Social-Distancing? Here’s 10 Healthy Habits to Keep You Feeling Your Best
When something messes up your normal regime it can be hard to remember what day it is, let alone maintaining the lifestyle habits that keep you on top of your game! But whilst you’re self-distancing or isolating due to our current health climate, prioritising your body and mind has never been more important. So, here’s our 10 healthy hacks that will easily slip into your daily routine and boost your wellbeing, without making your life any more challenging or stressful than it already is!
1. Struggling to Find Any Routine? Wake up Early and do Something for You
If you’re struggling to stick to a good daily routine during this strange time, try to stick to your normal AM schedule, or at least get up an hour before you want to start working. Instead of crawling straight from bed to your laptop at 8:59am, use the extra time before anyone demands your attention to squeeze in a run, home workout or anything else that will make you feel good, be that reading, stretching or meditating.
If you think you might struggle to make this stick, ease your way in. Start with 2 mornings a week, gradually increasing this until the benefits you’ve been feeling have you jumping out of bed everyday…
2. Skipping the Most Important Meal of the Day? Prioritise a Nourishing Breakfast
With no commute ahead of you and a little extra time on your hands, make the effort to start the day with a delicious breakfast. To us, it’s a little act of self-care that helps guarantee at least one of your meals will be filled with beneficial ingredients to nourish your body and mind. A big glass of water, your favourite coffee or tea and a healthy, nutrient-dense meal is exactly what you need to kick things off on a positive note. Go for your favourite plate of avocado on sourdough toast with a Free Soul shake or whip up a protein smoothie topped with fresh fruit and granola.
3. Sat At Your Desk All Day? Try These Easy Ways to Add in More Movement
If you’re used to rushing from the gym, to back to back meetings before heading out to see friends or family, your recent decrease in activity likely has you feeling a little flat. But there are still ways to get yourself moving without hitting your usual workout class. Squeeze in a quick run, try out an at home HIIT workout and take phone calls whilst you’re out on a walk. Even just getting up from your desk regularly for a good stretch will help you combat the feelings of lethargy that come with inactivity.
4. Are You Drinking Enough H20?
Upping our H20 intake is a healthy habit we all know we should do, but many of us struggle to commit to. Good hydration is key for boosting your physical and mental performance, keeping you feeling energised and satiated and your skin glowing too. To stay on track, try placing a large bottle of water on your desk and experiment with adding fruit or lemon to jazz things up a bit if you’re finding it dull!
5. Struggling to Keep Up a Healthy Diet & Workout Routine? Make Life Easier by Getting Organised
No matter the situation, when it comes to sticking with your lifestyle goals, organisation should be your best friend! Just because you don’t need to eat out of Tupperware at the moment, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t batch cook some healthy meals, freeze some fruit ready for your healthy morning smoothie bowls and set aside some time to properly plan out your week. Schedule in your most important work tasks, some exciting weekday dinner ideas and any home workouts or yoga classes you want to do, so it becomes a process of ticking off your list every day. Don’t forget to add in some time to boost your mental wellbeing too. Plan to facetime friends or family to keep up your social life or give yourself an evening off work to pick back up a hobby you haven’t had time for in a while.
6. Not Sure About Meditation? Try Mindfulness Activities Instead
The world feels like a pretty stressful place at the moment, but even that isn’t enough to make 20 minutes of silence, with only your wandering thoughts for company, seem appealing! Luckily, there’s some awesome apps out there that provide short and sweet guided meditations so you can reap the rewards in a less intimidating and more manageable way. If that still doesn’t work, try a mindfulness activity that better suits you – that could be switching of your brain and taking some deep, conscious breaths whilst in the flow of drawing, journaling, painting or baking. After all, doing something you enjoy is far more likely to make you commit!
7. Ready to Drown Your Sorrows? Try a Non-Alcoholic Alternative to Wake up Feeling Fresh
We’re all for a good glass of red or a fun cocktail after a long and stressful day of working from home, but drowning your sorrows is only going to leave you feeling hungover, agitated and ready to hide in bed for the foreseeable future. Get yourself some non-alcoholic Seedlip or a Kombucha to satisfy your urge for another G&T. You’ll wake up feeling fresh and ready for that run you promised yourself you’d go on!
8.Struggling with Your Sweet Tooth? Swap Your Favourite Desserts for Healthier Alternatives
Creating healthier alternatives of your favourite desserts is one of the best ways to sharpen up your diet without it feeling tiresome or dull. After all, there’s nothing like a restrictive day of boiled broccoli and brown rice to leave you feeling hangry, weak and ready to devour your entire kitchen. Try one of these quick and easy dessert recipes for some creative ways to satisfy any craving you might have… knocking up a batch of brownies sounds like a pretty great healthy hack to us!
9. Are You Still Over-Committing? Be Realistic About What You Can Manage
With the change of pace from our usual busy lifestyles, you’d think that we’d all be starting to feel recharged and well rested. But just because your social life and work events are on hold, doesn’t mean you can’t over commit and end up feeling frazzled! It’s easy to feel like you should be taking on extra work to help with the challenging times and busting out endless home workouts, all whilst making sure to help out friends in need and generally putting pressure on yourself to stay constantly productive.
Be realistic about what you can and can’t do, and don’t be afraid of saying no if you’ve over-exerted yourself. It might be tough to fight feelings of selfishness at first, but you can’t help others or be the best at what you do without putting your health first!
10. Are You Prioritising Your Sleep? Here’s How to Create Strict Bedroom Boundaries
We all know the feeling of wading through treacle after a terrible night of shut eye, impacting your mood, energy and ability to think clearly. But sleep is linked to so many longer-term health benefits too, like boosting your immune system and preventing multiple serious diseases.
Especially if social distancing has increased your screen-time, now is the time to create strict but realistic boundaries around tech, like using an alarm clock so that you can keep your phone outside your bedroom and turning off the tv at least half an hour before bed. If you often find yourself craving a late-night snack, try making a yogurt bowl or shake up a Free Soul whey or vegan nutrition blend. Sleep is enabled through a process of hormones and neurotransmitters, so our specifically designed formulas, made with premium ingredients that aid hormone balance, will help to support this. Want to know more about the incredible role of sleep? Stop scrolling on Instagram and instead, check out sleep scientist Matthew Walker’s best-selling book, ‘Why We Sleep’ for a pre-bed read.
**At Free Soul, your wellbeing is our priority, and although we pride ourselves on our expertise in women's health and wellbeing, it is important to acknowledge the individuality of each person. Features published by Free Soul are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease, or replace the advice of your GP. We always recommend consulting with a healthcare provider if you encounter any health concerns, and we’ll always be here to support you so you’re never alone on your journey.
