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#119: A realistic guide to creating space for YOU, without burning out
680 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast, I’m talking all about how to create space for self-care - without the pressure of “finding more time.” If your to-do list is never-ending and you feel like you're constantly juggling chaos, this one’s for you. I break down why prioritising your health doesn’t mean adding more to your plate - it means being intentional with the time and energy you already have.
You'll hear my 4-step process to carve out meaningful space for self-care, prevent burnout, and build momentum in your wellness journey. Plus, I’ll walk you through my Healthy Lifestyle Continuum - ten foundational habits you can layer in slowly and sustainably to create long-term change. Whether you're just starting out or looking to reset your wellness routine, this episode offers real-life strategies for building a healthier, more balanced life.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
[0:00] - Welcome to the show!
[0:20] - Why "making more time" is a myth - and what to do instead
[0:49] - How to create space for self-care in your current routine
[1:42] - The power of self-reflection and breaking down your week
[3:41] - Tips for prioritising tasks and letting go of what’s not serving you
[6:16] - My step-by-step guide to the Healthy Lifestyle Continuum
[7:44] - 10 core habits that support a sustainable wellness journey
[14:06] - Navigating life’s ups and downs while staying grounded in your health
[17:15] - Final thoughts + how to get coaching support
Links & Resources:
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
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Transcript
Introduction & Purpose
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast.
Time Management in Health
00:00:12
Speaker
So in today's episode, you are stuck with just me and I'm going to talk around the whole topic of creating space for you.
00:00:20
Speaker
So the first thing that I will say is I absolutely hate the expression, make more time. I'm like, that makes no sense. There is a finite amount of time and there's a finite amount of energy that we have.
00:00:31
Speaker
And we can't just make more time. That's impossible, especially since I know a lot of you listening are busy mums and dads. You are busy professionals. Life is already busy.
00:00:42
Speaker
So making more time ah to like add in your health and fitness isn't really a reality. So really it is about creating space. in your already existing routine rather than adding to
Importance of Self-Care & Reflection
00:00:56
Speaker
it. So it is really, really important to remember that everything that we give our time and our energy comes at a cost.
00:01:02
Speaker
Okay, that if we're giving our time and our energy too much in other directions, we're not going to have time and energy left for ourselves. This is why it seems nearly impossible to make time for ourselves because our time and our energy have to go in so many different directions as parents, as professionals. But if we don't create this space for ourselves, eventually everything will come crashing down because self-care is absolutely vital. Again, I hate the expression self-care as well because it's so cliche, but it's true.
00:01:31
Speaker
That focus on you and that care that's needed towards you is vital. So and instead of making time for ourselves, creating space for ourselves is completely vital.
00:01:42
Speaker
Before we can actually make changes in our lifestyles, whether it is to lose weight, to get fitter, to get healthier, or just to feel more rested, we need to do some self-reflection.
00:01:53
Speaker
And people often don't like to hear that, but it's so true. We need to actually stop and reflect on our current lifestyles.
Prioritizing & Outsourcing Tasks
00:02:00
Speaker
We need to look at our week. And I know I've actually talked about this in the podcast before in relation to the eliminate, delegate, automate kind of idea. So this is kind of similar to this. it just kind of another approach to it.
00:02:11
Speaker
We need to look at our week and begin to deconstruct it a little bit. So we need to really just be like, what am I actually doing? In my week, writing out that list, like what I had explained in a previous episode, write out that list of every single thing you're doing in your whole week.
00:02:26
Speaker
OK, so this is, like I said, a slightly different approach to us. What exactly are we so busy doing? What is it that you actually value most in your week? What is it that you actually dread most?
00:02:38
Speaker
And like, what can you actually outsource
Effective Habit Formation
00:02:41
Speaker
or delegate? so And that's what we need to look at. So when we want to get fit and healthy or we want to lose weight, what we usually try and do is, you know, cook a new recipe from scratch at every dinner, try to batch cook all of our lunches and our breakfasts.
