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With the next seven healthy lifestyle habits, I would like to help you establish a happy and healthy lifestyle during the lockdown. All of these steps I am following myself and they did work for me. Most of them are evidence-based.

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1.Stay in touch with your loved ones

Due to social distancing, it is not recommended to attend family or friend gatherings. However, thanks to the internet you are able to be in touch with them daily through emails, social media, video chats, and phone calls.

Staying in touch with your loved ones is the first of the seven healthy lifestyle habits you can do when you are stuck or bored at home.

The reason why these regular virtual conversations are important for me and for most of people, is because even under these uncertain circumstances we can stay connected to each other.

2. Tidy your home

Now you are stuck at home! You have the time and opportunity to finally organize and clean your home. There are many reasons why you could significantly enhance your wellness by following this step.

Probably you’ve heard about the quote of ’Tidy room, tidy mind’. No wonder that this tip is the one of the 7 healthy lifestyle habits you should do at home.

According to researchers at the UCLA Center on Everyday Lives and Families, there is a link between a tidy home and the level of stress and depression (1).

Ever since I have been stuck at home I clean my home on a regular basis. On those days when I do that it gives me a great feeling of wellness and relief.

However, I know that generally, the most difficult part of a process is to get started.

So if you still don’t feel inspired to clean your home just yet the next video might help you.  Charlotte Faraci YouTuber will share her tips about the whole cleaning process.

3.Workout at Home

Actually this is a very hot topic for me because I do love exercising at home. It is not costly, and I feel free to work out in my own space and at my own pace. And these are the reasons why I would recommend you working out at home in the first place.

However, I know that this routine might be challenging for you if you would prefer being a part of a community. Well, I love being a part of great and inspiring communities as well. But the fact of the matter is staying home is the safe solution during the Covid-19 epidemic, so we have to do OUR BEST IN OUR NEST.

The American Cancer Society recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity and at least 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity per week.

Pamela Reif is a wellness YouTuber with great home workouts for people with all levels of fitness. You will only need 20 minutes and that’s all.

I personally love yoga and pilates, so if you are in this boat I got you. Boho Beutiful is a youtube channel that is constantly publishing yoga and pilates routines.

The next video introduces an inspiring pilates and yoga session which you can be a part of right from your home.

I personally practice most of the movements you will see on the video and I can confirm they are very beneficial for your body.

Not only for weight-loss purposes but also for better body-functioning as well, since they are great for your core strength.

If you would like to do yoga regularly at home, but you are lacking a great YOGA MAT for this purpose, please check out the link here below of a YOGA MAT by MANDUKA I personally recommend:

Shop eKO Lite Yoga Mats at Manduka.com! This eco-friendly mat is available in 10+ colors with choices for thickness. Free Shipping on orders $75+!

4.Healthy cooking

There are obviously many side effects of the quarantine, but ON THE OTHER HAND, it is a great time to attain healthy-eating habits by using your kitchen. Healthy cooking is the no 4 of the 7 healthy lifestyle habits that you can adapt to.

In my opinion, the healthiest food you can eat is prepared by yourself at home, if you choose to eat healthily. The reason why I believe this is because the ingredients of the meal YOU cook or prepare are known to you. If you choose to cook healthy, you look up what ingredients you should use, and then you will do your best to stick to those guidelines. However, if you eat out, you won’t exactly be aware of all the ingredients of that meal.

You can ask the waiter of course! But to be honest, if I was going to go out for a nice meal with my friends or husband I would just enjoy myself instead of being worried about ingredients. BUT THAT IS ME.

Since we are talking about guidelines in order to attain healthy eating habits the American Cancer Society suggests the following:

1. variety of vegetables – dark, green, orange, and red
2. fiber-rich legumes, such as beans and peas
3. fresh fruits with a variety of color
4. whole grains (instead of refined grains)

YOU SHOULD AVOID EATING THESE!!!

• RED AND PROCESSED MEATS
• SUGAR-SWEETENED BEVERAGES
• HIGHLY PROCESSED FOODS OR REFINED GRAIN PRODUCTS
• MORE THEN 1 DRINK OF ALCOHOL PER DAY FOR WOMEN AND 2 DRINKS OF ALCOHOL PER DAY FOR ME

5. Mind your mental health

Studies showed that anxiety and fear are a common consequence of the Covid-19 outbreak (2). Health anxiety and depression are actually the most often experienced mental health issues.

