Quarantine has many advantages. For example, people have more free time that they can spend at home or devote to reading books, online learning, and other activities. But many have already faced the problem of adhering to their usual diet in quarantine.
Sweets that help to fight sadness for a short time, snacks for movies, additional meals due to idleness – all these not only lead to weight gain but also weakens the immune system. In this article, we will offer life hacks to help you stop hurting yourself during quarantine.
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How To Avoid Weight Gain During Quarantine?
You need to follow the tips below in order to avoid gaining excessive weight during quarantine.
Don’t Buy Junk Food
Everything you buy will get eaten – if not by you, then by your children. Therefore, do not buy harmful products if you want to take care of your own and your family’s health. By harmful products, we mean fast food, trash food (chips, crackers, and other harmful snacks), and store sweets with refined white sugar and other harmful ingredients.
If you can’t resist buying a cake, delegate your grocery shopping trip to someone else. Besides, if you are planning to self-quarantine, you should definitely drop the idea of going out. So hand over the duty of going to the grocery store to someone who can purchase healthy foods for the whole family.
Don’t Rely On Drugs
When quarantined, many people get depressed as they have to stay alone and separate from other people. In such a situation, some people start eating food in abundance to cope with the negative emotions, while others start abusing drugs available at home. However, the outcome of both habits is detrimental to a person’s health. Eating excess food can cause an increase in weight while abusing easily available drugs such as opioids can be deadly.
Thus, we recommend keeping yourself occupied during quarantine, watch your favorite TV shows or read books. However, if you are unable to keep yourself from using opioid drugs, you should contact the opioid hotline number for help. They can guide you on how to overcome this addiction and have safe quarantine.
Look For Healthy Movie Snacks
Do you spend your free time watching TV shows? Then add healthy movie snacks to your shopping list instead of wine. These include kale chips, flaxseed crisps, dark chocolate, mixed nuts, and other light and healthy foods. Chop food such as vegetables into small pieces and learn to take just one piece each time – this way, reflexively, you will eat less.
Eat More Protein
First, start the day with a protein breakfast – scrambled eggs, cheesecakes, and so on. After a protein breakfast, you will not crave sweets all day since your morning will not start with a surge in insulin and a start of carbohydrate dependence. Secondly, calculate your protein and try to cover it.
The average protein intake for a healthy adult is about one gram per kilogram of body weight. Protein also satiates better – after that, you will feel full for a long time. Thus, the risk of unhealthy snacking will significantly decrease. Healthy sources of protein include meat, fish, eggs, dairy products, and nuts.
Make A Menu In Advance
Prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus in detail since there is plenty of time. Make a list of all ingredients and handover it to somebody who can grab them for you from the market. In this way, you will always have healthy food to cook and eat.
Without a menu, you can cook too much, and it will be a pity to throw away food. Thus, the risk of overeating increases significantly. Besides, in the absence of ideas, the hand itself will reach for the cookies, which contain a large amount of sugar.
Treat Yourself Nicely
Eat delicious and healthy food, serve it beautifully on your favorite dish, and savor every bite. Food should bring not only benefits but also pleasure, especially now when other sources of joy are not available to us. Even healthy foods can be cooked deliciously, served beautifully, and eaten slowly with atmospheric music – finally, you have time for this.
Choose Healthy Sweets
Sweet foods do raise your spirits, but not for long. With less than an hour after the dessert with refined white sugar, you will feel tired and irritated and reach for a supplement. Replace these desserts with healthy sweets – smoothies, homemade cookies, and more. There are many healthy recipes available on the internet you can try during quarantine.
Consult A Nutritionist
Quarantine is a good time to compose your ideal diet finally or to solve some health problems by adjusting nutrition and dietary supplements. And if at other times such as vacation, trips to a restaurant, and friends get together often knocked off the intended diet plan, then during the quarantine, there is an opportunity to have only what you need. Detox, anti-candida protocol, and normalization of the intestinal microbiome – a competent nutritionist will help you with this.
Stay Physically Active
During quarantine, you should not give up all physical activities. You need to stay physically active, or you will put on extra pounds by sitting around on the sofa or couch. Even 30 minutes workout with moderate intensity can keep you healthy and active. Besides, light exercises during this time can keep you from gaining extra weight during quarantine.
Take Away
Follow the above-mentioned simple tips to come out of quarantine as an improved version of yourself. You will not gain any extra weight and will also adopt some healthy habits during this time. And if you have children, then do it at least for their sake as they will also follow you as an example. Thus, eat hearty yet safe food during quarantine.