00:02:54
Speaker
We try to give up chocolate and crisps and fizzy drinks and get rid of them all out of our house. We try to go to the gym two or three times a week. walk every day for 30 minutes, meal plan and prep for the weekend. We try and add all of these things into our diet, into our lives.
00:03:08
Speaker
Does that sound familiar? It does, because you've tried it before, haven't you? And it didn't work. And the reason why it didn't work is because you've tried to add all of these things into an already busy week.
00:03:21
Speaker
that's filled with things like school runs, work, after school activities, housework, grocery shopping, cooking, bath times, bed time, story times, meetings, appointments, work, travel, all of these things that are already in our lives.
00:03:32
Speaker
You're trying to add all of those things in on top. So it kind of does sound like an impossible situation, doesn't it? So what are we actually supposed to do? And that is what I'm going to talk to you about. So step one, writing out the week, like I said, list everything you do for the whole week.
00:03:47
Speaker
And instead of the eliminate, delegate, automate, this is another thing that you can do instead, which is numbers in order of importance to you. So every single thing you do in your week from story time to football training drop-offs to work meetings to everything list it all and number it in order of importance of what's important to you don't number it in order of what you think should be the most important it needs to be what you think and what you feel okay then step two whatever you have listed as least important needs to go it needs to go all together like eliminated or it needs to at least be outsourced
00:04:26
Speaker
For some context, in order for me to make time to go to the gym every day and get outside for a walk and to work on my business, all of these things that are really important to me, I now outsource my grocery shopping and my housework.
00:04:38
Speaker
So these are two things that used to take up a huge amount of time in my week. And now I've just bought back more time in my week because all of these things can be done by someone else. Now the thing is, if you can't afford to outsource, then you need to delegate.
00:04:51
Speaker
And in the worst case scenario, if you cannot delegate, if you've absolutely no one to delegate to or to ask for help, just do less housework. Like, does it matter if your house isn't perfect?
00:05:01
Speaker
Is having a perfect house all the time really bringing you the joy, like the same kind of joy that being... healthy and full of energy and vibrant and strong, how that feels, it's probably not going to be as fulfilling. So, you know, something has to give in order to put in what you want to put in to feel and experience the way you want to feel, if that makes sense.
00:05:24
Speaker
And step three, assess realistically Now, this is one that people don't really like to hear. Assess realistically the amount of time that you are spending watching TV and scrolling through social media.
00:05:36
Speaker
I know you don't want to hear it. Like if you've got an iPhone, like I know my iPhone it can tell me exactly what my screen time is. Check your screen time if you don't know, because it'll probably shock you. But more than likely, there will be a huge amount of time spent there.
00:05:48
Speaker
Now, I'm not saying that you need to give up this time at all. But what I'm saying is if you could actually reduce this time a little bit to becoming happier, fitter, stronger, healthier version of yourself, like I know for sure you're not going to be sorry reducing that time to put in into
Gradual Integration of Healthy Habits
00:06:02
Speaker
you.
00:06:02
Speaker
It's definitely one worth looking at and one that I feel like isn't said that much, but it can be game changing. And as I said, not something you have to give up altogether. And then step four, which is the most important step of all.
00:06:16
Speaker
Once you have created this space for you, please do not try and implement all of the changes at once because you can't take it one habit at a time. I'm going to talk you through my healthy lifestyle continuum, which I know I've talked about before, but I'll talk you through it again. The habits in my healthy lifestyle continuum really are all of the habits that you need to live a healthy lifestyle.
00:06:37
Speaker
You never have to have them all mastered. And that is the beauty of it, about taking it one step at a time. We want to make progress towards our goals. And in order to make progress, we need to step out of our comfort zone.
00:06:48
Speaker
But you don't want to jump so far out of your comfort zone that you end up to the point of overwhelm. And as busy mums, busy dads, busy professionals, people with busy careers, we're going to reach that point of overwhelm very quickly.
