Best ways to prevent the “Quarantine Fifteen”?
Being stuck at home has made me realize I only like 3 things:
- Procrastinating on absolutely everything
- Isolating from everyone and everything except my phone and laptop
- Eating all day, every day
Not that I want to make around 50 trips to the fridge every day, there just aren’t that many different spots in my house that I really like.
I already spend a third of the day on my bed. Roughly another 10ish hours at my desk doing “work”. Maybe a couple of hours at night in front of the tv. And then repeat.
Among all my waking hours, I’m always eating. But it’s time to stop.
As of my current path, I am actually dreading the moment this all ends and I’m going to have to step on the scale again.
Consequently, I decided to coin my own term: “the Quarantine Fifteen.”
The Quarantine Fifteen originated from the “freshman fifteen,” the phenomenon that first-year university students either gain or lose 15 pounds over their first years.
I already have gained around like 10 pounds since the start of this lockdown but no more.
But now, it’s time for action and change. No more overeating, no more weight gain, and no more “I’ll exercise starting tomorrow.” Here’s how:
- Waking up early
Sure, this is cliché but hear me out.
I’m not preaching waking up at 5 am. That just doesn’t help.
Every time I’ve tried this “life-transforming” and “spiritual awakening” change in my routine, it’s had more negative than positive effects.
The first one or two days will feel great but then as your body slowly reverts back to its old ways, sleeping earlier becomes harder. Waking up earlier, physically and mentally, is also harder.
As simple as these may seem, they are not just excuses. I have tried changing to this morning — oriented lifestyle more than a handful of times but it doesn’t provide the positive results that I’ve heard other people preach about.
From my own experiments, I have found that I am more creative at night. Around midnight is when I am able to quietly, slip into my “zone”, a mental state where I am able to get engulfed in my own world and I can just work for hours without needing a break as long as I don’t get distracted or disturbed.
In the mornings, no matter how hard I try, I just can’t seem to get in my “zone” as effectively as during the night.
However, all I’m saying is to wake up at an optimal time: around 6 or 7 am. It allows you to rise in sync with the sun. This simply starts your day off on a bright note.
As countless studies have shown, when the weather is sunny, we are just happier. This is because exposure to sunlight releases serotonin and noradrenaline, two “feel-good chemicals.”
If you feel good, then you perform good. When its sunny, everyone feels good, no matter how hard life is or how much you don’t want to get out of bed. But once you are up and awake, you are ready to tackle the day.
As you start waking up a couple hours before work starts, you start noticing that life just feels more enjoyable. You have some free time before work to do things that you actually want to do such as eat a full breakfast or clean the house without constantly rushing through your day.
In order to shift your life into a better gear, you have to kick start your day off on an earlier note.
2. Only buying healthy foods
First off, the most important rule of thumb when grocery shopping: never shop when hungry. This is doubly important when you are actively trying to lose weight and watch what you eat. But before you step out of the house, make sure you have a solid list of everything you need to buy. Don’t start impulsively buying when you get to the stores.
The significance of planning before shopping is so that you don’t end up buying the sodium and sugar rich chips, soda, and assortments of baked goods including cake, cookies and brownies.
The main take away you need to know about your diet may seem counterintuitive, but it is to not eat only healthy foods.
Here’s what I mean. When people start out on their journeys to becoming fitter and achieving a slim, tone and lean body is that they go 110 % at the beginning. They watch hundreds of YouTube videos about professional athletes, body builders, actors, etc. talking about their diets and people start copying this. While this does seem like a good thing, there is a problem.
While you should watch these videos for the sake of learning and how important the proper nutrition means to these people, it is important to note that these diets have been specially made to suit the individual athlete’s needs by professional food nutritionists and chefs. We, normal people, don’t have this kind of luxury.
Therefore, if you start copying these super strict, boring diets and start only eating chicken breasts, chicken thighs, turkey legs, ground beef, rice and broccoli, you are putting yourself up at risk of giving up even before you begin to see any process. Yet this isn’t your fault. These meal plans simply aren’t appealing if you intend to stick with them for the long run.
Your body isn’t used to this new lifestyle. You need to give it time to slowly adjust. If you just jump into this new fitness and good eating regimen, you will be very prone to giving up in less than 2 weeks. I guarantee it.
Instead, I am encouraging you to start taking small measures. To eating cleaner and working out, but consistently. If you used to eat half a cake every day, cut that down to a quarter, then an eighth, and then a sixteenth… gosh I miss cake.
This plan will yield better results in the long run; so that you can make this change into your daily lifestyle.
Therefore it is crucial that you buy (mostly) healthy foods, so that when you do end up doing your routine 10 minute trips to the fridge, all you’re going to see are a bunch of fruits and veggies which will start becoming appetizing when you get hungry enough.
Finally, if you want to get cut / lean / shredded / whatever you want to call it, please stop drinking alcohol. It doesn’t provide any benefits mentally or physically so ask yourselves, why am I still consuming this toxic drug that only brings harm to my body (besides an occasional glass of red wine with dinner).
3. Working out in the morning before breakfast
Make it a rule of thumb to eat breakfast only after you’ve worked out. Therefore, instead of it being a chore, it will be perceivedas a task to carry out in order to gain a reward (of a huge, healthy breakfast).
First off, working out on an empty stomach just feels so much better. It’s easier to do leg exercises, ab workouts and any form of cardio.
There’s no food churning in your stomach whenever you are trying to run. It’s drastically easier to do crunches without feeling like your about to throw up.
Secondly, it burns more calories. Supposedly.
It makes sense though. If your body doesn’t have any food to breakdown in order to make energy, then it will start turning to its fat reserves and breaking those down.
Thirdly, it’s just a great way to start the morning. Getting a sweat going first thing in the morning will mean you can go home, shower, and proceed to get ready to tackle the rest of the day. It also means you can eat a huge breakfast without feeling guilty. So long as it is healthy.
While this may seem hard at first, as with all new things, it will only stick if you consistently keep it up and slowly add it to your routine.
These are a couple tips to help anyone trying to get in shape as different countries and states are slowly thinking about opening businesses and work. So just in case summer 2020 might actually happen, these tips above will help you start changing your life for the better so you can get that summer physique you’ve always dreamed about getting.