PT: Make time for your health in lockdown

Monday 06 April 2020

As Jersey joins the rest of the world in going into lockdown, many islanders are trying to make the most of their time in quarantine – including health and fitness coach Mike Cañas.

Mike is encouraging people to see this time as an opportunity, rather than only focusing on what isn’t allowed.

In his column for Express, he gives his top pointers for getting your health back on track in lockdown...

“We will never have time again like this to allocate to taking care of ourselves so let’s try and look at what’s available to us instead of what isn’t. 

Consuming too much negative information and panicking will merely serve to increase cortisol levels, our "stress hormone". This in turn will affect our appetite and our sleep, leading us to make poor food choices and get lower quality sleep – both of which affect our overall health.

Pictured: Mike says that stress can "quickly become a slippery slope" and have a detrimental effect on your health.

This will quickly become a slippery slope ending with us looking and feeling worse.

However, there is an easy fix. 

Let’s have a look at what we have on our side...

Time is the big one. We have more time than we’ve ever had with less distractions so we can allocate time to the following:

• preparing fresh meals – as oppose to low quality takeaways and vending machines;
• resting – there is no reason why you can’t now get good quality sleep;
• stretching – you are not hunched over a desk now, get stretching and flexibility work done to get oxygen flowing through the body more freely.

Organisation 

This goes hand in hand with time as we’ve never had this kind of time to organise our daily lives. 

• Make time to exercise – allocate a specific time for every day to exercise whether that be a home workout or getting out for a walk.
• Getting outside (alone) – so many people don’t understand the benefits of vitamin D that comes from the sun, it really does help your mood and if you’re not getting sun then supplement with it. White blood cells increase with sun exposure which are important in fighting infection and disease.

Sociality

This sounds like a strange one due to social distancing but I think now we have time to properly catch up with relatives, friends and loved ones.  Albeit restricted to video calling I think catching up socially in this way can raise the mood while we are in isolation and keep our positivity up. Minimise social media where there is a lot of negativity and misinformation, pick your preferred (reliable) news source and check in with it at the same time for no more than one hour every day. 

Pictured: Mike recommends minimising time on social media.

So, in conclusion, my main tips are as follows: 

• prepare fresh nutrient dense meals that all include at least one green vegetable;
• organise your day the night before by the hour, get close with your diary;
• sleep 7-9 hours per night (or make it up with naps);
• supplement with a multivitamin, vitamin D, fish oils and turmeric;
• get outside at least once per day in the sunshine;
• check in with your relatives and people close to you."

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not Bailiwick Express.