Her husband, a part-time Crossfit trainer, gets credit for helping 31-year-old Tiffany Steele to keep from becoming a couch potato, she says. With four kids and a seven-day workweek, it would be easy for the solo artist at Xscape Salon in Mt. Washington, Kentucky, to skip the workout or stop on the way home for fast food. But she’s put into place a schedule, a support network and a bit of determination to help her maintain a healthy body.

• The food. “I do all the grocery shopping, but my husband does all the meal-prepping,” Steele reports. “We eat healthy—he grills everything! We meal-prep it up for the week. That’s key to keeping all of the schedules straight.”

• The workout. “In good weather, we take our younger kids for a walk every morning before we drop them at daycare,” she continues. “Or I’ll get up and do my own little run or a workout DVD. If I don’t get it done in the morning, I can forget it! When I get home from work, I have to get the kids fed, and by 9:30 I’m exhausted.” For guidance with lifting twice a week, Steele sees a personal trainer to avoid aggravating a shoulder injury she sustained as a high school cheerleader.

• The schedule. One of the best things Steele says she has going for her is her five-minute commute to the salon, which lets her go often without justifying the trip by feeling she has to stay there all day. Rather, she keeps her hours flexible and spreads her 30-40 work hours throughout all seven days of the week so that she can spend after-school hours at home with her children, which includes driving them to cheer practice, since three of them are following in their mom’s footsteps in the sport. Making time for lunch, even at work, is important to Steele. “We all have the occasional day when we don’t eat lunch,” she concedes, “but I try to schedule 30 minutes to eat. If I’m working on clients, I’ll at least make a quick protein shake or smoothie and sip it, or I’ll grab berries, nuts or a yogurt.”

• Support and help. “At work, I’m constantly seeing the massage therapist at our salon!” Steele says. “In between clients I’ll ask her to please work out a kink, or while I’m eating lunch I’ll beg her to massage my shoulder.” Steele’s husband works a second shift and can be home at times that Steele is at work; additionally, watching the kids is covered through a combination of daycare, private babysitter and her mother-in-law’s help.