When you’re staying at home with minimal options of going out, it’s more likely that you lose track of everything. The habits that you’ve cultivated pre-COVID-19 pandemic could have been replaced by new ones. Besides, humans do need to adapt to the situations they are in.
Sadly, new habits are not necessarily good and healthy. Before quarantine, it was easy to follow a routine because there were forces that compelled you to do so. Work began at eight in the morning, and you needed to wake up early for the commute. Now, commuting may be compromised—either it takes longer, or there’s none at all. Maybe you’re working from home, which changes the whole productivity dynamics.
Even then, it’s crucial to fight back these looming unhealthy habits. Staying in shape while confined to your home, for instance, is necessary—and it is not impossible.
Subscribe to fitness YouTube channels
Chloe Ting, Blogilates, POPSUGAR, and a lot more channels provide workout plans and different routines for you to follow. Most of them don’t require heavy equipment like those at the gym. With a yoga mat and an empty floor at home, you can break a sweat. The best thing about these is that they’re free. YouTube doesn’t require subscription fees to access these videos. Another benefit of regular exercise is that it boosts a person’s mood by increasing the release of endorphins.
Watch what you eat
During a pandemic, there are a lot of discomforts that every single person is going through. It’s an entire cocktail of valid emotions. One of them is grief coming from the uncertainty of things. Because of this, turning to comfort food has become one of the coping mechanisms of many people. They eat more fast food, sweets, and junk food instead of a clean and healthy diet. One way to subvert this is to find alternatives for the snacks you enjoy. For example, there are online stores that let you buy gluten-free cookies and other desserts. This will be a healthy alternative to your regular chocolate chip cookies.
Stick to a reasonable sleep schedule
It’s essential to have a full seven to eight hours of sleep every day to replenish your body. But since hours and days become a blur, an unhealthy sleep schedule could be on the way. It could start with an hour of delay and then another hour until you start sleeping when the sun’s up. In these trying times, anything to keep you away from mental health strain is essential. Luckily, sleep is one of those things. Hitting the sack early avoids stress because a sleep-deprived body generates more stress hormones. It also reduces the risk of depression as sleep aids in regulating serotonin.
Being mindful of your habits amid the pandemic ensures that you stay healthy. Now, more than ever, a strong immune system is crucial to fight something so critical. It’s not only physical health that one needs to look out for in times like this. Mental health is also affected, so turning to exercise, a healthy diet, and enough sleep can help alleviate stress.
