How to stay healthy when you’re exhausted

Has anyone else noticed that a huge part of adulting is being exhausted and then going around talking about being exhausted? I’ve even noticed a game of sorts that we seem to play. ‘I’m so exhausted I only had three hours sleep last night’ says co-worker number one ‘well I’m so exhausted I’ve only had about three hours the entire week’ co-worker number two retorts and then co-worker number three chimes in and we’ve got ourselves a little competition that no one really wants to win. This all seems to coincide with the resident gym bunnies hopping around the office and the smoothie slurpers eyeing the exhaustion party with resolute stares. So how do you fake it till you make it? Is there a happy medium between the wheatgrass waifs and the Waitrose ready meal weaklings? Well yes in my opinion, not that I always follow it.

Domestic Sluttery is a term coined by blogger Sian Meades and is pretty much a lifestyle I live and breathe. This involves shortcutting your way to what appears to be the highly organised life of the Nigellas of the world. Think Betty Crocker and frozen canapes. I take exactly this route when it comes to health on planet exhaustion. I watch Netflix in bed until I fall asleep whilst slathered in This Works lavender pillow mist and sleep balm. I eat prepared salads and my smoothies are from a packet. I recently finally cancelled my gym membership after three months of routinely cancelling inductions and now walk for an hour or two a day and do a home workout three times a week. I save money on parking at the station and can’t blame traffic for lateness- although this hasn’t stopped me- people traffic is a real thing, you try pushing through a herd of tourists snapping their cameras around your face! So below I have outlined my little tips and tricks.

1. Ready meals can be ok

If you know you are getting home late and you’ll need a bit of creamy comfort. Ready meals are okay if you choose wisely. If you read through the ingredients and don’t spot too many unidentifiable letters and numbers it’s fine and keep it under the 500 calorie mark. I tend to stab H E A L T H Y  R E A D Y  M E A L into the Ocado search bar.

2. Walk to and from the station and do home workouts.

For some of us the gym is a whole performance we are not ready to break a leg for- quite literally in my #klutzlife experience. I love Lauren Conrad’s skinny jeans circuit it’s kind of easy ish dare I say but will still make a difference:

100 jumping jacks, 20 crunches, 20 squats, 10 push ups, 25 bench dips (you can do this using a chair), 60 second wall sit, 60 second plank (repeat two times)

3. Spruce up pre made salad and invest in snacks.

You can order huge ready made salads to take for lunch that have pre chopped veg and you can just add things like pumpkin seeds, feta, halloumi, salmon, chicken and keep a dressing at work. I tend to bulk buy from Costco things like cliff bars and seaweed snacks and nuts- not amazing for your waist line but better than the cake from the office back table. I often bring fruit and granola bars for a breakfasty snack if I haven’t had anything mid morning.

So there you have it, trick your way into the gym/ yoga bunny tribe whilst still being able to join the exhaustion competition.