Stressful times deserve serious measures. With the gloom of pandemic engulfing each one of us across the world, we have all come to one definite realization — the importance of having a healthy lifestyle.
With limited access to gyms, lack of motivation to workout, and stress-induced binge-eating, your health is perhaps going for a toss in the times when you most need it. Here is how you can stay fit, healthy, and happy during the ongoing pandemic!
Diet And Nutrition:
They say the path to a person’s heart goes through his stomach. It may or may not stand true in case of relationships, but it certainly does in case of health. In fact, the path to your heart, brain, and the entire body is determined by what goes in your stomach.
ALSO READ: What should you take to keep your gut healthy while traveling
Let’s have a look at the key points you need to remember to put the right things in your tummy.
1. Shoot Up Your H2O Intake
Maintaining sufficient hydration in your body is the most important part of staying healthy, particularly during an ongoing pandemic as water strengthens your immune system and helps you steer clear of infections. Set a target to drink around two to four liters of water per day. Besides maintaining your health, drinking water has many clinically proven benefits, including fat loss, improved heart health, and glowing skin, among others.
2. Embrace The Rainbow Diet
Make sure to include a variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables in your weekly, if not daily diets. Integrating colorful naturals like green vegetables, red apples, green guavas, violet cabbages, pink litchis in your diet can ensure balanced nutrition without the need for calculations. Make your food aesthetic and interesting, and leave no chance of missing on any of the essentials and vitamins.
3. Don’t Miss Out On The Antioxidants And Calcium
Your cheapest insurance from COVID-19 is to have a strong immunity from the virus. Antioxidants can help you build up exactly that. Onions, eggplants, grapes, and berries are all excellent sources of antioxidants. Further, get your daily dose of calcium by consuming an adequate amount of dairy products such as milk, cheese, cottage cheese along with good sunlight for Vitamin D to ensure that calcium gets absorbed.
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4. Be Best Friends With Your Kitchen
Cooking is a therapy, and even if you don’t agree, it is an exercise that you need in your life, to avoid medicines. Stick to food cooked at home and avoid takeaways or deliveries. This will not only ensure the hygiene of food but also keep junk at bay. To make it fun, try out some new recipes which are well balanced in proportions of fats, carbs, and protein.
5. Be Mindful Of Portion Sizes
While cooking food, or eating be mindful of how much and how you eat. The key is not to eat less but is to eat the right portion, which is neither too little nor too much. Binge eating is on the rise these days owing to depression, sadness, or plain boredom. However, not even the nutrition hero greens are healthy in excess quantities. The key is to maintain a balance.
Exercise And Fitness
While controlling your diet is fundamental, activity and exercise are equally essential components of staying healthy. Lost your zest to workout? Here are some ways you can get back on track.
1. Befriend The Sun
Starting your day with a little Vitamin D is always a good idea. The early morning sun rays are tender because that’s the time when the radiation levels are minimum and trigger our body to generate the sunshine vitamin. Interestingly, sun rays are also known to improve overall health and defense against serious illnesses including cancer.
2. Workout At Home
Being confined to our homes also means no access to gyms. Luckily, there are loads of apps available to bring the gym home and kickstart your at-home workout routines. If you are just starting or resuming after a long break, the following workout routine options would be best for you:
- Surya Namaskar
- Stretch Routines
- Beginners’ circuit training
- Cardio training
It is best to avoid weight training at home in the absence of proper equipment and weight. Lifting uneven weights can affect posture and do more harm than good. Once you feel better after exercising at lower intensities for a week or two, feel free to add up a challenge to level up your training.
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3. Dance Your Heart Out
There can be some days where your daily workout routine may seem to be mundane and you may have little to no motivation to look forward to it. Add music and groove to your fitness routines with Zumba, Jazzercise, Aerobics, and other well-known cardio-based dance workouts that can make you feel the rush of endorphins, slice down those calories, and ditch those exerting workouts, guilt-free!
4. Lead An Active Day
There is a difference between exercising and staying active. One bout of intensive exercise will do no good if it’s going to be followed by a whole day of being a couch potato. Add some fun activities to your to-do list like cleaning the kitchen or re-arranging bookshelves, or maybe combing your hair before a video call with your friends. The goal is to quit being a watcher or a thinker and start being a doer.
5. Sign Up With Online Fitness Communities
If you no longer have the motivation and energy to be your own competition, what’s better than signing up for one? Exercising, according to studies, is more productive when done with friends or in groups. Grab your smartphones and go online, feel inspired, and competitive about fitness; it’s the best way to keep you motivated with new exercises and challenges.
ALSO READ: 11 Heath Benefits of Cashew Nuts
Mental Health And Wellbeing
It’s time to break free from the misconceptions that being healthy is all about physical fitness. Wellness requires equal emphasis to be given to your mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Head down to find easy ways to ensure these.
1. Do Not Stock Up Emotions
Stocking up emotions for a prolonged time is proven to be fatal far more than smoking cigarettes. It is natural to feel stressed, anxious, or even panic in the current scenario. Talking to a friend or keeping a journal about how you feel can improve your mental and emotional health manifolds.
