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When I was still at school, working out was always easy. There was always time to pop to the gym and keeping fit was pretty easy as long as I didn’t get lazy. A few years later and work had sort of gotten in the way somewhat.
The problem with staying in shape, eating healthily and exercising is that it takes time, and so often in real life you don’t have time to spend hours a week at the gym, or cooking healthy food.
So eventually, I decided it was about time I started making the effort to get back in shape, in spite of my busy schedule. Here’s the training and dieting approach that I took, and some tips so that you can use.
Schedules
Having a schedule is such a simple idea, but it honestly works and as soon as you get the 
hang of setting and sticking to one you will find time that you didn’t know you had. When busy all the time, without realising it you probably waste a lot of your time between tasks remembering what else you need to do.
I decided that I was going to work out twice a week at first; So I set Tuesdays and Sundays as my gym days. On Monday straight after work I would go to the gym, and Sundays it was first thing in the morning. It only takes 2 hours a week and it was time I would otherwise have wasted anyway.
Quick Healthy Snacks
Immediately after the gym, or after exercise I generally need food, but on weekdays especially that isn’t really practical, since I am going straight from work. So I make sure I have a stock of quick and reasonably healthy snacks to tide myself over whilst I cook a small, healthy meal.
This stops me from getting over hungry and gorging on high calorie food.
Bodyweight Exercise
Sometimes I simply can’t find time for the gym; something else might come up, I might have to work late or I may be going out. It happens.
I honestly think that the fastest way to lose weight is to build muscle (even if just a little tone) alongside a reasonably healthy diet, so for me, maintaining an exercise regime is essential.
So I learned a few bodyweight exercises, such as different push up variations, side to side push ups, raised legs, sit ups and dips are great too. These sorts of exercises can be done without equipment (try dips between 2 chairs), so you can do them anywhere, any time you have 15 minutes spare.
Bulk Cooking
Eating healthily is the hardest part for me, sometimes I don’t have time to cook, sometimes I am too busy or just too lazy. So I have gotten into the habit of cooking a whole batch of food once a week, portioning it up and freezing it.
It saves a load of time, and it means that when I am hungry there is something healthy and quick waiting; all I need to do is pop it in the microwave. It stops me from resorting to biscuits and crisps.
The moral of this story is that staying in shape and being healthy doesn’t have to be hard work and it doesn’t take much time. 2 hours a week of gym time is easy to fit in, and the cooking tips above might well save you time as well as money and calories. It just takes a little motivation and discipline.