00:07:02
Speaker
And then what happens when we reach that point of overwhelm is we give up. So you don't want to add too much in too quickly or you will get overwhelmed, which will lead to you giving up, which will make you feel shit about yourself, even though it's not your fault, if that makes sense. And then that's where that vicious cycle starts again. So what I'm going do is talk you through the healthy lifestyle continuum, the different habits that you can layer in step by step. OK, it's not in any particular order. OK, but I've got 10 habits on this continuum.
00:07:25
Speaker
Some of these you will be doing already. And the ones you're doing already, count them as ticked off. OK, so we can make a little list of while you're listening to me, if you like, or you can go back and listen and make a little list. I have this as kind of a circular continuum because one isn't more important than the other. It just depends on the person because it's going to be different for everyone.
00:07:42
Speaker
OK, I'll just call them out in one to ten. OK, so number one, sleep. Getting adequate sleep is hugely important to living a healthy lifestyle, whether your goal is just to be healthier, fitter, whether it is to lose weight, whether it's to gain weight. It doesn't matter. Sleep is so, so important and maximizing sleep.
00:07:58
Speaker
the amount of sleep you're getting and optimizing the amount of sleep that you're getting is really, really important and creating a healthy sleep routine. Even if you are being woken by babies or hot flushes or whatever it is that's disturbing your sleep, you still have power to create a healthy sleep routine, which I know I've done a podcast episode on sleep, so I won't get into it too much, all the different ways that we can do this. Number two, eating more whole foods.
00:08:21
Speaker
Eating more whole foods is often a really good place to start if you're a beginner. You know, you don't have to track or count anything. You're just adding to your diet, eating more lean proteins, more healthy fats, more fiber, more whole grain carbohydrates, more fruit, vegetables.
00:08:38
Speaker
Just adding more of those into every meal can be a great place to start. Number three, daily movement. So going for a walk every day doesn't have to be a walk. It can be a dance class. It can be a yoga class.
00:08:50
Speaker
It can be a cycle, ah swim, whatever. For most people, it'll probably be a daily walk. and Number four, hydration, drinking enough water, at least one and a half to two liters of water every day, if not more, depending on where you live, how hot it is, your age, your size, your there's loads of different factors that can affect how much water you should be drinking. Activity levels obviously being another factor, but drinking enough water. Most of us don't. I'd always say a good place to start if you aren't drinking enough. One and a half to two liters is a good place to start.
00:09:19
Speaker
Number five, organization. Being organized. What's for breakfast, lunch and dinner? What dinner is he having for the week? Have you got the the grocery shopping done? If you are tracking your calories, are you doing it ahead of time? So you kind of have it loose structure to what's going on in your in your day ahead. Being organized, being ahead of yourself is really, really important, particularly when you're dieting.
00:09:37
Speaker
Number six, protein with every meal. Just, you know, having the goal of literally just breakfast, lunch and dinner, that there is a protein source in each of those. But a palm of your hand sized portion with each meal.
00:09:47
Speaker
Number seven, vegetables every meal. So really focusing on making sure that every single meal you're having has a decent amount of vegetables. Number eight, resistance training, lifting weights. Once, twice, three times a week, whatever it is that is sustainable for you, whatever you're going to be consistent with, you need to start adding in some resistance training. It is so important for your bone health, your muscle health, your metabolic health, and it's going to help you lose body fat and be able to keep it off while not having to eat teeny tiny amounts food. It's so, so important.
00:10:17
Speaker
Number nine, mindfulness. And this comes back to the reflection, being able to reflect on your habits and having that space where you can actually think, why do I keep doing that same habit over and over again? Why can't I break it?
00:10:29
Speaker
And really just giving yourself time to connect with yourself, to understand why you do things. Why you think the way that you think. Mindfulness can be done with your daily walk, like that you're doing that kind of connection at that stage. Even when you're resistance training, you can be thinking about these things as well. And like they're quite both quite mindful activities.
