There are certain aspects of being stuck at home, like work-from-home, extra time to spend with family, cook or work out that are really nice. But it is also hard to keep a routine in a time with so much uncertainty.
Days seem to melt together and it has become increasingly hard to stay motivated day after day, especially since the days seems exactly the same as the one that came before.
Here are some tips on how to stay healthy and balanced while quarantined at home:
Reduce Stress The uncertainty of our current situation is stress inducing to say the least, so it’s an important time to incorporate some stress reducing practices into your life.
If you’ve ever wanted to start a yoga & meditation practice, now might be a good time! Yoga and meditation are amazing at helping you centre your mind and body and giving you a break from everything that’s going on outside.
Studies show that single meditation practice can cut mind wandering by 22% and daily meditation practice for 30 days is shown to increase mental focus by 14% and mental resilience by 11%. Daily meditation is shown to reduce the risk of depression and anxiety; people who mediate are generally more satisfied with their lives. The Headspace App is offering a free calming meditation class during this time, their platform is an amazing and accessible platform to help anyone who might want to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into their day.
Remember, every little bit adds up. Even if you do 6 minutes every time you get a chance- thats GREAT.
Eat Well Since we’re not going out or getting too much exercise, its important to eat well during this time. If you’re not doing a whole lot of strenuous exercise, you might want to consider switching to a low-carb high fat diet. This will give you more stable energy through out the day and the fullness from the fat will keep you from the all-day-snacking that some people are struggling with. Avoid foods like sugar, refined grains, potatoes and refined oil, consuming these actually suppresses the immune system.
Instead, focus on getting healthy fats into your diet for sustained energy release through the day. Eat things like ghee, olive oil, coconut, avocado and incorporate all nuts and seeds whenever possible. Try to eat as many veggies as you can during this time. The added fiber will cleanse your colon and the extra vitamins from eating fresh vegetables will nourish your body and boost your immune system.
Probiotics are also super important when it comes to eating well. Watch our video on how to make our own sauerkraut HERE. Other sources of probiotics include yoghurt, home made pickles, kanji, kefir and kombucha.
Life Rhythms With no fixed time commitments its easy for our schedules to get really imbalanced. Staying up late watching movies, sleeping until noon.. you know how it is...
However, we are choosing to see this as an opportunity to explore new rhythms for sleeping, waking and eating that might be harder to try most of the time. There are endless benefits of maintaining a circadian rhythm or waking and sleeping with the sun.
These include but are not limited to better sleep, more energy, reduced risk of depression, faster metabolism and balanced hormones. With no evening social obligations- this is your chance to try syncing your cycle with the sun. Sunrise is at 6 am these days. Starting your day in the early quiet hours not only gives you some distraction less peace and quiet, it also gives you an opportunity to explore some outdoor movement or early morning meditation before it gets too hot.
Intermittent fasting is an eating rhythm that chooses certain short windows for eating and long windows for fasting on a daily or weekly basis. The most popular of these is an 8 hour eating window during the day and a 16 hour fast between. The benefits of intermittent fasting range from weight loss, digestive support, more energy to slowed ageing in the body and detoxification. With zero reasons to leave the house, go for late dinners or to be stuck at office for 10 hours- you are in total control of your nutrition. This is your chance to try it out and see if this is something that helps you thrive. How to do it? Choose an 8 hour window of your day during which you have all of your meals, maybe 10am – 6pm or 11-7pm.. It’s good to know that intermittent fasting goes best with a high fat, low carb diet. Also, if you have any preexisting medical conditions, please check in with your doctor or physician over a call before you try a new dietary practice/regimen particularly at this time.
Extra Motivation? For all of you struggling to find a guided workout or an online movement practice during lockdown… We’ve compiled a list of our favourite free youtube workout classes here.
Remember, moving doesn’t have to be intimidating or intense.. it can be anything from 10-15 minutes to a whole hour of breathing and just getting into your body.
We love it because it gets us out of our heads and helps burn off some steam. While this lockdown isn’t anything any of us wanted or expected. We’re trying to see this as a special time to invest in our personal wellness. We really hope you can do the same!
Written by Ariella and Rebekah at Atmosphere
On popular demand, they are doing another 14 day program in nutrition, habits and wellness called The Atmosphere Reset from the 5-19th of May. To know more, head over to @atmospherestudio on Instagram.
