There’s no denying that COVID-19 has turned most people’s lives upside-down. One of the ways that many nations have kept the spread of coronavirus under control is with lockdowns. If you live in an area where you’re under lockdown measures, you’ll know life isn’t much fun.
The thing about lockdowns is they severely limit what you can do in your daily life. For example, you can only go out briefly for exercise or to purchase groceries for your family. You can’t enjoy all the social activities that you did before COVID-19 became so prevalent.
There’s plenty of research to suggest that COVID-19 is a more viable threat to people that lead unhealthy lifestyles. But, lockdowns can be like double-edged swords. While staying at home a lot can limit your exposure to COVID-19, it can also make you unhealthy.
For instance, your home itself could cause respiratory problems that you might not have noticed before as you seldom spent so much time indoors in it. And it can also mean the temptation to eat plenty of unhealthy food could be too hard to resist.
With those thoughts in mind, it makes sense to stay fit and healthy at home during a lockdown as much as possible. Here are some ideas for you to consider – some of which other people living with you can also benefit from:
1. Ditch those take-out menus
Sometimes you might feel like taking the evening off from cooking and would instead order some take-out for delivery to your home. After all, it’s convenient, and someone else takes care of the hard work for a change.
The downside to take-out food is that it’s usually unhealthy for you. Many take-out meals get cooked with a lot of oil and often include ingredients high in fat and salt. If you order take-out food regularly, you’ll soon start piling on the pounds! Plus, it won’t do your health any good.
Resist the temptation to order fast food to your door by throwing away those take-out menus. And when you cook your evening meals, consider making large batches so you can freeze some to eat at a later date.
2. Aim for seven hours of sleep each night
Sleep is something everyone needs to do. When you go to sleep, it allows your mind and body to become refreshed for the following day. What’s more, your body uses that downtime to clear itself of toxins in your body.
The sad truth is many people aren’t getting enough sleep each night. Or, they might try to, but they end up having a low quality of sleep. Do your health a favor and aim for a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night.
Try your best to block any distractions that might affect your quality of sleep. The following are a few examples of how you can achieve that goal:
- Avoid technology an hour before bedtime. The blue light in screens such as TVs, computer monitors, and smartphones and tablets can disturb your body’s natural ability to prepare itself for sleep;
- Install black-out curtains in your bedroom. Do you find that your curtains let in lots of light from outdoors like street lighting? If so, black-out curtains will help resolve that issue;
- Sleep alone. One of the most common reasons for disturbed sleep each night is due to your bed partner snoring, ‘stealing’ the bed coverings, or even pushing you to the edge of the bed because they want extra space. Sleeping alone can eliminate all those problems, although it might annoy your partner or spouse;
- Go to sleep at a set time each night. It’s not always possible to go to bed at the same time every evening, but it’s something you should aim to do most of the time.
3. De-clutter your home
Do you have lots of stuff in virtually every room of your home? If so, de-cluttering each room can be extremely beneficial for your health in many ways. For example, you’ll lessen the risk of tripping on anything or causing a fire.
Secondly, it can have a positive impact on your mental health. Making your home less messy can result in increased self-confidence and lower anxiety levels, especially if much of those items belonged to a late relative.
De-cluttering your home is also an excellent way to make some extra cash because you can sell valuable items that were otherwise lying around and gathering dust. Check out The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up to get you started!
4. Boost your indoor air quality
Air is essential for all human beings and most other lifeforms. The thing is, the air that you breathe indoors is likely not as good as what you’d inhale outdoors. Indoor air quality can become affected by many things, such as:
- Mold and mildew;
- Chemicals with VOCs (volatile organic compounds);
- Dirt and dust;
- Poor ventilation;
- Tobacco smoke.
When you continuously breathe in low-quality air, your health will degrade. And if you have a lung condition such as asthma, it could even make things dangerous for you. That’s why you must boost your indoor air quality.
But, what are the best ways of improving your air quality indoors? The first step is ensuring that each room in your home is always clean and well-ventilated. Clean rooms mean there is a lower risk of dust particulates affecting your breathing.
Plus, ensuring adequate ventilation helps to draw in fresh air from outside. Even an act as simple as opening your windows each morning to ‘air’ your rooms can help massively, as it decreases mold from forming on your walls, ceilings, and other surfaces.
Of course, there are other steps you can take to improve your indoor air quality. One effective method is to use an air purifier in each room of your home that you spend much of your time inhabiting.
As the name suggests, an air purifier purifies and sanitizes the air of pollutants, allergens, and toxins.
One of the best brands on the market that do an excellent job of purifying the air is Molekule. You can view Molekule on Twitter to learn more about their products and the importance of good air purification.
5. Get people to remove their shoes at the door
Lockdown has effectively put a stop to visitors from frequenting your home and socializing with you. But, the people that live in your home will still go outdoors occasionally. Do the people in your home remove their shoes when they step inside your abode?
If not, it’s time you asked them to start doing that. The thing about walking outdoors is you’ve no idea what your shoes step in, even if the ground below looks reasonably clear and free of anything obvious.
Many studies have shown that infectious bacteria such as e.coli and even pesticides can bind themselves to the bottom of shoes. Those things are highly likely to spread themselves on your carpet and flooring when you walk inside.
Have a ‘shoe area’ near your front door so that people who live in your home (or visitors) can take off their footwear and put them somewhere safe. Of course, there are other benefits to taking your shoes off at home, such as not needing to clean so many stains on the floor!
6. Keep your mind busy
You might feel like your mind is always busy, especially if you must work remotely from home because of COVID-19 and you’ve got a family in tow. However, the monotony of your working and living from home every day can soon play havoc on your mind.
That’s why it makes sense to keep your mind occupied during your idle time. You could try your hand at new crafts, take part in games like puzzles, or even learn a new language. Those are just some of the many things you can do at home during a lockdown.
Some people even find that regularly reading new books helps keep their minds busy and their thoughts away from anxiety-inducing problems in their lives.
7. Turn your spare room into a home gym
If you’ve got some unused space in your home, such as a spare bedroom or a garage, you should consider turning it into a home gym. Lockdown measures usually mean you can’t spend time pumping iron at your local gym, so you can still keep fit and active from home.
Shape Magazine has an excellent guide on how you can build a home gym according to your needs and budget. It discusses what you’ll need for working on specific areas of your body and gives great recommendations on the products you can buy.
Keeping physically fit during a lockdown is essential to your health and having the best chances of fighting off COVID-19 if you’re unlucky enough to catch it.
Final thoughts
Hopefully, the above ideas will give you some inspiration on how you can stay fit and healthy at home during a lockdown. While it’s important to stay safe and practice social distancing when you’re outdoors, you need to stay healthy when you’re at home too.
Thanks for reading – good luck, and stay healthy at home.
