Happy and Healthy during Lockdown
As lockdown continuous to be extended and there being no finish line in site in Ireland it is extremely difficult to stay positive and motivated but a way to give rise to your sprites is through healthy eating and exercise. As many peoples mental and physical health is deteriorating during lockdown, I have comprised some healthful tips to tackle both.
What many people find as one of the biggest nuisances with the continued lockdowns is the closures of gyms, but this does not have to stop you from exercising. You do not need to have endless amount of space to stay active, you could start running, dancing, swimming, or doing at home workouts. There are endless amounts of resources available online to help if you feel lost, from YouTube videos, Instagram pages, live Instagram videos etc. As many of us have limited financial resources during this time these free resources online are a great way to stay active.
A link to get you started
Running
Running is a great way to get out of the house and relive stress, running exerts hormones and excess energy. This exertion of hormones will naturally improve your mood, running is also one of the best forms of exercise that allow people to lose weight or keep a consistent weight.
Dancing/Zumba
Dancing is one of the best forms of exercise in lockdown as it doesn’t even feel like work. It increases your heart rate and can give your mood a great boast during the day. TikTok has become extremely popular during lockdown and many people are having a lot of fun learning these new dance videos and uploading them for there friends and family.
Swimming
If you are fortunate enough to be living near the sea, swimming is a brilliant form of exercise and a great way to energise your day, boost your immune system, clear your mind, and help with depression even if it is ice cold! The cold-water temperatures put your body into a fight or flight state with this becoming a repeated action it reduces your stress responses therefore allowing you cope with stress better in your daily life.
One of the hardest things to do is to get start, one of the best ways to find motivation to start is by setting new goals and challenges. There are so many different ways to challenge yourself e.g., for running pick a certain distance that you would like to run in a specific time and make a plan on how you will achieve this goal. Another good way to motivate yourself is set challenges with your friends and each send your results at the end of the week or day, this will allow you to have fun with them whilst following the government restrictions. There are multiple running challenges on Instagram at the moment such as run 5km and nominate 5 friends to do the same all while donating to charity.
Due to the lack of structure in our days at the moment every little task can seem like a chore, cooking definitely being one of them. Home cooking is a great way to pass the time in a productive way and provide us with a sense of achievement in the day. The chocolate bar and crisps are looking more and more appealing as the day goes on! But a great use of this extra time at home is to start eating healthy and trying out new recipes. Not only does this new challenge of trying new foods and cooking give you something to do but the benefits of eating a healthy balanced diet, it is good for your immune system, heart, and mental health. Cooks are spreading their expertise online just like fitness gurus, they are doing cooking classes online, adding more at home receipts to their websites and many adding tutorials to YouTube.
Meal Planning
Due to the lack of structure in are day it can become very easy to just eat when you are bored, but a great way to tackle this is by meal planning. Meal planning allows you to plan what you going to eat for each meal. There are numerous benefits to meal such as reducing the amount of waste as you are not buying access food this also therefore reduces costs, it avoids unhealthy feeding options and saves time.
