Healthy Lifestyle

Many people will tell you about the fashion industry being one of the unhealthiest of lifestyles to work within. I hear this on so many occasions, and each time catch myself wondering just why this notion exists. Then I look at my jam-packed working week schedule and realize precisely why!

Admittedly, when you work in this fast-paced industry, it can often lead to an unhealthy lifestyle. Late nights, early morning calls, little chance to grab a good healthy meal, the wrong foods on offer at shoots, flowing alcohol, cigarettes, you name it, such vices are often a part of this industry just because they are convenient.

The journalist route often fares no better. Deadlines, time spent at your desk, and once again convenience foods. In fact, many a working role in the twenty-first century could profess to such lousy lifestyle habits.

However, this doesn’t mean that we must jeopardize our health when working in such professions:

Get Enough Sleep

For something so essential and vital in the balance to maintain a healthy lifestyle, sleep is often deemed as overrated and an area where many of people allocate the minimum of time towards. It’s not hard to understand where and when this concept originated, perhaps around the time of the introduction of the internet, the mobile phone and 24/7 living – take your pick! However, the fact is that without the right amount of sleep, none of us function at our best.

If you are struggling to get eight hours per night, could you look at implementing a nap, say half an hour to an hour, during some point of your day instead to make up that lost time? You would be amazed at how refreshed and revitalized this makes you, especially when hitting that mid-day slump!

Eat Well and Don’t be Tempted to Skip Meals

In many jobs these days, you can’t always sit down to the recommended three meals a day, unfortunately. But, that doesn’t mean that when you do get to eat, albeit at different times than the standard breakfast, lunch and dinner hours, that you can’t make the most of this time and still eat healthily. I am often away from home for days, or even weeks, on end and more than often my working hours are all over the place. This just means that rather than pick at food or snack throughout the day, instead I continue to eat proper healthy meals when my body tells me that it is time to.

Drink Water Throughout the Working Day

Now, I’m not talking about drinking water for some miraculous slimming aid but refilling the water which your body inevitably loses throughout each day!  Sometimes the importance of drinking is often so overlooked, but if we don’t replace the water we lose, we can become dehydrated depriving our body of the replenishment that our body needs from fluids to keep it healthy.

Get Some Fresh Air

As a freelancer, I am incredibly guilty of not getting enough exercise, especially as there is not always a clear distinction between my working day and any possible breaks. However, when I don’t get out and about a couple of times during the day, I notice that not only do my energy levels slump as the day wears on, but I am also unable to sleep at night.

All it takes is a few minutes out of the day, even just a stroll around the block, just get out and get some fresh air. It really doesn’t have to involve strenuous hours spent at the gym if that just isn’t your thing!

Organize Your Workload, Don’t Let It Organize You!

Okay, easily said, I hear you say, but not always easily done. But, if you can’t get a grip on your workload, you will never gain a healthy lifestyle. Being overworked with no sense of purpose or direction always encourages stress and subsequent onsets of niggles and complaints from your overtired body.

Take time out at the beginning of each week to update your diary, get organized and work on the schedule of that week ahead. Granted it will be likely to change as the days go on, but you can only do so much, so make sure you optimize what needs prioritizing and work from there.

Treat Yourself

This does not have to mean food, I am talking here about a gift, an experience or a day out, but make sure you have a something to look forward to at the end of every week!

Listen to Your Body

Know when to stop. You may feel that it makes you look good to always be the one who goes that extra mile and puts in the added time, where others perhaps fail to do so. But, at what cost is this to you in the long term? Inevitably you will crash and burn and then be no good to anybody when you need to take off time for illness and stress-related problems.

We all need to re-charge those batteries and, to maintain a healthy lifestyle, this must be done on a regular basis.