With social distancing measures recommended around the world, now is the perfect opportunity to do more with less distraction.
If 2020, has taught us anything, embracing a slower pace of life, gives us room to breathe, reflect, and redefine our priorities.
Assess what habits are working for us, eliminate or adjust those that do not, and re-organize, leading into 2021.
Here are 11 awesome ways, you can glow up your lifestyle, fine-tune your house, your habits, and dreams, and work towards achieving your best self.
1 | WORKOUT
When the world shut down in the spring of 2020, those who relied on fitness classes, and/or a gym membership, were left scrambling for equipment, or programming to stay fit while at home. Some decided to invest in their home gym, while others found creative ways to stay fit by using water jugs, weighted backpacks, and even making dumbbells out of concrete.
The benefits, of exercise for health, and stress reduction are widely known but infrequently mentioned the daily updates.
The Mayo Clinic reports, any type of exercise or movement can act as a stress reducer. It stimulates those feel-good hormones, helps calm the mind, and improves your mood. It can be used, as a multi-modal approach to helping reduce anxiety and depression.
Daily movement, even in the form of walking (yes just walking) can help in the following ways:
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- Decreases bloating
- Improve digestion
- Makes you feel happier/improves mood
- Increases blood flow
- Decreases brain fog
- Improves sleep
- Reduces feelings of depression/anxiety
- Increases your endurance
- Reduces pain
- Increases creativity
Training from home is a time-saving, efficient, way to get or stay in shape. As a reformed gym diva, training from home paired, with proper programming and a little creativity, can be just as intense, like training in a gym atmosphere.
A small investment in a few pieces of soft home gym equipment, a designated space to ‘get it done’, and a straightforward program can help maintain or improve your gym gains. You might even discover a newfound love of home gym training, or glow up your home gym space.
Staying fit, healthy, and aging well, is essential at any time of the year. One thing that 2020, has reminded us, is that your health, and wellness, is an essential service. Maintaining your immunity is key to help you recover quicker, and at home if you do get sick, or help your community if called upon to do so.
2 | CLEAN + PURGE
There is no shortage of things to clean, wipe down, dust, vacuum, re-organize, in any home situation.
I have a dog (furmaggedon), 2 boys aged, 14 years, and 4 years, so the house looks lived in most of the time. Cleaning in our home happens, but it does not stay that way for very long. Can you relate?
Cleaning is a great physical and mental activity, to feel productive, see the immediate results, of your hard work, it creates balance, and clarity of mind, reduces stress, and can provide a sense of balance and control.
Start an early (or late) spring clean, and purge-sell-give away items, that you no longer need, want, or use.
Go through your closet, dresser drawers, kids clothes, kids toys, and decide what to keep, give away or throw away.
List, sell, or giveaway, your vintage/classic or slightly used items on Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace or eBay.
3 | RESEARCH A TRIP
It is never to early or late to start planning that once in a lifetime dream vacation or sabbatical.
The entire, trip can be planned, priced, and a rough itinerary dreamed up, from the comfort of your own home.
Things to consider:
- flights
- food
- alcoholic drinks
- hotels
- gym/spa
- excursions/outings
- extras
I use Travelocity for reviews, and Expedia, to plan and dream up a trip.
Pinterest is a great resource for a specific place you would like to go, such as Fiji, or Thailand.
It is never too early to start researching, and you can even set up a bank account and start saving as little as $25.00 per week. In a year you have over $1000.00 to contribute to your dream vacation.
4 | PLAN A RENO/MAKEOVER
There is no shortage of house projects, that often fall under “when I have the time“.
Take inventory, of what smaller projects, could be done in a day. Make a master list, by walking around the house, supplies needed to complete the project, and approximate time, to complete the task.
Larger projects could include; a fresh coat of paint of a room, redesign of a room, complete with furniture, accents, tables, pillows, and photos, OR going all out with a complete reno — kitchen or bathroom.
Pinterest and Wayfair, and Houzz are great for decor and house inspiration and information.
5 | MEAL PLAN + FOOD PREP
The path to good health is one part movement and one part nutrition.
Restaurants are closed, or on limited hours, so there is less temptation or distraction to go to the restaurant. Home cooking, including a lot of baking, has become the new normal. This is the perfect, time, to develop strong home cooking habits so that when life does pick back up again, you are ready.
Take the time, to plan a weekly menu, make a grocery list, shop, and prepare a few meals, in advance.
Each week or every, try one new fruit, or one new vegetable. Take the time to read labels, to see what is actually in your food. Cook a new recipe from scratch.
Involve the family, to help keep them busy, have a little bonding family time, and develop their mini master chef, cooking skills.
6 | CHAT WITH FAMILY + FRIENDS
When life gets busy, it can be hard to find the time, to catch up with family and/or friends.
I often “life hack” my phone conversations by walking outside and chatting on the phone with my Bluetooth wireless earbuds, and in areas that are not too busy with cars.
That way you can get in your exercise, do something great for your body, and your spirit, but maintaining, strong relationships, and let others know you are thinking of them.
There is no shortage of ways, to connect through video messages. Zoom, FaceTime, Facebook Video Messenger, or Skype, are all great options, to connect with loved ones, and see their faces, share what is new, by showing them.
