Staying Healthy in Real Estate: How Agents Can Be Healthier While on the Go

A lot of real estate agents spend the vast majority of their time on the go — and it can be hard to lead a healthy lifestyle if you’re constantly in the car and running from appointment to appointment. Still, that doesn’t mean that living a healthy lifestyle can’t be done. If you want tips on staying healthy in real estate, keep reading. We have the info that you need to know about creating a healthier lifestyle while working in the industry.

Here’s what you can do to stay healthy in real estate

1. Plan your meals ahead of time.

When you’re constantly on the go, it can be hard to think about when you’re going to eat next. Unfortunately, too often, that leads to subsisting off of snacks or hitting the drive-through on a regular basis. However, according to Johns Hopkins, when you eat erratically, blood sugar swings can affect your cognition. It can lead you to make mistakes, become confused, and generally think more slowly than normal.

Fortunately, you can combat these effects by making sure you eat regularly. In this case, meal prepping can be very effective. If you can use one of your days off to prepare meals to satiate you throughout the week, you won’t have to worry about cooking on busy workdays. You can prepare some healthy meals to take with you to the office and some snacks to keep in the car to eat while you’re between appointments.

2. Work some exercise into your schedule.

Recent research shows the link between regular exercise and benefits to the immune system. In particular, less than 60 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise on a daily or almost daily basis has been shown to help strengthen the immune system and to allow it to build on previous gains. While some of this may sound like medical jargon, at the end of the day, it means that movement matters.

If you haven’t already, do your best to find a time when you can make exercise a priority. Some agents may find benefit in waking up early to hit the gym before they go to work in the morning. Others may enjoy a brisk walk while they turn calls in the evening. However it works for you, just be sure that exercise is a regular part of your routine.

3. Make sure you get plenty of rest.

Believe it or not, lack of sleep has also been proven to have a negative effect on the immune system. In the short term, those who sleep less than six or seven hours a night have been shown to be at increased risk of infections, cold, and flu, according to the Sleep Foundation. Long term, those with high sleep debts are also at higher risk for chronic illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.

Obviously, this one is about learning to effectively manage your calendar. If you haven’t already, make sure to block off time to get a solid seven or eight hours of sleep each night. If you find that you’re constantly getting distracted by calls in the early morning and emails late at night, consider taking time each day to shut your phone off and be without it while you’re sleeping.

4. Don’t forget to de-stress.

Lastly, if you haven’t already, make an effort to fight back against stress. Stress has many negative effects on the body, including lowering lymphocyte levels, which are the white blood cells that help you fight off the common cold and infections, according to the Cleveland Clinic. In addition, when high-stress levels are maintained for a long time, they can raise cortisol levels which can impact your heart health.

To that end, it should be clear that it is vitally important to make some time to combat stress in your life. Most agents would say they have a stressful job, but fewer would say that they know what to do about it. Adopting a meditation or yoga practice is the suggestion offered by the Cleveland Clinic, However, investing in your relationships can also help, as well as taking time off work and doing things that you enjoy.

The bottom line on staying healthy in real estate

There’s no denying that real estate is a tough job, especially in this hot market. However, while it may be hard to make healthy choices while the phone is always ringing, it is possible. Use these tips to help you get started on adopting a healthier lifestyle.

Armed with this knowledge, you should have a much clearer idea of what it takes to get and stay healthy as a real estate agent. With a little perseverance and hard work, you’ll be able to implement what you’ve learned into creating a healthy life that works for you.