What To Do When You’re STUCK: Health and Fitness During a Quarantine

Moderation and Expectations: Nutrition

Stop the all or nothing mentality. If you are living a diet of restriction that doesn’t allow you balance in your life, you may need to rethink your plan. Under normal circumstances, you should be able to enjoy all things in moderation. A delicious meal or eating dessert shouldn’t ruin your mood and allow you to throw in the towel altogether. Food does not control you unless you allow it to. One meal or one weekend of indulgence is not going to throw your progress down the drain UNLESS you make it an every weekend habit. So, if you want to indulge, decide to enjoy it, don’t feel guilty about it, and then move on. With limited access to grocery stores at this time, accept that you will have to be flexible with your expectations and do the best that you can with what you have.

Do not punish yourself. If you’ve made a decision to enjoy a delicious meal that isn’t super healthy, own it and be at peace with it. Then get right back into a routine of eating high-quality foods, hydration, sleep, and movement. Routines are incredibly important right now.

When you flood your body with good nutrition all day, every day, your cravings for the junk that doesn’t serve you will subside, and you will feel a million times better mentally/physically. Again, knowing that trips for groceries are limited, be sure to stock up on plenty of different healthy options so that you have a variety to choose from between shopping trips.

Fitness and Activity

Stay active! Get outside for a walk, get a workout in, or do something active as a family! You may find that during this quarantine, you desperately need some alone time.  Don’t hesitate to head out for a solo walk or run, or to wait for the kids to be asleep to stream a workout. Additionally, we all need to get up and get moving as much as we can. Being stuck at home can entice us to sit more so take regular breaks throughout the day for movement and activity, and encourage the whole family to take part.

In general, get to the root of your behaviors. If your habits don’t align with your health goals, you need to dig deep to get to the root of why that is to create new, healthy habits.  If you know you are a stress eater, acknowledge that this is an extremely stressful time and be sure to give yourself every opportunity to succeed.

Don’t forget to drink lots of water! Most people are chronically dehydrated without even realizing it.  Staying hydrated has a multitude of health benefits, so drink up! Challenge the kids to skip the juice and soda and choose water instead along with you.

Find an accountability group!  You may cancel on yourself, but you won’t cancel on a friend. Where you would usually set up times and dates to meet friends for a workout, connect with them online and do a workout together.  Exercise makes you feel good!

 

Journal your thoughts and behaviors.  Not only will it help hold you accountable to create healthy habits, but it may also help you decipher how you are feeling and why and when you fall back on bad habits.  

 

Be vulnerable. We have a tendency to keep our feelings to ourselves, especially as busy moms who don’t want to burden anyone. Talk to a friend, family member or partner about how you are feeling. It’s crucial to have a support system that we feel comfortable talking to.  Especially now, when we feel as though we can’t let our positive outlook slip for the sake of the kids. Make sure you have people to check in with where you both can be open and honest about your concerns and fears.  Keeping them bottled up will cloud your ability to let go and focus on the positive steps you should be making.

 

Stop comparing yourself to others or to the past version of yourself.  Focus on the PRESENT and on doing something every single day that will benefit you in the future. 

 

Practice gratitude and kindness towards others and yourself. What you focus on grows. Negative thoughts are bound to come up but recognize them, let them go, and retrain your brain to focus on the positive.  

 

Remember that just as there are seasons of life in pregnancy and parenting, the same is true for health and fitness.  Our schedules simultaneously just got incredibly lighter as any sort of extracurricular events or expectations have been canceled, and more complicated as many are juggling work, childcare, and confinement. Give yourself time, grace, and focus on doing something every day that will help you move forward in the right direction. You’ve got this momma!