7 | TECHNOLOGY REORGANIZATION
If the only certain things in life are death, and taxes, re-learning technology is should be #3.
This is a great time, to learn (or re-learn) technology, and purge/organize, your photos, apps, or contacts.
I. Apps
There is no shortage of apps to help you be a better you. There are apps to be more mindful, reduce stress, get organized, workout, limit your use of technology.
Here are a few of my personal fav apps for fitness frequently recommended to my clients.
Notes – A basic notes app in my phone, used for the to-do list, brainstorming, blog posts, training programs.
FMC – Menstrual cycle tracker, to know when aunt Flo is coming, and why you are so emotional today.
Around Me – Locator to find any business, restaurant, gym, store, around you.
MyPTHub – Online coaching platform, used to track workouts, programs, measures, photos, and nutrition all in one place.
Gym Boss Timer – can set your own intervals, and plays over music at the same time.
Layout – Quick way to post side by side photos, or a quick collage of images.
II. Organize your photos
I am terrible at organizing my photos or deleting photos, or sometimes, even sharing photos, with friends, or family. Often, the “Iphone Storage Limit” notification is activated on my phone.
You can organize your photos into albums/folders, delete images, delete duplicate images, share images to social media, transfer to an external hard drive, or even start a virtual scrapbook.
Deleting photos/videos is a great way to save memory, and improve the working memory of your phone.
III. Contacts update
Update your contacts, in your phone, have them sync, to your google contacts, or your MacBook.
Delete out the contacts, that are no longer current, and free up space on your phone.
This is a great opportunity to reach out to contacts, you are unsure if their information is current, and re-connect with those individuals you have not heard from in a while.
8 | READ
When life gets busy, our hobbies tend to get dropped. Reading is one of those ‘time well wasted’ hobbies.
INC.com reports, that the average CEO reads about 4-5 books per month. That is about 60 books per year.
The average person reads, about 2-3 books PER YEAR.
With over a million books on Kindle, Amazon Prime, Audiobooks, or a paper book, there is no shortage of methods to get your reading fix.
Another option is to re-read a book you have read and would like to rediscover. You always find new bits of information or insight you may have missed the first go around.
Here are some of my recommended readings from Amazon. They are organized, by category of the type of reading. My book preference is nonfiction, as learning is the priority, shorter – as I have the attention span of a 4-year old, and lots of actionable task-oriented information.
Here are a few books lists for the following categories:
9 | TAKE A COURSE
Research an online course or go back to school — start or complete your degree, or upgrade your skills.
Udemy, and Teachable are popular platforms, for self-study courses, and how-to. Athabasca, and the University of Phoenix, have been around for decades for online learning. Most universities have upgraded, to online learning exclusively, and it could be the time, finish your Masters, or branch out into a different area of learning or research.
If you are looking to get started with your fitness in 2021 and learn how to do your own nutrition for fat loss, Start Her Fit Kit, is the best place to get your fitness feet under you. It is a 35 day, fat loss challenge, and mini-lessons, to build your fitness foundation with the guidance of a supportive online coach and consultant.
If going back to school, was on your radar, research if you have the prerequisites, and if it might be possible for you to take distance or online courses. Price, the course, the timeline, and commitment level per week. Changes are, with your new normal schedule, it might just fit, into your world.
As a former high school math teacher, education is the best investment.
10 | FAMILY TIME
This is a time to truly appreciate the simple things in life.
You might be under some physical restrictions, but you do not have to feel emotionally restricted.
Use this time given to you to play with your kids, reconnect, and enjoy the downtime.
Once life returns, to normal, the cray-cray of every day, we will be longing for this more relaxed way of living.
11 | CREATE A NEW HABIT
HABIT | an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.
Habits free up your decision making.
Habits make you think less.
Habits help you prioritize.
This is the best time to develop some immunity strengthening life habits, as there is ample time, to work on them, without distraction, environmental or social influences.
You have fewer distractions, fewer social events, and reduced restaurant meet-ups. You have less outside influence by friends, or family as you are self-isolating and social distancing. You are in a consistent environment with fewer travels and restricted movement.
Self-care is an essential service and makes you better able to take care of others if called upon.
Here are 5 small, self-care habits, that can help keep you healthy, and your immunity strong at any time of the year.
I. Sleep | Wake & bedtime routine. Practice going to bed at the same, time, each day, and getting up each day.
II. Drink water | About 1.5-2litres per day. That is about 500mL per meal.
III. Train | Walk at least daily. Outside, if possible, and workout at least 3x per week with home gym equipment essentials.
IV. Gratitude | Highlight (2-5 items) of what was awesome about today.
V. Nutrition | Eat an unprocessed whole fruit diet at least 80% of the time. Lots of fruits, and vegetables, lean proteins, d some good quality fats.
SUMMARY
History is being made and this time is unprecedented.
As of this current day writing, we are X days in, and the holiday restrictions have begun.
Self-imposed isolation, or by government regulation, we can use the time, we have been given, and see this as a ‘glass half full‘ opportunity. Shift our focus to what we ‘can do’ vs overconsumption of the media, on the current situation or current limitations.
Time to focus on what is really important in life. Time to reflect, and re-structure your body, your house, and your life.
