If your diet and exercise regimes suffered under lockdown, here’s how to get back on track
The past year has thrown a curveball at all of us, and it has been more challenging than ever to meet health and fitness goals and to stick with the best-laid plans. While some people were able to use the lockdown periods to create new fitness regimens, others had to juggle childcare, work, schooling and everyday household responsibilities.
There are many reasons why you may have put on weight while living under lockdown: stress and stress eating, less physical activity, being around temptations in your kitchen all day, and the loss of your normal support group. So, losing the lockdown kilos also requires a multi-faceted approach.
Here are the three steps you must follow to get back on track with your weight-loss goals.
Get physical
With gyms and fitness classes closed and restrictions on where and how far outside your home you could move, maintaining any kind of fitness plan under lockdown was very challenging. Sure, you could have done burpees in your living room, but with kids underfoot, at-home exercise regimens were easier said than done.
As well as the ability to do proper workouts, under lockdown we also lost a lot of the incidental daily exercise that might not seem much at the time, but actually adds up to a lot and makes a difference when trying to lose weight. Walking the kids to school, taking the stairs at work, biking into town to meet up with friends… Working these everyday physical activities back into your post-lockdown life should help you become more active again.
One good thing that came out of being under lockdown was a newfound appreciation for freedoms we took for granted before: an early morning workout at the gym, a weekend bush walk, an evening yoga class with friends.
When looking to lose the lockdown kilos, there’s no need to do anything fancy or dramatic (unless you want to): simply appreciate the facilities you have around you with a renewed passion. Go for a walk on the beach, take your kids for a bike ride, take a dance class. Remembering what it was like not being able to do these simple things is a great motivation to lose weight and get healthy.
If you do want to up the ante and incorporate more rigorous workouts into your life, get in touch with a Jenny Craig Consultant to design a plan that works for you.
Take stock of your diet – and your kitchen
It can be hard enough to avoid temptation and to stick with a healthy eating plan in the best of times, let alone when you’re stressed, at home all day, have kids demanding snacks and your regular grocery shopping routines are upended.
Now that life resembles something normal again, it’s time to put all that behind you. But rather than just opting for a new normal, how about aiming for a better normal?
If you were tempted to reach for the snacks more often than you should have, then it might be time to check what you still have lying around in the kitchen. Ditch any unhealthy, low-nutrition snacks that may still be there at the back of the cupboard and replace them with healthy alternatives like yoghurt, fruit, nuts, and wholegrain crackers.
Devise a healthy eating meal plan with a Jenny Craig consultant and your nutrition needs will be met.
Seek support
Losing weight and embarking on a healthy lifestyle journey can take a long time and a lot of effort. Doing it alone is especially challenging, and might even be setting yourself up for failure. While intrinsic motivation that comes from within yourself is important for meeting your weight-loss goals, so is the extrinsic motivation that comes from others.
Having friends and relatives who help keep you motivated and accountable to your goals is important. So, being isolated from your support network during lockdown, or from group fitness classes with likeminded people, may have been detrimental to your efforts.
But, it’s never too late to brush yourself off and try again. Joining the Jenny Craig community can help boost your motivation and provide the personal support you need to start, or start again, on your weight-loss journey.
