Quarantining even though you’re perfectly healthy is one of the ways you can keep yourself safe from the virus. In 2020, everyone felt assured that lockdowns would only last for three to four weeks; sadly, that is not the case. Even though a solid year has passed, nothing much has changed. Except that now there are more cases and even a couple of variants. Despite the situation worsening, life must still go on as it had before COVID-19.
Due to the stress that comes with staying indoors for an indefinite amount of time, most have paused their healthy living and even turned to stress-eating and other body-damaging habits. Breaking the habits formed during quarantine, especially ones that provided you with comfort during stressful times, is a formidable challenge.
But since health is your number one shield not only against COVID-19 but also other diseases and illnesses, this is the perfect time for you to get back on track. You can regain structure in your quarantine life and safeguard yourself from various health threats by returning to your healthy lifestyle.
Try Virtual Fitness
You need bouts of motivation to perform light to heavy workouts, but the will required is hard to muster when you do not enjoy your routine. If your regimen no longer works for you, you can try switching it to something more demanding or exciting. For instance, you can combine virtual gaming and exercise by playing fitness games offered by consoles, like Wii Sports and PS4 Fitness.
Constantly Look for Nutrient-Packed Foods
You can stick to creating your meals from the fruits and vegetables you like, but you can make your meal preps more fun by trying out other nutritious ingredients and cooking unique dishes. Now that you have more time to prepare food, you can try complicated yet healthy food creations and treat your tastebuds to a fusion of flavors without straying from your main goal: to eat healthily.
Work During the Hours You’re Paid
Some jobs give back as much as you have put in, making professionals willingly throw themselves to grind. Despite having more free time during your workdays at home, you shouldn’t take it as an opportunity to work more. This pandemic should make you realize that work is not everything. It would be best if you also let yourself spend time doing other things that make you happy. Now that you work from home, you ought to savor your breaks and clock out when you should to prevent burnout.
Make Time for Rest
Rest was the one welcome change brought by the pandemic. Still, after having spent more than a year as a remote worker somewhere along the line, you must’ve felt the lack of productivity and pushed yourself once again in the ever-exhausting cycle of work. Since your home life is still under your control amidst an uncertain time, work is a remnant of the normalcy you had before the pandemic that you can depend on when you feel powerless. But then again, you must not equate your free time to more workload.
Instead, it would help if you used it to pick up more healthy habits. Once you have finished your shift, rest must be your next priority. If you have trouble sleeping, you can try a couple’s biorhythm device, which makes your sleeping environment’s temperature optimal for sleep.
Get a Hobby
To have something on your mind besides work and negative pandemic-related thoughts, you can immerse yourself in new activities. A hobby not only serves as a way to entertain you, but it also lets you learn new things and keeps you busy enough without the stress and pressure that generally comes with work. You don’t necessarily have to learn new ones; if you wish to re-learn old hobbies, you can treat this as the perfect time to do so.
Get Your Dose of Vitamin D
Limiting your contact with the outside world is crucial in mitigating your risk of contracting the virus, but there are things that you can only get from outdoor environments, like the sun and fresh air. Though you can’t freely go outside, you can still experience nature by basking in the sun and breathing in fresh air from your garden. You can transform your backyard into a natural sanctuary by planting fragrant flowers and decorating it with a fountain or adding a small dining set so that you can have alfresco-style meals.
Zone Out
Giving structure to your indoor lifestyle does not only involve the constant slew of activities because, after all, doing nothing is also beneficial to your mental and physical health. Work helps give you something to look forward to every day, but you should also empty your mind when you can, especially when things start to look stressful. Meditation is a good approach for mind detox, and you can even combine your zoning out sessions with exercise through yoga and pilates.
