During the build stages of your small business, it's easy to throw away your healthy habits. Suddenly cooking seems to be taking time away from your business, so you begin to eat takeaway or eat out. Going to the gym does not fit into your 12 hour work day schedules and in general, you lose sleep because you are too busy thinking about what to do next in your head.

All these will slowly creep up on your until you realise you don't fit into your old clothes or you feel tired everyday. What you do to your body has a huge affect to how efficient you are, and how you perform as a business person, so taking short cuts here and there may actually not be saving you business time in the long run.

Remember to do these things daily:

Walk when you can

5 minutes here and there could add up to half an hours of exercise a day. Making sure you take a break to walk around every hour or so could mean a huge difference to your body. Find opportunities to take the stairs instead of the lift, or go the scenic route. Instead of making a bee line for lunch and back to the office, schedule some leg stretching time on the way to lunch and on the way back. If you don't have time to go to the gym, scheduling these couple of minutes throughout the day could keep you much healthier in the long run.

Bring your own lunch 

This is something that I'm trying to do as often as I can. It honestly isn't hard to prepare a sandwich at home, or cook a bit extra the night before and bring the left-overs to lunch. Home cooked food is great because you can control what you eat. You can use the best oils, lower the salt content and give yourself a healthy serving of vegetables. Grabbing a basket of fresh veggies and meat is actually costs 1/5 of the price of take away food as well. What I found about eating out is that usually the servings are too big, the food too oily (with saturated fat) and not much veggies. The healthy options are always much more expensive as well.

Give yourself an hour to relax before bed

If you are like me, your brain likes to go on overdrive and doesn't stop, even when you are trying to get to sleep. Having an hour to unwind in bed, to read a book, play some games or just listen to some music can mean you get a head start to falling asleep. Ban yourself from thinking about work and just let yourself enjoy things that are non work-related. Having a bright mind the next day is much more useful to your business then a tired one, that has been preventing you from getting a good nights rest.

Clear the clutter

Make sure you spend some time and de clutter your office area and your home. A cluttered work and home space could actually increase anxiety and stress. Trust me, I'm probably the biggest culprit of a cluttered workspace. Also taking the time to clean can also be quite meditative. Get rid of all things you don't need, and this includes your desktop files, and online files. 

Check in with your doctor regularly

When I used to get busy at work, I used to avoid going to the doctor because a trip to the docs can take up so much time, especially since no medical practices seem to run on time even if you make an appointment. It may be a good thing t know that doctors like to take their time instead of rushing through their patients, but this doesn't help you fit them into your schedule any better. 

Like my mother used to always say, when you aren't healthy, you can't do anything you want to do. It's true and you have to look after your body first. Make sure you have yearly checkups with a doctor you trust. Sometimes good doctors may not be in your local area, but it's more important to find a good doctor than a convenient one. Choose one that takes the time to check you out for all chronic or potentially life threatening ailments. ones that look down your throat and prescribe you antibiotics don't make the cut. Sometimes finding signs of a disease early can mean the difference between life and death, and I'm sure your loved ones will prefer you to be alive than to be successful. This includes dental check ups and other health maintaining appointments you need to make.

At the end of the day, if you business is getting in the way of looking after your health and wellbeing, it's time to make some changes. If you know you are bad with keeping tabs with this aspect of your life, take a day and plan it out and schedule it on your calendar or apps to start building your habits. Talk to someone you trust and have them hold you accountable to your health habits. 

It's important that we remember that living a healthy life is part of the package of a successful entrepreneur. Some of the most successful people have the most healthiest lifestyles because running on a well oiled machine is just easier.

What are some of your worst health habits? Also what are some helpful tips you can give the rest of the SavvySME community?