How To Prevent Weight Gain During Lockdown

18 Apr How To Prevent Weight Gain During Lockdown

Hello, I hope you are doing fine. Stay Home. Stay Indoors and Stay Safe. Most of us have disrupted life schedules due to Covid 19 pandemic and it is now bringing a lot of things in perspective. Many of us have would have experienced some unpleasant and pleasant things during this memorable lockdown. Weight Gain is one of the first things that we experience when we are stressed. Normal relationships may prove to be toxic and vice versa.

How to understand the weight gain cycle?

The most important relationship of the human being is with his/her own body. That relationship would also see some changes due to this pandemic. Those who are on the weight loss journey would find it difficult to maintain their regime due to the closing of gyms and local places for workouts. It is disheartening and saddening. But is that pushing you for weight gain? Are you eating what you should not during the lockdown? Whether the reason for your binge eating is purely emotional? These are the basic questions that should be asked in case you have been working hard to gain health in 2020.

Are you an emotional eater?

I am an emotional eater. I rely highly on my comfort foods when it comes to anxiety. But off late, I have shrugged that habit of seeking pleasure in eating. It is okay if you want to eat your comfort food due to the uncertainty looming over the world, it is absolutely fine. But it is important to know that comfort food is different than binge eating. Binge eating has a touch of emotional eating. Decide one day when you can binge eat, make sure you are consistent with your workouts to prevent weight gain.

Couch potato or an active person

Your weight loss journey is unique to you and you should be proud of it. It takes unimaginable willpower to transform the body and mind. Be proud of it and feel good that you are strong today. Do not let the couch and the Netflix binge come in your way to workouts and being consistent with food. Keep moving inside the home. Make everyday count. 🙂 Weight gain can be discouraging but by taking one step at a time, you can avoid it.

Not sleeping and not recovering properly

Weight loss efforts are incomplete without proper recovery. Once your body recovers from the fatigue, it is ready to take on further physical challenges. If the sleep is not complete, it takes a toll on the immune system. In these challenging times, sleep is one of the things which can boost our immunity. Recover well and exercise consistently.

Too much of news and media

Anxiety is built up by consuming too much of news and media. While constantly being at home, try not to feed yourself to these news channels from across the world. It is always better to listen to some news just to understand where the world is going. It is certainly not necessary to feed ourselves to the media and news, it creates unnecessary anxiety and hence sabotages any efforts towards the well being.

Diet plays an important role in keeping the weight gain at bay.

Here are some of the tips that one can follow to sustain the diet that you are observing.

• Intermittent fasting:

  • When there are optimal supplies it is always better to resort to intermittent fasting for weight loss. Intermittent fasting allows you to eat twice a day at specific intervals. This eating regime eventually leads to limited consumption of calories hence, helps you sustain the weight loss.

• Working out every day

  • Now, as we are homebound, we have ample time to workout. If your weight loss regime had 4 days of workout, now it is time to amp it up to 6 days keeping one day for active recovery where you can still burn calories that would prevent gaining weight.

• Keeping active throughout the day

  • Most of us are working out from home, where it is utmost easy to avoid being sedentary. In India, we are left with no house help so we have to do all household chores by ourselves. That leaves a lot of room for movement. Keeping active throughout the day is a boon for weight loss and in this lockdown gladly we would be able to consciously implement that.

Weight loss is all about calories out minus calories in. Weight watchers should be able to achieve the same as the above three tips. 

What are the reasons for weight gain during the lockdown?

• Emotional eating is one of the major reasons for weight gain during the lockdown. The feeling of confinement is overwhelming. Being at one place not moving much around hence binge eating is a pattern that needs to be broken. You have to train your mind out of emotional eating.
• Anxiety may cause occasional panic attacks that may subside with some snacks at hand. It is always good to eat some low-calorie snacks to keep up the goal weight.
• With no maids or household help at hand, Indian people are on their own for the first time in their lives in terms of household chores. Some people may take it easily but some may find it as a burden, in that case just make a schedule and get busy to avoid unnecessary snacking.
• Too many restrictions in terms of food may result in binge eating. It is always good to know that we are human beings and it is quite natural to have cravings. Giving in those cravings and treating yourself a couple of times in a week is good. That will keep you from unnecessary calorie load.
• When we are confined at home, it is very natural to feel alone. Remember, we are together in this. Spend every day with a lot of positivity and make way to better health by exercising at least 30 mins a day. The rush of endorphins is all we need sometimes.

How To Prevent Weight Gain and Lockdown Overwhelm?

• Identify your “Why”?
  • The global Coronavirus pandemic has left the world baffled. Some were prepared, some were not and some of us are still adjusting to the worldwide outbreak. This makes the “Why” very profound. We are inside our homes safe for saving our and other’s lives. No “Why” can be as strong as this one.
• Read classics
  • Reading classics brings in a perspective of life. Classics that were written during world war II are especially helpful to understand the situation that people before us have endured. They have come out strong, thus we would too. I like “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott. Also ” Diary Of A Young Girl – Ann Frank”
• Working out
  • It is said that boosting your immunity is the best way to deal with this global pandemic. Working out and having enough recovery time is the best way to boost your immunity.
• Spend quality time with family
  • If you are staying with your family in these lockdown times then you are really blessed. Spend some quality time playing with your kids. Play some games with your parents and make them feel loved.
• Listen to music
  • Music has an amazing quality of calming the senses down. It is always advisable to listen to some calming music when you are not in a good mood.

It is overwhelming to be locked down but we should also remember that we have the liberty to stay inside while health workers and medical professionals are working round the clock for us. Let us stay inside, heal ourselves, and heal the world.

Here are 1o on the go breakfast recipes you might like.

https://www.the5ammommy.com/10-on-the-go-breakfast-recipes-that-are-great-for-busy-mornings/