Health anxiety is an obsessive and irrational fear of getting sick.

Fortunately, according to the Hackensack Meridian Health’s organization, there are useful tips on how to take care of your mental health:

• Giving yourself breaks from the news and social media
• Sleep enough
• Start to meditate
• Keeping in touch with friends and family preferably through video chat (I have also mentioned this before)

Talking from my perspective these four tips are real golden nuggets as I have been practicing all of them too. Social media was the hardest one for me, but it is more manageable to do than you might think.

Meditation is a must. What I do every day when I wake up or in the afternoon is a relaxation with a special breathing technique. I say thanks for all the important things I have already accomplished.

Trust me. I can think of at least seven things to be happy for even though this has not been the easiest time of my life.

If you are new to the meditation world, you are struggling to feel relaxed and you can’t think of things you are grateful for, let me introduce this great video from Louise Hay!

Her session will definitely give you some ideas of what you can be thankful for!

6.Share your expertise online

I know that we are talking about wellness in this blog post. However, being able to make a living is a part of well-being which is a synonym for wellness. So making money online should be mentioned as one of the healthy lifestyle habits.

Many people lost their regular jobs during the epidemic, however, there are proven ways to make money. The preferred way to make money right now during the lockdown is to do it online.

There is plenty of content on the Internet about how to get started working online. Check it out if you don’t already have any ideas or if you are just stepping into the ’make money online’ game.

One of my favorite Youtuber who has a really valuable vlog about this question is Gillian Perkins. She has been a business owner for almost a decade and has been making decent money through the internet. In this next video, she discusses eight ways to make money online in 2020, which happens to be during the time of the epidemic as well 😊

My personal comment on this topic is that I think it is important to decide if you want to set up a business or you want to be an employee. The reason why I am telling you this is because being an employee versus becoming a business owner requires different talents and qualities.

If you have been an employee before the epidemic and you want to become a business owner then you need to learn what skills and qualities you should acquire in order to become a business owner.

If you have been a brick and mortar business owner before the Covid-19 epidemic, you might need to learn some internet skills to know how to bring your service online.

Well, we could talk a lot about what these skills are and how to attain them, but that would require a different blog post.

If you want to get into the mindset of bringing your expertise online you can check out Gillian Perkins or the Silicon Valley Girl’s youtube channel.

7. Create weekly plans and stick to them

Establishing weekly and daily schedules were the last thing that helped me live a better quality lifestyle so they must be mentioned as the last one of the 7 healthy lifestyle habits.

I would recommend you doing this regardless of the coronavirus, however, the fact that you are stuck at home right now helps you to sit down and develop this habit.

You don’t necessarily need to write down what you are going to do every hour as a little spontenaity is always more exciting. However, what you can do is to make a note as to what are the three main things you want to accomplish in a certain week and then create a daily plan accordingly. Let’s take an example:

Weekly plans:

• Home cleaning,
• 20 hours freelance work
• Exercising 150-200 minutes a week

Adaquate daily plans to accomplish the three weekly plans:

• Clean your home on Wednesday between 2 pm and 3 pm
• Work 4 hours each day from Monday to Friday between 8 am and 12 pm
• Exercise every second day 45 minutes

Of course, it is even better if you are setting annual, monthly, weekly and daily goals accordingly. However, according to my experience-based opinion if you write all of these goals down on an excel spreadsheet or a paper it could potentially help you to stick to them.

Besides writing your aims down there are two other important things that should be highlighted if you want to stick to your goals:

1. Set up long-term (5 years) goals to have a view where you want to head
2. After setting up a long-term goal always think about what you have to accomplish short term (even within a month) to accomplish that

If you set up an annual or monthly goal always write down your weekly and daily plan accordingly as well. This way you stay focused and connected to your further targets.

The reason why I had to talk about how to stay focused and how to stick to your goals and plans is that I found that it is hard to do.

However, time is something we have less and less of in our lives, so it does matter to spend it wisely.

This video might inspire you to really appreciate your time and will give you some valuable ideas how you should start to do it right now.

Stay safe at home,

Eszter

Setting up a healthy lifestyle plan alone can be a challenge sometimes especially with a stressful and time-consuming job or business. Click on the image below to register for my free webinar about losing weight with a sedentary job!

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