How To Stay Healthy During A Quarantine
How to stay focused on your personal/family wellness (healthy lifestyle) when you are stuck at home & things are uncertain.
Stuck at home (maybe with all the kids in tow) but want to keep up your healthy lifestyle? Here are some ways to keep up good eating habits, physical activity, and positive headspace during time indoors, bad weather, and more.
**Please keep in mind that I am not a doctor or medical professional, and I always highly recommend speaking to your own doctor prior to starting or taking any supplements or making lifestyle changes. NOTHING in this article is medical advice and should not be taken as such. These are simply general concepts, not prescriptive information or health advice. I cannot emphasize this enough! Proceed at your own risk.
Eat Well
Use delivery and pick-up services. Try services like Whole Foods delivery through Amazon, Instacart, Walmart pick-up, etc. Many of these places have free first-time delivery or pick-up and will accommodate you with a no-hands hand-off. Make sure you ask to go with delivery and ask your delivery driver to leave the goods at the door if necessary.
Tip on the app or online instead of with cash if you feel uncomfortable. **** If you are picking up food from a local restaurant, PLEASE tip your server. Most often they are still making the usual $2.30 (based on Utah stats) per hour and rely on your tips.
Stock your pantry. Buy fresh food, but also stock up on non-perishables that will last you through the long-haul. Best case scenario, you’ll be out and about again soon, and you’ve done your pantry stocking for a while. Check this blog post for a list of pantry items to have stocked.
Eat fresh food first. You know what a bummer it is when you forget you have produce and let it go bad? That’s going to feel even worse if your grocery trips are more limited. Be sure to eat your dairy products, meats, produce, and anything else with an upcoming expiration date before you more on to your non-perishables.
Refrigerate and freeze what you can. Stick a loaf of bread in the fridge to keep longer. Freeze any meat that you don’t expect to be eating right away. If you have a secondary fridge, try to turn the temperature down a bit to help keep food longer.
Take advantage of the situation and enjoy cooking. There are some people who don’t like cooking, and now’s the time to try to overcome that dislike. If you bought a bunch of ingredients to make something and haven’t gotten around to it, do it now! Not sure what to make? Try searching for the main ingredient, such as chicken or spaghetti on one of your favorite recipe blogs. If you don’t have all the ingredients, see if you can make substitutions or can order groceries. Or play around with ingredients until you create a totally new concoction.
Drink only moderately. It’s fine to indulge here and there, but drinking more than a moderate amount on a regular basis can harm your health and disrupt your sleep. And although it may be tempting, using drugs or alcohol to cope with stress or anxiety can ultimately worsen your mental health instead of improving it. Alcohol also interferes with sleep and the immune system, including negatively impacting gut health and can make you more susceptible to illnesses.
Take supplements or vitamins. It can be a good time to consider a multi-vitamin, as well as other supplements, especially if you’re not getting as much sun as you should. I like Camu Camu berry for vitamin C. It’s also an antioxidant and reduces inflammation, which can affect the immune system. I also love taking a medicinal mushroom blend for immunity. I’m drinking Mudwtr for an afternoon pick me up without the jitters of coffee or in the AM after my warm water with lemon. Also, check out this article about natural killer cells, which are critical to the immune system. Again, make sure you run any new supplement or vitamin by your doctor first! I’m not a doctor here, and we don’t play them on the internet.
Keep Moving
Stay active! Try to exercise daily if you’re feeling up to it. There are tons of at-home programs to try out. There are so many apps, courses, and programs out there these days. Take advantage!
Use your weights or order some if you don’t have any. Bodyweight exercises are also great for keeping active and keeping your endorphins flowing. There are tons of great exercises on Pinterest, YouTube, and even apps for your phone. Workout and StrongLifts are a few with weight programs.
Try yoga. I love Yoga with Adriene. Yoga not only helps move your body and stretch your muscles, it’s also great for helping you to relax (which is so important right now).
Do cardio.Cardio is awesome for the body and for mental health as well. If you can’t go outside, there are tons of workouts on YouTube. You may even have an old Jane Fonda workout video or Zumba DVD lying around the house that you completely forgot about! I found my old Hip Hop abs video, and can’t wait to try it out again!
Down Dog is offering all its apps free until July! This includes yoga, barre, HIIT workouts, and others. This is definitely something you want to take advantage of!
Keep Things Clean
Wash your hands. Obviously! You should be washing your hands frequently and thoroughly for at least twenty seconds. (That’s the chorus to “Oops, I Did It Again!”) The CDC has some good recommendations for hand washing. However, if you are staying at home, maintain good hygiene, but don’t feel like you need to go way, way overboard. Simply follow current guidelines.
Your hands may start to crack from washing so frequently, so be sure to use lotion since cracked skin can make you more prone to infection. I love this handmade hand cream FREYA Idaho Botanical. It is amazing!!
Keep your home and surroundings clean. Disinfect any high-traffic, high-touch areas frequently, as always. Continue to follow current recommendations given whatever the situation.
Remember To Care For Your Mental Health
Get some sun. If you are able, get some sun! Being in the daylight is so important to good mental health, as well as keeping your body in sync with day and night. If you can’t get outside but the sun is out, open the blinds and sit by the window. If you live in an area that doesn’t get a lot of sunlight, consider investing in a therapy light.
Manage your anxiety. Easier said than done, I know, but being able to relax is vital to staying healthy if you’re stuck at home for any reason. It’s important to be informed, but know if you need to cut yourself off for the day. I can’t be the only one obsessing over the weather report in the midst of a snowstorm, right?
Meditate. Meditation is so important for helping to calm your brain and body. If you are not an expert or prefer guided meditation (which is great if your mind tends to wander), there are lots of apps, videos, and even podcasts available. I particularly love the app Insight Timer. But I have also had clients recommend Calm and Headspace.
Get enough sleep. This is crucial for managing anxiety, staying as healthy as possible, and maintaining focus. Even though you may be stuck at home, stick with your regular bedtime and waking time. Limit your screen time in the evening. There are apps for your phone that play noises that may help you fall and stay asleep. Relax Melodies lets you customize your sleep sounds with different noises and even music. Meditation apps also frequently have guided meditation for sleep. Insight Timer that I use has hundreds of guided meditations as well as just music for sleep.
Stay social. No, I’m not saying meet with “just one or two friends.” If you live with others, take the time to spend quality time together. Turn off the news. Hang out. Play games. Call your friends on the phone or have FaceTime hangouts. Set regular video coffee dates, or pick a movie to watch at the same time and talk about as you watch. Netflix is offering movie meet ups. Meet with your colleagues on Skype or Zoom instead of taking it to email. I work with a majority of my clients via Zoom and I love the interaction. We are social beings, and isolation can be the most difficult part of being stuck inside. Workaround it in creative ways!
I hope this has given you some ideas on how to stay healthy while you’re stuck inside. If you have any other thoughts or try any of our suggestions, let us know in the comments below!
