Well, that's a blog post title I never thought I'd write. The world turned upside down in the last few weeks. How are you doing?
If you're anything like me, you're up to your eyeballs in Coronavirus news. It's dominating your local newscasts, your social media feeds, your email inbox, and every conversation you have with another adult. We're still having conversations with adults, right?
While the cases are relatively small, but rapidly growing at the time of this blog post, it has the potential to be a significant problem in the United States.. We need to be informed, and the news media is giving us information, but it gets to be a bit too much.
I've been uncharacteristically quiet as this rolled out. My feelings about it changed rapidly as new information became available, so I'm glad I wasn't blasting my thoughts in the early days.
Blogging came to a halt because I had drafts about race photos and training for a faster half marathon, which suddenly were irrelevant topics.
I was taking in the information as it came in from the experts. I didn't feel ready to add my two cents because learning about how to prevent the spread and our responsibility was more important than how to keep exercising or adjusting your lifestyle to a temporary new normal.
Cancel Culture
It brings new meaning to the term cancel culture, and runners were hit hard. First, the big races canceled or postponed; then, the local events followed suit. If you signed up for a spring race in 2020, you've most certainly had a cancellation or rescheduling of your event.
But it doesn't stop there. The kids are out of school, counties issued stay at home mandates, offices are requiring their employees to work remotely, gyms closed down, and cancellations are in place for all gatherings of people.
Don't worry; this article isn't another post about how to stay healthy, washing your hands, or tips for hoarding anti-bacterial soap. In a time of uncertainty, stress, and frustration that you can no longer buy toilet paper except on the black market, I thought it would be an excellent time to address how to dial your healthy habits.
Dial Your Healthy Habits
Maybe you were hitting the gym (or your favorite studio) consistently, were packing your lunch for work, meal prepping, and nailing your healthy habits. Then everything changed in an instant. The gym closed, healthy staples like meat and vegetables (not to mention toilet paper) were no longer available in the stores. Your kids are at your feet while you're trying to work from home, you're stress eating, and ordering take-out to support your favorite restaurant so they don't go out of business. Maybe you lost income, and stress is through the roof.
Your routine changed in an instant, and understandably, all those healthy habits went out the window.
I talk a lot about overcoming my tendency for all-or-nothing thinking. If you think health and fitness is a switch, as in it's on or off, how could you expect to keep that switch on with so many uncertainties and the uprooting of any semblance of normal?
Instead, I find it helpful to think of health and fitness as a dial. You dial it up when life circumstances are reasonable and consistent, and dial it down when life gets crazy. I wasn't expecting a worldwide pandemic either, but we can always anticipate that life will get crazy at some point.
Dialing up and down means when life feels routine, gyms are open, and we have fully stocked grocery stores, you focus on health and fitness, turning up the dial. When life gets crazy, say a worldwide pandemic or the busy season at work, and high-stress times you dial it down instead of flipping it off. Something is better than nothing.
That means you do the best you can that is reasonable with what you have available. You give yourself the grace to back off. An hour in the gym five days a week might mean 20-minute bodyweight exercises a couple of times a week in your living room. Sunday meal prep day for weekly meals might turn into eating frozen vegetables and lunch meat sandwiches, not perfect, but good enough for now.
You'll be surprised at how quickly you bounce back, get back in a routine, regain all fitness losses after all this is over, especially if you don't switch your health and fitness off during this time. It's ok to dial back.
Cancel Your Diet
It may not be the best time for some people to diet. Dieting is additional stress on your body. Do you need more pressure right now? Of course, I don't mean you should live on junk food or disregard healthy eating; it's critical now that we are feeding our bodies nutritious food. We should aim to eat minimally processed foods from nature most of the time, but extreme calorie or macro-nutrient restrictions are adding to the stress.
Eat well; limit added sugars, alcohol, and highly processed foods, but cancel the diet mentality during times of high stress.
Keep Moving
How can you keep moving when your gym closed, your running group isn't meeting, and your motivation got canceled along with your upcoming race?
Running Isn't Canceled.
As a self-proclaimed introvert, I haven't had much anguish with this social distancing mandate, but I know many people have. You can still run solo or with a family member. You can walk your dog (or volunteer to walk a neighbor's). Get outside. Play with the kids. Focus on moving your body in any way that feels right to you. Forget stringent training plans for now and just move.
But What about my GainzZZ?
I know a lot of people are low-key freaking out about the sudden unavailability of gyms. Do what you can, when you can, with what you reasonably have available. Even if you lose some strength or fitness during this time, maintaining a routine of exercise will allow you to come back strong when the gyms reopen.
No weights? Use what you have available.
Dog Food/Kitty Litter Bag SQUATS
Coach Dale on duty!
Water bottleS ROWS
Bodyweight exercises
INVERTED ROWS
A sturdy table works well for inverted rows too.
OTHER RESISTANCE TRAINING IDEAS
Use a book bag or gym bag loaded with heavy books
Use laundry detergent bottles
Use cans of soup or fill large water bottles
Use this time to focus on mobility exercises or correcting muscle imbalances which require less resistance than strength or muscle building exercises.
See the Humor
I want to insert a bit of humor into the situation by curating the funniest memes I've seen online. I know this is a serious issue, but allowing yourself to laugh can help relieve some stress.
Wash Your Hands
I think we can all relate to this one. Haha.
Social Distancing
Elle Woods perfectly captures my thoughts on social distancing.
Toilet Paper
Oh, how times have changed.
QUARANTINE
More introvert humor.
Five stages of cancelLation
And this one from Amy Say So is so true for runners!
I don't intend to undermine the gravity of this issue with memes; we have to take the recommendations from health officials seriously. Hang in there, friends, we will get through this together. Now, stop hoarding toilet paper, stay connected, keep moving, and keep the humor coming.
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Questions? I’d love to help.
