So, lockdown has been pretty tough for a lot of people, and for some (myself included) has actually been productive and successful. But whatever your situation is, we can all finish lockdown together stronger and better than how we started.
I guess quite a lot of people who were furloughed, or told they can't work, or have to work from home enjoyed the relaxed situation they found themselves in. They could get up later, go to bed later, take some time away from work and watch TV or do some baking, all of which was slowly and surely regressing your health by the minute. Now you are probably feeling the effects. You are bored and tired, and can't get to sleep at night. You are losing motivation to train, for eat healthily. This has all come about from the unstructured, somewhat reckless routine you found yourself in at the start of lockdown (taking advantage of the situation in most people eyes)
So what can we do to make sure we finish lockdown in a stronger, healthier and more productive state than we find ourselves in now:
Re-create your routinely, structured and consistent sleep schedule. This is extremely important for our well-being, and you will slowly start to find yourself being more productive, less tired, more motivated to train and make the right dietary choices. Be generous with the amount of opportunity to give yourself to sleep, and start to go to bed, and wake up at the same time everyday. Yes weekends too.
Secondly, take a step back from the insane, intense hard workouts you think you need to do everyday to make up for the fact we can't get out on our feet all day. If you follow me you'll now start to understand the physiology that goes on internally from working to hard in your cardio sessions, going to hard too fast and doing the daily. STOP the online HIIT classes and CIRCUIT style workouts and think less is more (obviously don't sit down all day). Get out for your walk, enjoy the sun and be calm, be in control and manage the exercise well. Faster is not better, more reps is not better, sweating more is not better.
Hit a daily water intake target. This is something everyone can improve on. Working or being inside at home all day can get on top of us, and simply filling up glasses of water every hour doesn't pass our thoughts. We end up starved of water and this has many detrimental effects so many systems inside the body; digestion, joint health, cardiovascular system, brain health and cognitive function, detoxification, performance, fatigue and so many more.
There are 3 easy things to do here to make sure you can improve your quality of life before the end of lockdown, so we can return to normality in a better physiological state, being more productive, feeling better, higher energy and simply be in a better position to be able to deal with the things life will throw at you out the other side of this phase os isolation.
ENJOY
Luke French, Health Coach