00:10:48
Speaker
This can be journaling. It can be yoga. It can be meditation. It can be, like I said, going for a walk. In essence, really, when we're looking for at habit change, it really is about reflection, reflection and just connecting with yourself and listening to yourself, slowing down enough to listen to yourself.
00:11:05
Speaker
and you'd be surprised what will come up. Then number 10, tracking calories or hand portions. And this is for if you have a specific goal, let's use fat loss as an example. The specific goal of fat loss, if you're tracking your calories or measuring through hand portions, it is portion control, which is going to help you consume less calories than what you're burning so that you will lose body fat over time.
00:11:27
Speaker
And the tracking calories is not forever. You know, it's to guide you to your goal, bringing them back up to maintenance, maybe spending a bit of time tracking up maintenance until you're used to kind of what feels good for you. And then eventually we do take them away.
00:11:39
Speaker
So it's not a strategy that has to be relied on for life. So those are like my 10 steps of the healthy lifestyle continuum. And probably even from hearing all of that, you're probably a little bit overwhelmed and thinking,
00:11:50
Speaker
Oh my God, that is so much to add into my already busy lifestyle, which is literally my point. This is what people do. They try and do all of this at once and they can't because their lives are so busy. They're already so stressed and have so much to do that they can't add all of this in at once.
00:12:07
Speaker
And you don't have to. So think about those 10 things. Maybe you're already a pretty decent sleeper. Tick. Done. OK, like you've nailed one. Great. What next? Maybe you're someone who already goes for a walk every day. Tick. Brilliant. That's great.
00:12:20
Speaker
Eating more whole foods. Oh, that slipped a little bit. OK, I'll start there. I'm going to just make sure that most of my meals are coming from good, healthy whole foods. Maybe that's where you start. Maybe you do that for a few days you're like, this feels quite easy. I can push myself a little more.
00:12:31
Speaker
Right. Let's add in some water. You know what I mean? So we can we layer it in. So the point is, if you're sitting really comfortably with your habits, If you have a goal, right, if you're not where you want to be health wise and you have a goal, if you're sitting feeling really comfortable, you're probably not moving towards your goal, which means you could probably take on another one of these things being like, all right, I'm nailing those first four.
00:12:54
Speaker
I probably could consider now really... planning and organizing ahead of time. So I'm not kind of skating on my ass the whole time with this. Or you could be like, maybe I'll start a bit of resistance training. Maybe I'll join a class or, you know to mean Like you'll know what step you want to do next. Or you might be like, I might start tracking these whole foods to see how many calories I'm consuming. Whatever it is, you know, that you will be like, that's my next step. So will take you slightly out of your comfort zone while you get used to doing something that you don't usually do.
Adapting Habits to Life's Challenges
00:13:19
Speaker
And that might take some time. Like i have some clients that, you know, like the organization side of things, it doesn't come naturally to them. And they spend weeks really, like really struggling with planning, prepping, being organized.
00:13:30
Speaker
But once they get it, like it just, everything skyrockets for them. And like, then there's others that will really struggle with finding the time to strength train or they have a lot of barriers around it. But when they get going with it, everything changes for them. So my point here is that you will get to a point on this continuum where you're like, I'm now out of my comfort zone.
00:13:48
Speaker
This is where I need to stay. So don't shy away from the discomfort. Like, OK, this is my main focus for this week. But don't even give yourself a time frame. This is my main focus until it feels easy or until it feels easier, until it feels normal.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then add in the next thing and then add in the next thing. And then the thing is, you might eventually then like be nearly ticking all of these 10 things off on a normal week where nothing's happening.
00:14:14
Speaker
However, that is not real life. So we rarely have normal weeks where there's nothing happening. Usually then there's something that'll happen. There'll be birthday parties, there'll be holidays. Someone could end up sick. Life happens and there's going to be ups and downs. so So this is where we get away from the on the wagon, off the wagon.
