The new normal for the foreseeable future means staying at home, preparing home cooked meals, working or looking for work remotely, home schooling the kids, and washing endless amounts of dishes and laundry.
It also means spring, no commute or car pool to sports and after school activities, for now.
While we can’t control the length of the shutdown, getting and staying healthy is the one thing we can all control.
Taking more control of your time and energy can be difficult to manage, especially during such stressful times.
Let’s imagine that it’s June 1st. How do you want to look back on these quarantined days?
Might it represent a time when your health took a backseat? I keep seeing jokes and memes referencing the corona 15, or COVID 15, meaning the rapid weight some are gaining.
One meme shows a sign inside the refrigerator that reads, You’re not hungry. You’re bored.
The advice I follow myself and share with my clients and loved ones is to Make a Plan. Make a plan for every day and include a purpose and structure. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but having no plan means time passes, things pile up and feelings of disappointment set in.
When you have a plan, you can look back and feel a sense of accomplishment. Even if it wasn’t perfect, you can try again the next day. Go easy on yourself.
This period that we are in reminds me of another time several years ago. My job as a practice administrator at a large healthcare system had been eliminated. My two older boys were away at college, my daughter started high school, my mother had recently passed away and my husband was working more than ever since I had no income and we had college tuition and bills to pay.
Needless to say, I was lost. I had no plan.
My entire identity, including my purpose, career, relationships, my role as a daughter and caretaker, my health, feelings and emotions as I knew them, were all gone in a span of two weeks.
Everything I had dragged myself out of bed for every day, except for being a wife and mother, was gone. At times, I felt freedom, but mostly I felt devastation, loss, and anger. It was a very confusing time.
I was 54 years old and even after giving birth to my children, I had never been unemployed. I was grieving the loss of my mother, and more than 25 years of professional relationships. It took me months to peel back the layers and figure out how to move forward.
Then it occurred to me that I needed a plan. I started with my daughter's school routine. I found purpose in getting up and getting her to school. I spent time with my husband on his days off for the first time in decades. I met up with old friends and began developing new interests.
Mostly I added exercise, sleep, and good healthy food back into my incredibly out of control overwhelming life.
I still get up early in the morning and I have a very set routine that involves planning for myself, my health coaching practice and my family.
Has the pandemic flipped your schedule upside down?
Time is a gift, and how we chose to use this time can set us up for success in many aspects of our lives several weeks or months from now.
I sometimes think how difficult this time could be if we were headed into the winter months, with a long, cold and dark season ahead of us. Spring is here, and the weather is improving every day. For most of us there is so much we can be planning, especially with regards to our health, happiness and well-being.
There’s never been a better time to make your health your number one priority.
To learn more about how to avoid the COVID 15 weight gain and boost your immune system, please schedule a free consultation.
