When we first went into lockdown back in March, it was only a matter of weeks, if not days, when I realised how quickly I had fallen into bad habits. Overeating, sitting on the couch, too much screen time and obsessively watching the news led to weight gain, headaches, lethargy, and cramps in my neck.
I started to experiment with a few little things, and have since developed a few habits that I’ve found very helpful over the last few months. I’ll share four of them here:
- Intermittant fasting. Unlike some diets which focus on expensive proteins or complicated calorie counting, intermittant fasting is pretty simple. I started by skipping breakfast, and slowly reduced my “eating window” to just a few hours a day. Some days now I only eat one meal in the evening. It has been great for weight loss, but it has also left me feeling more energetic than I have in years.
- Pushups. Exercise was tricky in lockdown, and is still tricky with small kids at home. I love long-distance running, but this can be a big time commitment. During lockdown, I started to do just a few pushups every other day or so and slowly added a few other exercises. I later got a resistance band and pullup bar. I now switch things up with a short 15 minute-ish session early each morning. One day it might be a few sets of pull ups. Another day it might be a couple minutes of the plank and some resistance- band squats. A third day it might just be push ups, but a few sets adding up to 100 or more. These won’t make me an athlete, but it has definitely helped me to feel better.
- Cold Showers. Every morning at the end of my shower I turn the hot tap off completely for a final minute or two. It has become slightly easier over the last few months, but I still don’t enjoy it. That is kind of the point though: too much comfort can be a bad thing. It is also incredibly energising.
- Learning a Language: I’ve already posted a bit about learning Russian. I will hopefully post more about this later, but I am still enjoying it a lot. I spend less than an hour a day on this, during my commutes to and from work. But even this short amount of time is a great way to exercise my brain and focus on something completely different from what I think about the rest of the day.
And how about you? I’d love to hear any daily habits that you have developed that you find helpful during this time. Please leave a comment below!
