The irony of the Coronavirus lockdown is that while it may be necessary to save lives from being lost to COVID19, it has the potential to be utterly horrendous for the physical and mental health of the UK. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect both. Here are some tips.
Try to establish a meaningful routine
As a minimum, try to establish times for getting up, eating three healthy meals a day and going to bed. If at all possible, set times for physical exercise and ideally for mental wellness activities too.
Stay off the snacks and comfort food
You may actually find you need less food than normal because you’re taking less exercise. That’s fine, just make sure that what you do eat is healthy. If you’re snacking through boredom, then make yourself some healthy snacks. For example, cut up vegetables and fruit so you can munch on them.
Take your hour a day outdoors
The government recognises people cannot be expected to stay indoors 24/7. You are allowed to go out for essential activities. Depending on where you are, it may be feasible for you to use these for some “outdoor time”, for example walking to the shops instead of using transport. In fact, this may actually be a safer option from the point of view of social distancing.
You are also allowed an hour’s outdoor exercise every day and you should take this if at all possible. If you’re self-conscious about taking vigorous exercise in public, i.e. the sort which makes you sweat, just go for a walk. Do your proper exercise indoors.
Make sure you get physical exercise
Exercise is obviously good for your physical health and it is crucial to maintain this during lock-down. It also has all kinds of benefits for your mental health, which is also important, especially during stressful times such as these. You don’t need to have a home gym to exercise at home. You don’t actually need any equipment at all, although it can extend your options. In fact, you don’t even need a great deal of space.
If you look online, you’ll probably find plenty of options for exercises you can do without equipment (such as yoga and floor exercises) or with the equipment you have around the house (such as step and barre classes, just use a chair). You could also invest in a balance ball (they’re inflatable so can be stored very easily out of use), resistance bands or cordless skipping ropes.
The last may sound like a strange concept but they’re essentially light weights, shaped like skipping-rope handles sometimes with short cords at the end with further weights. If you’re looking for these online, you might want to search under the term “cordless jump rope”. That’s the U.S. term and it can get more results. These can be a great way to get straightforward cardio in a small space.
If you’re missing the sociable element of classes, then look online for live classes. In addition to the companies which focus on providing online classes to people who want to get fit from their own home, there are a growing number of fitness instructors offering classes for free to keep people moving during the lock-down period.
Set times to take care of your mind
Treat taking care of your mind as seriously as you treat taking care of your body. Think about what makes you feel at peace with yourself and the world and try to make that happen as much as possible and if you can’t make it, fake it. For example, if you’re craving to get outdoors into nature then get some recordings of birdsong and put up a video showing the natural world. When you go for your essential shopping, see if you can pick up some houseplants or even fake ones and perhaps look for home fragrances which can bring the outdoors to you.
