Students are busy people. There’s a lot going on between classes, homework, clubs, work, internships, having a social life, etc. Sometimes you can’t fit in long workouts, 8 hours of sleep, and healthy home cooked meals. That means it’s time to be a kinda-sorta healthy person (KSHP)!
Below, I’ll show you a sample week in the life of a KSHP. The KSHP works under 2 principles: 1) The small things count, 2) Doing something is better than nothing. Below, I’ll show examples of a few healthy things the KSHP could do every day. (Note: These are the healthy choices; the unhealthy choices of the week aren’t shown.)
Let’s see some examples of how this works.
Table of Contents
Monday
8:00 AM: KSHP has a late afternoon class and decides to do a workout in the morning before showering. No chair, no medicine ball, no weights? No problem. Meg Turney’s 20-minute workout (above) only needs a timer that goes off every minute and that’s it. 4-5 reps for 3 moves: reverse lunges, push ups, and bicycle crunches. Do 20 sets in 20 minutes.
5:00 PM: KSHP has a 3-hour class until 9 PM and swings by the salad bar and fills a portable bowl with hard boiled eggs, mandarin oranges, cucumber, and grapes to munch on during a class break. No salad dressing, just salt and pepper for the eggs.
Tuesday
9:00 AM: KSHP is sore from the 20-minute workout and decides that walking will be the exercise for today. Taking a more inefficient route to and back from class today clocks 7,000 steps.
1:00 PM: A trip to student services, a professor’s office hours, and to a club gets KSHP to 10,000 steps.
11:00 PM: Nighttime craving for soda strikes. Wanting something sweet to drink but not super unhealthy, KSHP mixes in a teaspoon of honey with water and warms up the glass for 20 seconds in the microwave.
12:00 AM: KSHP heads to bed for 8 hours of sleep. While normally sleep deprived, KSHP has a full day tomorrow.
Wednesday
2:00 PM: KSHP snacks on packed cashews between lectures. Once lunchtime (finally) arrives, KSHP buys a strawberry and chicken salad from Einstein’s Brothers with a light salad dressing.
11:00 PM: KSHP is too exhausted for Meg Turney’s 20-Minute Workout. However, relaxing bedtime yoga sounds nice.
Thursday
1:00 PM: KSHP eats chopped fruit outside to take advantage of the nice weather before hibernating in the library for 4 hours.
8:00 PM: After finishing the assignments self-promised to get done, KSHP goes rollerskating with friends (if you’re in a cold place, hit up ice skating).
Friday
7:00 AM: KSHP drinks water first thing in the morning and before every meal.
7:10 AM: KSHP does The Blissful Mind’s 20-minute total body workout.
9:00 AM: Desperate for some caffeine, KSHP goes to Starbucks. Avoiding the more sugary drinks, KSHP opts for unsweetened shaken iced green tea.
Saturday
6:00 PM: It may be a rest day but that won’t stop KSHP from being kinda-sorta healthy. Skipping more intensive workouts, KSHP does a semi-active activity: going to the art museum with friends. (Check out your school’s library, they might have free tickets for a local museum. Or check out your art school’s gallery.)
Sunday
12:00 PM: After breakfast with people, KSHP hunkers down for the rest of the day. Time for chores! KSHP turns on a chores playlist and proceeds to scrub, sweep, and wash laundry with a phone pedometer app tracking her every step.
7:00 PM: KSHP takes a brief post-dinner walk to get some fresh air and feel like a human after studying/doing chores all day.
Your Thoughts?
What is a week in your health life like? Did you find this interesting? What small tips and tricks do you use to be healthy during busy weeks?