In light of these weird times we’re going through, its really important to not forget to do a few certain things. I admit, working from home and being quarantined has gotten me lazy. It’s gotten me to live a “hermit” type of life and even has gotten me lazy as the gyms closed down, and even the beaches were closed at one point.
Here are a few things that I’ve learned to never disregard and make a huge difference. I’m probably getting old!
Going For Walks
It’s such an easy thing to stop doing. With being stuck at home, the only walking we might be doing is going to the grocery store. I’ve been checking the health app on my iPhone and at one point I’ll average something like ~1000 steps a week.
Compare that from averaging ~6000 steps a week, and surely the body is going to atrophy.
Find 5 minute intervals in each day to start going on walks. This will activate muscles in your body that you don’t use and neglect whenever you’re sitting down and grinding away at the computer.
Bodyweight Workouts
We all need to have some baseline of strength, otherwise our postures will get compromised. Body weight workouts won’t be too harsh on the body and they will help in preserving any gains you have. Of course, it’s not a substitute for heavy lifting, but cranking out some push ups, sit ups, and squats will do nothing but help you.
A sample routine:
Wake up and immediately do the following:
50 push ups
50 sit ups
50 squats
This will be a good start to your morning and you’ll find that you’ll be ready to take on the day.
Sounds like too much? Don’t worry, knock down the amount you need to do by increments of ten.
Trust me, this’ll be a great start to your day, it’s gonna hurt so good!
Cooking Your Own Food
If you’ve been browsing Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or even the news, you’ll notice with the recent restaurant closures and limited activities that restaurants are hurting and that you should support local businesses and order your food from there. While we’re all for supporting local businesses, it’s important to not forget that eating out is generally unhealthy.
When you eat out, you don’t really know the nutritional value of your food and what type of additives, salt, fat, and whatever else your food is full of. I love eating out, but there’s a balance to be had!
Ultimately, it’s better to go grocery shopping at a higher quality, grocery store like Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, or Whole Foods, to buy fresh produce and cook as opposed to eating out.
Stretch!
At this point, I’m sure we all know a few people who’ve gained weight during this stay at home scenario – whether it be ourselves, our friends, or our family.
It’s also easy to assume that if all of us are gaining weight, we aren’t taking care of ourselves.
This includes doing any stretching to loosen up some of the tight muscles that we get when we work at a desk for 8 hours a day.
I love doing Sun Salutations in the morning to loosen up, when I remember to do them that is!
A neat trick that I just discovered – set a reminder on your phone when you know you’re the least active so that you can get up and start stretching.
Make this a habit and you’ll feel infinitely better.
Call Your Friends!
At this point in time, outdoor restaurants are open, so if you haven’t seen a particular friend in awhile, it’s time to get your phone out and hit them up!
We’re social creatures – there’s no doubt that staying home for all this time has had an impact on our social skills.
There’s just something about hanging out with a friend that gets your out of your head and out of any poisonous thoughts that you might be experiencing.
Hanging out with a friend really allows you to live in the present.
If you’re feeling bored and you just realize that you haven’t seen anyone in awhile, time to ring em up!
Being Grateful
Times are tough. With the economy shutting down, travel being on the decline, restaurants closing or operating in reduced hours, we have no doubt that people on an individual basis are affected all over.
Whether it be a role at a travel agency or a cashier at a restaurant, we can all agree that we no longer have the same sense of security as we did prior to all of this.
I say to myself and my friends that I’m very grateful for what I have – whether it be job, healthy friends and family, or some food on the table.
There are literally millions of people that’ve lost their jobs. Sure, they might be netting some unemployment benefits, but how long is that really set to last? And what happens after? Surely that stress will eat anyone alive – the stress of not knowing the unknown and worrying whether or not one will have to default on their mortgage, sell their car, cut back on their services, and the need to start budgeting.
Besides looking at this from an economic standpoint, there are also people actually getting sick from this COVID thing. At this point, I’m sure we all know someone that’s gotten the virus. Hopefully they made it out.
But the really sad thing?
This virus is legit killing people. Families are hurting and even scared of this thing.
I personally know a lot of people that are taking this thing really seriously that are higher risk – people that are overweight, diabetes, high blood pressure – and they’re really being careful about it.
Take a moment each day to appreciate what you have despite all that’s going on in the world.
This whole damn thing is stressful.
But we’re all in this together.
Let’s all stay strong.