How to Stay Healthy When You Can’t Workout

Lack of time, a serious injury or sickness, bad weather, you name it and there can be a reason (or a hundred) for not being able to get to the gym up. Many people wonder how they can stay healthy when they can’t workout. Whether you are a die hard gym rat or just enjoy getting physical routinely, being forced to take a break from your workout can seem impossibly annoying.

There is good news. Breaking up your routine can be beneficial to your mind and body. Instead of calling it a break, many people refer to this time as recovery. When you focus your time on recovery, it seems like a better way to handle the break in routine.

Time away from the gym means more time for yourself. It is a great time for reflection and self discovery. You can choose to create new goals for yourself with an action plan. It is easy to say that “I want to lose 15 pounds,”, but you must take it one step farther. Consider describing the exact steps you plan to take to get there. Will it be adding an extra workout during the week that includes lifting weights or perhaps you want to cut out more sugar from your diet?

Whatever you choose, be sure to write it down. Journaling your goals can make them feel real and hold you to be more accountable. Set your goal, develop your action plan and make it happen.

Taking a break from a workout and going into recovery mode means you now have the luxury to dive into your diet more closely. There are at least two things you can do with your diet during your recovery period.

The first thing you must do is change your diet immediately. Since you will not be exerting as many calories as you would on a workout day, you must remember to not consume that many. By bringing it down a few hundred calories, you can be sure to keep the pounds from stacking up.

The second thing you can do during your recovery time is research your diet. Whether you are counting macros, calories or carbs, a break from you workout means you have a little more time to focus on your diet. Perhaps you want to start tracking your macros on a fitness app or you want to create a new board on Pinterest for recipes that fit your numbers. Either way, making a plan for your meals is essential to keeping in great shape with or without a workout.

This is also a great time to consider meal prepping. Planning out most of your meals and having them ready to go is a wonderful way to stay on track. It takes the guesswork out of tracking your meals and gives you one less thing to worry about during the week.

A healthy body includes a healthy mind and stepping away from your favorite social media platform might just be what you need. Have you been to the library lately? How about the park? It seems these days that we get so wrapped up with our phones and computers that we miss what the world used to be like without them.

Most people take transportation for granted. We choose the closest parking spot to the store and rarely consider walking to our next location. The reality is, most us need to get walking a little more.

During your gym hiatus, consider more ways you incorporate walking into your daily routine. Choose that parking spot farther from the store or around the corner, take an extra lap while shopping or purposely walk to the store instead.

Taking a break from the gym or a workout routine doesn’t have to be the end of the world. In fact, a recovery period is great for your body and affords you the opportunity to look at other aspects of your diet and mental well being. During your break, take advantage of the things you can do to make your next routine the best one yet.