Keep the good habits from lockdown and don’t let coronavirus be an excuse to get into unhealthy habits.
Everyone has different levels of exposure risk that they are comfortable in accepting. With the ever changing rules on what is and isn’t acceptable it has almost become down to each individual to decide what part of their daily routine is essential. Is it essential to go to the gym? Do you feel safe going to your gym? Can you head back to a Yoga class or should you still practice yoga at home via zoom?
Maybe you feel like writing 2020 off with regards to your health and fitness goals and plan to start again when life gets back to normal? The problem with this scenario though is that no one knows when or if normal will return.
After spending so long at home finding the inclination to get moving again can be difficult. You may well have started lockdown with good intentions and exercised with Joe wicks every morning or used your hour out of the house to go for a walk or a run but what about now? What about this strange place we are in now when we are trying to get back to normal but at the same time have the possibility of a second lockdown looming. No-one quite knows where they are with the rules and all the uncertainty doesn’t help.
So here at PYB Health we want to focus on creating healthy habits based on the good parts of lockdown as well as breaking the unhealthy ones that we may have gotten into so that regardless of the R rate going forward we can build a healthier future.
1) Take responsibility for your health and make good choices.
Break the habit: Stop making excuses. Don’t blame finances, don’t blame the government, and don’t blame the virus. Your choices are down to you and you can always make healthier ones.
Good habit: Be kind to yourself & know that any changes you make are because you are choosing to do them and that you are making responsible choices for your own benefit.
2) Healthy Eating & Meal Planning
Good habit: One change that you may have noticed is how your shopping habits were forced to change. Meal planning became essential with social distancing measures preventing regular trips to the supermarket. Taking the time to plan healthy meals for the week ahead is a good habit to have both for your finances and for your waistline.
Break the habit: Don’t stockpile – stockpiling will lead to you having lots of extras in the cupboards “just in-case”, this in turn will lead to temptation and snacking unnecessarily.
3) Cooking from scratch
Good habit: With restaurants and cafes closed and most of us working from home, the lockdown has meant we’re cooking more meals and snacks from scratch. Cooking from scratch allows us to have more control over what goes into our food and means we’re less likely to eat processed foods with sugars. Cooking at home and cooking from scratch make it easier to eat a healthier diet.
Break the habit: With more time at home baking cakes and cupcakes, cookies and treats as comfort food to keep the children entertained over lockdown has become almost a national past time. You may enjoy baking but who is going to eat all those treats? Remember to try and keep the sugar levels to a minimum and only make as much as you need.
4) Alcohol intake
Break the habit: It has been too easy over the last six months to kick back, watch Netflix with a glass of wine and relax. Working from home and not having to drive anywhere has given us a perfect excuse to have a drink. It may have felt like an extended holiday. If you think how many pounds you can pile on during a normal weeks holiday then it really isn’t rocket science to work out why, with so many calories in each drink, your trousers might be more than a bit on the tight side.
Drinkaware reports that over 20% of people surveyed have been drinking more over lockdown
Read more on Alcohol Awareness – know the facts.
Good habit: It’s all about moderation. If you can’t cut out alcohol completely then the best way to cut down is to limit alcohol to a weekend so that it doesn’t become the norm to have a drink every night.
Drinkaware reports that around 15% of people surveyed have been drinking less over lockdown – mostly because they haven’t been socialising with their friends.
5) Home Workouts.
Break the habit: Using the uncertainty of the current situation to do nothing and become a couch potato.
Good habit: Build a home work out, walk or run into your daily routine. Try out a zoom fitness class. Aim for 30 minutes of movement and exercise every day. Get back to the gym if you feel it is safe to do so. If you have been good through lockdown then don’t stop now. Take everything you have learnt about self-discipline and self-motivation through lockdown and just keep going.
6) Connect with nature and get outdoors.
Break the habit: Don’t let yourself fall back into a pre-lockdown routine. Make getting outside the new normal. If you’re returning to your workplace, now is the time to change your breaks and lunchtime routine by getting outside when you can. Perhaps introduce a walk through a park at lunchtime?
Good habit: Throughout lockdown many of us have increased the amount of quality time we are spending outdoors. Connecting with nature is a key pillar to supporting our mental health. Exposure to sunlight is the best source of Vitamin D which helps support a healthy immune system. Where possible continue to spend time outdoors.