These days, with most of us choosing to stay home, there are more ways to consider looking after yourself.
This guide is only for slight changes in your life, for any serious health concerns, please speak to your doctor.
Mental Health Is Just As Important As Physical Health
Aside from the obvious benefits you have from physical health, your mental health is just as important to look after. Think of it as a limb of your body, you will want it to be the best it can possibly be.
There are many small things you can do to help boost your mental health, such as doing things you enjoy, taking yourself out of negative situations, and more importantly, seeking professional help when you need it.
There are a number of services to speak to about your mental health, you can speak to your GP and go down the NHS route, or use a local counselling service, as well as a messaging/call mental health charity.
Eye Strain
There are more and more screens coming into our homes in the modern world, from phones, tablets, computers to even smart fridges! Our eyes can get overwhelmed by all this, especially if you’re working with screens away from home, too.
Consider taking regular breaks from time to time, to help break up eye contact and allowing your eyes to readjust without any pain.
Breathing Exercises
There’s a lot that can be said for taking some extra time out of your day to regulate your breathing patterns. Which is why some smart watches will notify users to slow down and control their breath along to their pattern for a minute each day.
These little daily tasks will help your day run smoother, as well as letting your body release any stress you’ve been holding in all day.
Similarly, consider taking up yoga. Daily yoga can help stretch out your body and give you chances to take part in breathing exercises alongside.
Less Snacking
Whilst snacking in moderation can be a lovely treat from time to time, constant snacking can lead to fatigue, weight gain, bad sleep and elevated inflammatory markers. Usually, snacks come in small packages, allowing us to eat more of them at once than we perhaps otherwise would, considering the high number of calories that go into each snack.
Instead of snacking as much, look into having regular meals at the same points of the day, where possible. Your body will get used to the timed meals, and will know when to expect food. Of course, it’s not always possible, due to busy life schedules, but do what you can.
One effective way of reducing snack consumption is to invest into weight loss meal replacement shakes. How these shakes work, is that they digest slowly over a period of four hours, meaning you won’t be hungry and tempted to snack, until it’s time for a substantial meal.
The shakes offered by Shake That Weight are packed calcium casein whey protein isolate, with all the essential amino acid, as well as essential vitamins and minerals too. You can learn more here to see what they’re all about, and browse the different flavours available.
Home Gyms
Even if you don’t have the largest space to work with, you can get some gym equipment at home, utilising the available space. With some bigger equipment, such as treadmills and indoor bikes, you can get versions that are foldable, allowing for easy storage such as under the bed or in a cupboard.
In fact, almost any equipment that you would find at a gym will also be available at home in some capacity. That’s not to say you have to go all out and dedicate a whole room to this equipment, you can do it in moderation.
All you need to start with are some free hand weights really. There are a number of different exercise routines you can do with these weights. Even without weights, you can do some non-equipment-based workouts, such as press ups and cardio all from one square foot of space, if you so choose to.
NHS Online Services
Of course, sometimes looking after yourself means knowing when to seek professional help. When you feel like that, and it’s not an emergency, you can always visit the NHS website to seek out advice and information on self-care, condition, treatments and medicines.
They can offer a range of health and care services from either home, on the move via your smartphone. Even your local GP surgery will have a website set up for a range of online health matters. Such as sending a consultation form with your issues to your GP, or ordering repeat prescriptions through the system.
Sometimes, and this was increased by COVID-19, you’ll also be offered the chance to have consultations via a video call, allowing you to get physical issues that may be harder to explain seen, just like an in-person appointment.
The NHS also offer and endorse a number of apps for your use, such as Liva UK, a tool that allows for self-help plans for long term conditions, or the more recently used NHS COVID-19 app, that allows for contact tracing.
Cut Bad Habits
Some of the issues we’ve already touched upon can be considered bad habits, such as snacking and drinking too much fizzy drinks. If possible, try to change up these bad habits over time. Don’t completely cut off instantly, as this could lead to withdrawal and temptation down the line.
The classic example for this, is smoking. If you smoke, you’ll find it difficult to instantly quit and not go back, this is why nicotine patches and vapes were invented. Switching to vaping allows users to lower their nicotine amount slowly over time, whilst still enjoying the sensation of smoking.
It must also be mentioned, that vapes don’t have any tar, so they are also slightly better than you.
Before taking up vaping, however, speak to your doctor for professional help. In general, they should be able to advise you about any bad habit in your life, and help you get on the right path.
Socialise
Despite being at home, there are still many opportunities for socialising. Gone are the days when the only time you could see friends were at the pub, in this digital world that we find ourselves in, you can socialise from the comfort of your bed 24/7.
The most obvious way is, of course, via messaging and phone calls. This can be done either with or without a camera. However, there are other ways too.
Online gaming is increasing player demands every year, which saw a drastic rise during the coronavirus pandemic. Online games offer a variety of different genres, modes and player amounts to give almost everyone the option to video game and talk.
You can do this with friends in a controlled closed off manor where It’s just you, or you can go online with strangers and speak to other people like you. The options are truly unlimited when it comes to socialising via gaming.
Away from gaming, you can always use video applications such as Zoom to see family and friends that are far away or temporarily inaccessible. Socialising is important for your mental health.
