How To Stay Healthy As A Blogger

Struggling to stay fit as a blogger? I’m a personal trainer and I want to share my tips on how to stay healthy as a blogger and writer.

Hi there! Chantal here – mom, personal trainer, and the author of this little blog, Ironwild Fitness. 

Though I haven’t had Ironwild Fitness for more than about three years, I have actually been a blogger for nearly seven. 

However, my first few years blogging were back when I was a brand new mom, looking for a way to make money from home.

I’m still here, blogging, though it was a long road to making my first $100. Those early years were spent learning, troubleshooting, and writing until my brain hurt. 

I started out on Pinterest – where I discovered that blogging for money was a thing – and have since spent countless hours blogging.

It started with reading other people’s posts, then income reports, followed by reading their books, taking their courses, and reading some more. 

I have tried everything under the sun, and though I enjoy blogging fully, I have a tendency to get, “sucked in.”

Actually, the reason that this very fitness blog exists is because I gave myself an ultimatum a few years ago.

I had gained weight, was super into blogging, and was getting pretty unhealthy.

My blogging habit didn’t go well with the weight I’d gained during pregnancy and as a new mom. 

So, I said to myself – “If you’re going to blog, you need to blog about fitness.” 

I told myself this because I needed accountability, and I thought that surely my fitness blog would help with that.

Not only that, but I had been kind of lost as far as niches until then. I’d had a blog about blogging, a blog about motherhood, one about homesteading, recipe blogs, and about 15 different domain names. 

But I’ll let you in on a little secret – becoming a personal trainer and fitness blogger doesn’t make you magically fit. 🙂

You still have to exercise, eat well, and put some serious intentional living to work. 

Now, I have had to learn to scale WAY back on the blogging in order to stay healthy. It’s been a learning curve, y’all.

It takes some serious balance to be a “serious” blogger while also staying healthy. Anyone who says differently is making way too much money and has hired out all of their computer work. 😉

So what’s a blogger to do?

Firstly, if you’re a blogger struggling to stay healthy, I get it. If you’re like me, once an idea hits your brain – watch out.

You’re going to go write it all out, spend countless hours on Canva, Insta, WordPress, or whatever. 

I’m the kind of person who likes to sit down and write a whole blog post in one sitting, and I don’t like to get interrupted. (Totally ruins the flow of my creative juices.) 

However, balance – balance, balance, balance – is going to be key. But it’s hard. Learning it is a choice. A series of choices, actually. And it can take some time to develop. 

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But the good news is that there are some *easy, simple* ways to improve your health as a blogger.

Or, if you’re not already overweight like the rest of us, how to stay healthy as a blogger. Ha.

Just like I always say, being healthy & losing weight is a series of good choices. Results aren’t one big overhaul of your whole life, they are small changes made daily.

They are small habits adding up to big results. 

(If that’s your jam, I do have a whole blog post dedicated to small habits you can change to add up to big-time weight loss.)

Otherwise, check out these ways to stay healthy specifically for bloggers. 

How To Stay Healthy As A Blogger

Get Up Often

Have you heard that sitting is the new smoking? It is!

Sitting for long periods of times not only makes you sedentary, it can hurt your heart health.

Your circulation worsens, which also worsens cellulite and makes your heart work harder than it has to. It can also lead to back pain, leg pain, and all sorts of spinal issues (especially since we jut our heads forward so much when on the computer).

The answer, for me, is to get up at LEAST once every hour and walk around or do housework for several minutes at a time. 

This used to be a big thing for me, but now that I have a three year old boy and a homeschooled six year old, it’s actually nearly impossible for me to sit for more than a few minutes.

(Silence is so sketchy when you have small children.)

So…thank you, kids?

Whatever your circumstances, you should aim to walk around a bit more. Get those steps in! Climb the stairs! Just do something. 

Set Timers

Focused, intentional work for twenty minutes can be way more effective than random busy work. Right?

By now you probably know what’s worthwhile and not in your blogging situation. I find that if I set work timers in small bits (20-30 minutes) I actually get more important stuff done. 

That’s because it’s a bit of a challenge/I’m working against a clock. It forces me to prioritize.  

When my timer is up, it’s time to do something else. Time to switch the laundry, do the dishes, go for a walk, etc.

There’s just something about that timer that forces you to do something to make strides in your work. Try it!

Water

Drinking water not only helps you eat less, it helps your body digest and keeps headaches at bay.

One of the healthy habits that I’m super proud of is how much water I drink. (I’m known to have a water bottle on me at all times!)

Ramp up your water intake, and swap water for a sugary drink. You’ll not only save calories – you’ll also need to get up more. 😉

Standing Desk 

In my old house, I had a standing desk installed so that I wouldn’t be sitting as much. They make some pretty cool ones now – even ones that attach to treadmills. 

I don’t know if I’m that coordinated, but maybe it’s a good idea for you. You don’t even have to get a fancy thing – you could just get a floating shelf that’s set at just the right height for typing.

Just make sure it’s in a good location – or you’re unlikely to actually use it. Mine was deep in our laundry room!

Start Dictating Your Posts

When I started getting serious about content marketing as well as my health, I figured out that I could dictate my blog posts.

Then, I went on to invest in a super-quiet exercise bike (the NordicTrack S22i) so that I could either blog or watch a show without my machine being too loud. 

Now, I often use a Google Doc to dictate much of the content you see here before it’s officially published. Sure, it takes some editing later.

But doing this helps me get my ideas out when they strike, rather than feeling torn between exercise and writing.

If you can figure out a good way to dictate your content, then copy & paste later, you’ll not only increase productivity, you’ll be able to sit less. Thank me later!

Schedule Work Time

Okay, I admit that this one is really hard for me. Especially this year. I have always been a blogger & stay-at-home mom simultaneously.

So I’m never able to stick to an exact schedule, or block work time in super solidly. 

This year, with homeschooling and “shutdowns,” it’s been even harder. 

However, I do try to have specific work time, especially now that I’m seeing steady income. For me, that means getting up an hour or two before the kids just to write and do bloggy things.

I dream of the days that I can drop the kids off at school, go to the gym, then come home and blog. But alas, I am stuck working around these children of mine. 🙂 

But, it truly is like they say – if you don’t treat your blog like a business, it will never earn like a business.

If you want to grow, put your head down. Pencil in work time if you’re a side-job blogger or you’re just getting started. Just make sure you’re spending your time where it really counts. 

Pro Tip: Use Tailwind to batch schedule your Pins and create new pins super quickly. 

Tailwind is the single-most important tool I have used as a blogger, and I’ve been with them for years now.

Not only can I keep my content circulating Pinterest easily with them, they also just came out with a new tool that is a serious lifesaver with the newest algorithm update.

The Create tool helps you generate new, branded Pins for your content in just a few clicks. So. Worth. It.

Take Breaks

Ok, last but not least!

When you’re serious about how to stay healthy as a blogger, you have to know when to take breaks. But I’m not just talking about those walking breaks.

I’m talking about knowing when you’re too far down the blogging rabbit trails, or when you’re so sucked in that you’re losing your grip on reality. The times that can be really unhealthy. 

(Even big-time bloggers have confessed they have trouble with balance and knowing when to take a break.)

If you don’t take breaks, not only do you run the risk of blogger burnout, you start to really compromise your health and any good health habits you may have formed.

So, know when it’s time to take a few days off, enjoy your vacations as you should, and quit checking your analytics every two seconds. Got it? 

Well – that’s it friends! I hope this hits home with some fellow bloggers who need to get back on track. 

Have more health tips for fellow bloggers? Share them with me below!

-Chantal