How to Stay Healthy During COVID-19

During the world-wide quarantine, many of us are left without our regular health routine. Our gyms and studios are closed, leaving us confused about how to stay healthy. Without our dedicated places of fitness, we become bored, and you know what happens when you get bored, you eat.

Have no fear. We have come to share our favorite ways to stay healthy. It’s a combination of looking at the mind and body connection. Here are our five favorite ways to stay healthy.

1. Yoga
2. Body Weight Workouts
3. Meditate
4. Cook Healthy at Home Meals
5. Read

1. Yoga

Yoga originates from the country of India, where it has been practiced for over 5,000 years (1). The rich tradition of yoga was passed down orally from teacher to student and has been passed down ever since. The initial purpose of yoga was to prepare the mind for stillness through moving the body. We are lucky to live in a world where the knowledge of this ancient tradition is at our fingertips. For online instructional videos, check out Black Swan Yoga or Yoga by Gaia.

2. Body-Weight Workouts

The great thing about body-weight workouts is that they don’t require any gym equipment. An entire exercise routine can be comprised of just 4 or 5 movements, like the squat, lunge, push up, and crunch. Every day at-home items like chairs can be used for movements like dips and leg raises. For free convenient at home, body workouts check out these Body Weight Workouts on Youtube.

3. Meditation

Just like most things in life, there are multiple ways of doing anything. The same goes for meditation. There are a couple of different practices you can choose from, like mindfulness, transcendental, guided, vipassana, Metta (Loving-Kindness Meditation), chakra, and yoga meditation. My favorite is mindfulness meditation; you close your eyes, and like cars passing by on the freeway, you observe your thoughts and emotions. Transcendental meditation is a technique of repeating a mantra such as a word, sound, or phrase which is repeated. It is practiced twice a day for 20 minutes per session (2). Another favorite of mine is a guided meditation, which is a meditation that is guided by an individual. They can be found on apps like Spotify. My favorite guided meditations are by Jess Shepherd.

4. Cook Healthy at Home Meals

Eating healthy can be confusing with all the information and misleading marketing by irresponsible companies. A great way to see what you should be eating is by asking yourself this, was it here 5,000 to 10,000 years ago? If not, you probably shouldn’t be eating it. Where to start is by purchasing clean, pesticide-free organically grown vegetables and responsibly raised and hormone-free meats. It’s always best to educate yourself on the topic of nutrition. My two favorite books on the subject are The Metabolic Typing Diet by William L. Wolcott and Trish Fahey and The UltraMind Solution by Mark Hyman, M.D.

5. Read

Read, not just anything but a book that captures your imagination or your favorite subject of study. For me, I love books about philosophy, history, health, exercise personal growth, and on occasion, some fiction. Being healthy is more than just a meal or doing the movement. It’s what we feed our minds. Because as cliché, as it sounds, the adage, thoughts become words, and words become actions, are timeless.

Final Thoughts

Being quarantined in self-isolation doesn’t mean you have to be unhealthy. If anything, it’s an excellent opportunity to nail down those healthy habits and remove those old bad habits. For those not impacted by the fatal and economic aspects of COVID-19, we all have the time we all desperately needed. How will you emerge, better or worse? The choice is yours. for more information contact us.