How to stick to your goals and come out stronger than ever after the COVID-19 shutdown
We’re living through a difficult time right now as the things we took for granted — work, activities, takeaways — are closed or banned in the name of public health and safety.
It’s normal to feel anxious about things out of your control, but one thing you can control and that can help you regain some strength is your weight loss mission.
Just because you’re either working from home or stopped working altogether doesn’t mean your diet and exercise routines need to grind to a halt too. This is an ideal time to kickstart your goals and prove that you have the power to make it work.
With the help of Jenny Craig, you can stay on track toward your weight loss goals throughout the shutdown period, and come out stronger, fitter, and healthier than ever.
We’ve got four steps to get you there …
1. Get healthy food delivered to your door
While so many people were panic buying toilet paper, others were snapping up every bag of pasta, rice, and bread from the shelves, leaving barren, sad sights for the next shoppers through the door. Now, the aim is to minimise contact by staying home, but how can you avoid the supermarket for so long?
With Jenny Craig you don’t need to panic — you barely even need to visit the supermarket when you sign up to get our meal plans delivered to your door (contract free, of course).
Don’t worry about what to cook for dinner tonight, how many calories it’ll have, what portion sizes you should ration out, or how many people you might get close to — with our healthy food deliveries it’s easy to stay on track throughout your isolation.
2. Beat boredom snacking with mindful eating
Many of us have the tendency to boredom snack, and when you’re home all day with temptation just sitting there in the cupboard and nothing else to do … well, we’ll soon see when everyone emerges just how many people spent their lockdown nibbling!
The best way to beat boredom snacking is to practice mindful eating. Sit somewhere away from your computer, your phone, and the TV — outside or by a window is best — and give yourself plenty of time to eat your meal.
Take each mouthful slowly, and try to become really aware of the food: the textures, smells, taste and how it changes with each bite. Eat only one mouthful at a time, and don’t prepare your next mouthful on the fork/spoon until you’ve finished your current one. Using chopsticks can be a good practice for mindful eating, as it forces you to slow down and focus (especially if you’re not used to using them!).
3. Stick to your routine
One of the best things you can do to regain a sense of control during this lockdown period is to stick to your routines. This hack will also help you to stay healthy and on track to your weight loss goals while working from home.
Aim to wake up and go to bed at your usual times as if going to work, and structure your day around your three main meals (plus midway snacks).
Forgetting to eat at the right times can lead to overeating later, throwing out your body’s rhythms and making it harder to lose weight. It’s also important to keep up with your exercise routine — staying inside doesn’t mean staying on the couch for four weeks.
4. Make a habit of at-home workouts
Having some kind of exercise regime is important to your overall health and weight loss goals, and completes your daily routine.
Check with your local government restrictions to find out what’s allowed — can you go to the park or take a run through the empty streets? Great! If not, you can find workout videos for all levels of fitness on YouTube, or many yoga and pilates studios are now making their classes available online.
Get creative by repurposing ordinary items around your house for your workout (tin cans or bags of rice make good dumbbells), or jazz things up a bit by turning your exercise session into a dance-off — put Beyonce on Spotify, challenge your kids or partner, and shake the blues (and weight) away!
