking” in a different context. In her book Movement Matters, Bowman suggests “stacking” your activities to get more needs met by the same thing. For example, if it is important to you to spend time with family and to get a certain amount of physical activity in a day, you can try pairing those things together to maximize your time. Instead of spending an hour with your kids and an hour exercising, take an hour-long walk or bike ride with your kids.
Our modern society has separated many aspects of life that used to be connected, and this leads to both less movement and less time. Bowman suggests combining elements when we can in order to optimize our time and bring more movement to our days. For example, can returning phone calls be done on a walk? Can meetings be scheduled to be walking meetings? Can a trip to the grocery store become a bike to and walk around a farmers’ market instead? Can commute time be matched to movement time, with biking or walking becoming a part of the process?
Paired together, these two different ways of thinking about stacking can open up new ways to think about your time and your habits. As with any new thing, give yourself a month to try it out and integrate it into your life.
Preparation: Planning for Pockets of Time
Planning frees up many resources, including money, energy, and time. Although it takes time to plan, the time you save more than makes up for it. Meal planning, movement planning, and planning your rest and play allows you to be intentional about what you’re doing.
By planning your meals, you can do some of your prep at one time to free up time during your work week and still have nutritious and delicious options on hand. This is another place to “stack” things in order to optimize your time. Is there a family member who wants to help you prep veggies for the week? Can cooking together become a way to bond? Or can cooking a meal be a creative act that helps you wind down from your work day?
Sometimes a shift in perspective can help you see how to use the time you have in different ways.
Snacking: Little Bursts of Energy
That’s right! Snacking can help you save time by giving you a burst of energy when you need it. Further more, let’s expand our definition of snacking beyond food to the other fuels our body needs: peaceful time and movement time. If you know you need a nutrient boost at some point in your day, you know it makes sense to choose a nutrient-dense snack to fit that bill. What if we learned to think about movement the same way? In the same way that our bodies need fuel from food, our bodies need to move every day. Movement “snacks” are a great way to re-focus our brains, release stress and tension from our minds and bodies, and incorporate more movement into our days. A five or ten minute “snack” can be a set of jumping jacks, a brisk walk before we eat our lunch, or a stretch break after a half hour of computer work. Just like your nutrition, these little snacks add up and contribute to our total nutrition for the day. If you have snacks as a part of your meal plan, you know that you’re spreading your nutrition out through the day and you don’t need to get everything into two or three meals. In the same way, movement snacks spread exercise throughout your day, and they all add up and contribute to the total. If you get a half hour of movement by “snacking” during your work day, you might only need to add another little “snack” when you get home to get you to your goal.
It can also help to take a few moments several times a day to invite peace and calm into your life. A few minutes of deep and intentional breathing, a few minutes outside looking at the plants and sky or even gazing out the window, can refresh your focus and help you stay grounded. It can be easy to get used to constantly moving to the next thing on your do-to list, but learning how to take a moment to pause can help you make transitions from one thing to the next and give you time to bring your intentions to the task.
If you’re looking for more encouragement as you embrace a health lifestyle, the TRIBE is Dr. Traci Kiernan’s online membership community. For a comprehensive learning experience, the online course Lifestyle Mastery for Health brings you education and inspiration for all areas of your life, from nutrition and hydration to movement and sleep. TruBalance weight loss experts are ready to help you take charge of your health today.