00:14:28
Speaker
If you know that you never have to be perfect, like you've got all these 10 habits, you manage what you can. When things are slow and easy, then focus in and nail as much of it as you can.
00:14:39
Speaker
And then when life gets busy and you start to feel overwhelmed because you'll feel it like and when you learn to recognize it and you feel overwhelmed, like, oh, oh I can't do all of this. I feel like giving up. Like, no, no, I don't need to give up. When you get tired, rest.
00:14:51
Speaker
Don't quit. So you don't need to give up. You just need to take a step or two back. What do I need to rest? until I have more space to reintroduce it? What can I manage easily enough with everything else
Enjoying the Health Journey
00:15:05
Speaker
going on?
00:15:05
Speaker
Like I would always kind of manage to, you know, eat more whole foods, prioritize my sleep and drink plenty of water. You know what i mean? Like and that might be all I manage, depending on the situation. If you're visiting someone in hospital every day for a few weeks, you mightn't have as much time for a daily movement.
00:15:22
Speaker
However, maybe your meals are still on point. Maybe you are on holidays for two weeks. You're not tracking and you might be eating as much whole foods as usual, but you're acing your sleep because you're really catching up on it. You're more mindful and you're getting daily movement in because you're out for a walk every day and so you're hydrating, but you're not being organized and you're not tracking and you're not strength training because you're on holidays. You know what i mean? So like it depends on what's going on in your life and that's OK.
00:15:46
Speaker
So it's about focusing in when things are easy and being like, right, let's build some momentum. And when things get a little bit more complicated in life, just pull a little bit back. Even if you never seem to have those easy weeks, that's okay. Just tip away slowly. Like I know this whole thing is about creating space like in your time, but like when we put time limits on things, I need to lose two stone by the end of the summer or I need to be three stone down by Christmas or whatever it is.
00:16:10
Speaker
It's like, Why are you putting so much pressure on yourself? Why the time? Like, what is the rush? This is the rest of your life. This is your health. This is your well-being. Let it be a journey that you get to enjoy because it isn't a destination.
00:16:22
Speaker
Like when you get there, it's not going to feel the way you think it's going to feel. What's going to feel amazing is the whole journey there. And when you get there, you're going to feel the same as you did on the journey.
00:16:34
Speaker
Except you'll be there. So it's so, so, so important to enjoy the journey, to feel empowered by the journey and to really let go of that perfectionism because that's what's killing it for you. I think that's kind of all I really wanted to talk about, that you have to create that space.
00:16:49
Speaker
You really do. There has to be time to prioritize you. And with that space that you do create for you, stop trying to cram everything into it. And take it bit by bit, step by step. And you'll be surprised over time. When you take the time limits off, you will gradually make these little changes to your lifestyle and your mindset and your health.
00:17:08
Speaker
And you'll look back and be like, holy shit, how did I manage that? You'll be so proud of yourself. You'll be feeling amazing. And yeah.
Community & Engagement
00:17:15
Speaker
So look, anyway, if you do feel like that you want some extra support on your journey, this is literally what we do within the Kate Hampton Health Online Coaching Network. So we start a new group of clients the first Monday of every month. We always kind of take clients in about two weeks beforehand, so it gives us time to get them all set up.
00:17:33
Speaker
So if you are interested in coaching, if you go to my website, katehamiltonhealth.com forward slash coaching, coaching or just go kathamiltonhealth.com you'll see the coaching tab and all of the information's there the link to sign up will be there as well and if you have any questions on any of it please do always send me a little message on Facebook Instagram or TikTok wherever you find me I'll be happy to answer and As always, if you've enjoyed this episode, please do share it with your friends in the WhatsApp groups.
00:18:04
Speaker
Share it on your stories. Make sure to tag me if you share it in your stories. If you aren't already subscribed to the podcast, I ask you to please press subscribe. It really does make all the difference. I appreciate you all so much.
00:18:15
Speaker
And if you've made it this far to the end of this episode, thank you so much for listening. And I will chat to you all the next time.