Finding the right balance is important.

In part 2 of our blog series: Living Liteful, I want to talk about a topic that can be hard for working adults in the 21st century.  Sure things have changed for the better in many ways, especially for the gluten intolerant and those with Celiac disease.  Our options have become immense for gluten free proteins, pizza, snacks, and even lotion.

Technology has also grown at an exponential rate as well.  Just a few decades ago, cell phones were a rarity, your refrigerator would never have the ability to remind you about what you need to buy at the store, and forget about the ability to talk to your home and have the latest news, weather, and game scores be spoken out loud.  With the turn of every minute of every day, the ability to connect to your friends, family, coworkers, and boss increases.  And what are we going to do about it.

 

But what about us?

Monday through Friday, our workday could begin before the sun comes up and may not end until the sun has already set.  Individuals like myself, a working parent, are lucky to find just a second or two in each day for ourselves. We find ourselves checking our emails, group text messages, voicemails at all times of the day.  Hopefully your job has made concessions to when or how you are contacted when you are not on the clock, but for a lot of us, that still is not the case. Sometimes, as working adults, it maybe hard to find a time in the day that we do not find ourselves working.  

All the time we spend devoted to our jobs and careers, with the increasing ability to be contacted by work, needs to be balanced with the love and laughter of our own lives.

So in this episode of Living Liteful, I would love to give a few helpful hints on how we can take time out of our day/week, to balance the work we do with the life we live!

Everything is SMART, so we need to make sure we are too!

1 - Take the time during lunch, or whenever you find time to eat, to send a quick note of love or laughter each day, to a friend or loved one

2 - Choose a reasonable start time in the morning, that makes sense for  your workday, to start working.  Try not to check messages, emails, or voicemails before this marked time begins

3 - Make your meal times and breaks, you time!  If you get a chance to take a break or lunch, focus on you during this time, and not work.  

4 - Make a firm time at night to cut off work and work related issues, emails, or messages so that you can focus on you, your family, friends, and loved ones. 

5 - Take vacations!  It could be a stay-cation, a weekend getaway, or a long needed travel to another state or country.  Whichever it is, take it, and spend it spending time on you and those that go with you.

6 - If you are a parent, grand-parent, or care-taker of any kind, make a date with yourself each month, even for one hour and do something that you love, no matter how small it is.

7 - Take 5, 10, 20 minutes three to five days a week and stay active.  Go for a walk, dance around the house, pretend jump rope, whatever your heart desires, but do something for your heart and get active.

8 - Eat as healthy as you can.  Start small with snacks.  Carry carrots, apples, and almonds in your possession at all times.  Liteful Foods has gluten free bites for a sweet treat, and our granola with yogurt can make a great small meal.

Everyday it gets harder and harder to find a balance in our lives.  I hope that we are able to help you or someone you know find a more balanced work and life balance with these few helpful tips.  Being gluten-free and being a part of the Liteful Foods family, means more to us than just eating gluten-free.  As we continue along this series, we hope that you will join us as we discover more ways of Living Liteful.