2. Count Your Blessings
If you are one of the fortunate ones who don’t have to worry about paying rent, bills, or making arrangements for food in the time when a pandemic is making lives difficult, that’s worth feeling gratitude for! Appreciate little to big things in life, including the roof over your head, the food on your plate, the health of your loved ones. Consciously surround yourself with positivity and see the difference.
3. Get A New Hobby
There is no pressure to be productive, but it is always for your better if you are. Figure out what you like doing, something that makes you feel satisfied without having to put in any effort. Whether it is a musical instrument you like playing, scribbling random stories, baking, gardening, painting, or the classic, reading.
4. Prioritize Self-care
Your mind is the most powerful asset you have. In order to ensure its peace and wellbeing, a re-energizing self-care routine is crucial. Spending quality time with yourself by indulging in some of your favorite treats, or listening to music while enjoying a warm bath can help with spiritual healing. In fact, embracing your emotions and crying out loud is also a hushed but effective tonic to depressing thoughts.
ALSO READ: Top 3 Health Hacks For A Revitalised Life
Lastly, a pandemic can add a lot of pressure to our lives, if not sorrow, inconvenience, and longing. Before you follow any of the above tips to stay healthy and fit during a pandemic, you need to first ensure you can resist these pressures and encourage yourself to lead a good life, no matter what.
The realization that a healthy lifestyle is more important, the rest is easy to follow.
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Share some experiences and endeavors of yours to stay fit, active, and healthy during the pandemic in the comments section below!
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The rainbow diet!!! I’ve never heard of it before now tbh! I have been thinking of trying keto but will check this one for sure.
Yes, please! Thanks ????
I’ve been trying (most days) to get some type of workout in. My husband and I started a 100 day program and we just finished day 80. Drinking more water has also been a goal, and I’ve been tracking how much I drink daily. I am getting close to 80oz per day.
Wow, that’s awesome, Stephanie???????? We are doing Yoga these days ???? Thanks ????
I desperately need to drink more water. I am awful about it and I have no idea why!
IKR!???? I have set alarm for this, now ???? You can mix lemon, salt, and honey and drink that flavored water ????
These are all great tips for fatting fit and healthy throughout the pandemic. It is a crazy time we are living in for sure and anything we can do to ensure a healthier sand safer life is good by me. It is so important to drink tons of H2O and for sure to eat healthy as well as excercise. Thank you so much for sharing!
You’re welcome ????
I have been pretty good at most of these, except the water one always gets me. I never drink enough water! And you are absolutely right that the emotional is just as important as the physical.
Thank you ????
Great tips here. I need to follow more of these myself. I’ve been getting quite lazy with my health, but it’s so hard to stay motivated!
Thank you ????
I needed to read this. We have done the absolute opposite of staying fit and healthy.
Oh no! Hope you start following all these tips asap. Stay healthy and beautiful, always ????
I’ve lost 15 pounds in the pandemic! We’ve been working out every day and eating better! I’ve caught up on sleep too!
Wow, that’s amazing, Kathleen ????????????
Oh these tips are so great! Drinking more water is good for our health and doing some exercise especially in the morning.
Thank you
I love these tips – especially embracing the rainbow diet! I feel like all I’ve done is cook for my family since lockdown began and it has been lovely to take the time to plan new meals etc. 🙂
Thank you ????
Thank you for posting Ana. Much needed!
You’re welcome, dear ????
A lot of people are feeling depressed as they are stuck at home and eating too much so these tips will help them stay fit and healthy during the pandemic
Thank you ????
These are definitely amazing tips! I’ll have to practice this. Thanks for sharing!
It’s our pleasure ????
You covered the bases to staying fit and healthy during this trying time. I especially liked the “count your blessings” part because I really believe that all of us should do it. I’m very grateful to Almighty God (Yahweh) in heaven for all His blessings! Thank you for sharing this post 🙂
It’s our pleasure ????
There are some really great tips here for sure…the rainbow diet sounds perfect to me x
Thank you ????
Staying healthy and fit is indeed important while in this situation where we might usually encounter stress, thanks for sharing these tips with us!
You’re welcome ????
Diet and exercise are so important to staying healthy any time of the year. Thank you for the encouragement.
It’s our pleasure ????
These are great tips that I need to constantly need to remind myself to do more of! I love the rainbow diet because I never thought of eating fruits and veggies like this – it’s quite fun!
Thank you ????
These are great tips! Love the sound of the rainbow diet and might encourage children to eat more fruit and veg too
Thank you ????
loved the post..i love the rainbow diet concept… i do try to keep my food as colourful as possible <3
Same here! Thank you, Anu ????
These are great tips. This post is reminding me that I need to get healthier during this pandemic.
Thank you ????
these are some great wellness tips, especially about getting more sun. it’s definitely been challenging trying to stay fit.
Thank you ????
Some great tips. I love eating a rainbow diet especially my rainbow salads.
Thank you ????
Thank you ????
A great selection of ways to stay fit and healthy, something we all should pay attention to
Thanks, Anamika for this beautiful article. During this pandemic, this article is really helpful. This type of post helps people to overcome critical time. I appreciate your writing skills.