Just finished university and struggling to find a balance between work and play? Let’s face it, time at university produces some of our unhealthiest periods, with drinking and fast food accepted as the norm, you might be struggling to fall out of your youthful habits. Upon leaving university, many ex-students say the same thing. It can be so difficult to find a balanced lifestyle when all you have known is pot noodle meals and excessive drinking. Well, all of that is about to change as you enter the real, working world.
The hardest part about a balanced lifestyle is maintaining it. Your friends might tempt you to an after-work drink, however this should all be done in moderation. In this blog, we will share exactly how you can implement better lifestyle habits, even when all you have known previously is living life on the unhealthy edge! Take a look at the following suggestions:
Create a wellness routine
Wellness is more than simply taking a bath after a long day. A wellness routine will make sure that you are investing in your well-being as a non-negotiable, and not just when things get too overwhelming. This might include going for a walk in the morning before you set off for your graduate job or even going to the sauna to release toxins from your body once a week. A wellness routine might seem a stretch away when you are a busy graduate who has just started a full-time work schedule, however, embedding this into your daily routine will make sure your physical and mental health stays a priority even when things get on top of you. Let’s face it, the only wellness routine you may have followed during university is allowing yourself a day in bed to recover from a hangover!
Limit your drinking
Yes, the hard truth is that you need to put a stop to excessive drinking after university, for good reason too. Alcohol might’ve been the norm during your time studying, but continuing the cycle of excessive weekly drinking can have harmful effects on your health. The key is to create a healthy relationship with alcohol, instead of seeing it as a necessity to end your day with. A good idea would be to start limiting your drinking to celebration events and decline casual drinking arrangements. For example, if you are celebrating a birthday with friends, you can enjoy a can cocktail with all your favourite people and reminisce on university memories.
Watch what you eat
When completing your studies, an energy drink and some chips may have sufficed to keep you going throughout your day. You will soon come to realise that without complete, nutritious meals, you will begin to experience burnout and illness much more easily. For this reason, you need to eat the right things to maintain a healthy balanced diet. This does not mean you need to eat salads on a daily, but following simple rules such as eating three meals a day, packing each meal with lots of colourful vegetables, and limiting processed sugars in your diet will prove to provide a significant health and wellness benefit.
Try new hobbies with friends
If you are feeling a false sense of identity after leaving university, you are not alone. Most students question their identity once they have left education, and the professional world can be daunting when you have not yet figured out your place. With this, it offers a great opportunity to find yourself and try out new things. There are so many hobbies for young adults. From dance lessons to learning a language, find something to invest your time into aside from your professional work. This will help you to create your new identity and also prevent you from tying your worth to your job role. Also learn to invest in the early stage of life. Invest in companies who are involved in bonus issues, dividend yielding and stock splits in order to avoid risk in the learning stage.
Suggest healthy workplace activities
If you are lucky enough to have landed yourself a role straight out of university, you might be struggling to find ‘healthier’ ways to bond with your colleagues aside from after-work drinks. If you are trying to change the native of your relationship with alcohol it can prove difficult to maintain these limits when all work events surround drinking. Instead, consider suggesting team bonding activities that get people moving and involved. For example, there are loads of adventure trails, and even cooking classes to learn excellent culinary dishes.
Bottom line
Overall, detaching yourself from the university student in you who didn’t have to think about health and wellness can be difficult to drop. Unfortunately, we all have to grow up at some point, but investing in our well-being can ensure we experience these new life events with a sound mind and body. Ditch the excessive drinking, set yourself a wellness routine, and start to share experiences with others that help everyone involved grow into a better person.