Glass half full or glass half empty? How COVID-19 has changed my perspective on health and fitness.

Coronavirus(COVID-19) has been causing fear and destruction to many people’s lives for what is now roughly eight months. 

The world came to a complete standstill and even though we thought we were over the worst of the virus, with cases dropping and civilisation returning to a “new normal” with masks and social distancing, sadly COVID-19 cases have begun to spike again causing an increase in agoraphobia. 

Millions of people have been confined to their own homes for months, isolated from family and friends, exercising less due to gyms being closed or fear of coming into contact with others.

Literally being confined to your own home does create a habit to become unmotivated and sloppy with self-care due to the uncertainty of any plans or events going ahead and summer 2020 being completely cancelled.

So what can we do about being confined to our homes? Even with most gyms being open some people fear coming into contact with others and others have vulnerable people at home they don’t want to put at  risk. What can you do instead or how can you adapt your training in a post COVID-19 world? 

(Image source: https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/04/16/6-things-you-can-do-to-cope-with-boredom-at-a-time-of-social-distancing.html)

We still have limitations on a lot of social activities, events and fitness classes but this doesn’t mean this can be used as another excuse to keep pushing your goals back further.

So many people are struggling with a lack of exercise and emotional eating due to anxiety or just feeling like 2020 has been written off anyway! What’s the point? 

The point is this, you might have created a bad habit slowly over time, maybe your diet has started to include more packaged foods, microwave meals or takeaways? You might be feeling sluggish due to the increase of fat, salt, oil and unnatural added nasties in your heavily processed food? 

(Image source: https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/every-bradford-takeaway-five-star-18031058)

You could be working from home, travelling less for work or starting to feel attached at the hip with the sofa or kitchen table-made-office space?

The silver lining is you can create good habits, just as easily as creating a bad habit; you just need to make small adjustments, ones you know won’t massively impact your current schedule so it isn’t such a shock to the system and seem unsustainable.

From there, you can keep making small steps like reducing takeaways to special occasions such as birthdays, celebratory events etc., increasing your water intake by one bottle a day, walking for twenty minutes a day, cooking at least 3-4 meals a week from scratch at home with natural ingredients. 

All these things might seem small, but creating small positive habits will benefit your mental and physical health, mood, sleep, energy levels and productivity. 

See my blog post on: (Why regular exercise and a healthy diet will help to improve all aspects of your day to day lifestyle, mood and perspective on life.)

Your outlook on a bad situation is everything, if what you are worried or stressed about can’t be controlled, then focus your energy on what you can control. Things like your activity during the day (not just your workout), your diet, if your circle is positive or negative, your attitude and the way you treat others. Do everything in your power to fix or change anything you aren’t happy with because the only one who can make a change is YOU. 

Work your ass off until you achieve results and don’t let fear or procrastination take over.

(Image source: https://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-water-bottles-stainless-steel-reusable-insulated.html)

How lockdown has changed my perspective on health and fitness

A while before lockdown I was training six days a week, only ate set meals I had meal prepped such as chicken and rice, shredded beef and spinach, eggs in a bagel and cod with rice. That’s pretty much what I ate, day in, day out with the occasional ‘cheat’ meal on a weekend. 

There’s nothing wrong with eating like this if it’s for a certain goal or you enjoy it, but food bored me and if I missed a session I felt guilty and as though I had let myself down. Exercise started to become a chore because I felt there was only one way to train, eat and rest. Even though I continued to train as hard as I could, I felt mentally fatigued.  

The outbreak of COVID-19 meant gyms closed and everyone started to frantically panic buy gym equipment off Amazon and Facebook market place. 

My partner and I were lucky enough to get hold of three pairs of heavy enough dumbbells, a barbell, extra plates and a bench. At first it was a real pain having to adapt our workouts to alternative exercises that either mimicked gym machines we used, or upping sets and reps to compensate for the massive drop in weight we were now using.

(Image above was our home equipment for five months)

I then realised how extremely lucky we are to have a garden to work out in (this mine and  my partner’s mental health drastically). Being forced inside during a global lockdown meant I HAD to adapt and it changed the guilt of HAVING to work out to I GET to work out, outside, in the sun! 

I really started to enjoy the routine I had and continued to make progress, I also started to switch up my meals and start eating a bit more of a variety (I had much more time after all). 

I even started doing HIIT workouts due to limited equipment and I never thought I’d say this, but I now LOVE burpee’s and HIIT workouts, something I turned my nose up at before because it wasn’t part of the ‘muscle gain’ plan of the bodybuilding lifestyle I was used to.

Since doing HIIT workouts 5-6x a week in the garden along with my weight training, my cardiovascular health has drastically improved and is direct proof that you either adapt or break when faced with a problem you cannot solve.

I chose to make the most of my time after being forced inside and I started my online coaching business that I was ‘getting round to.’ I then started going out and doing 1-2-1 sessions with local clients from a 2 metre distance once government guidelines said it was okay to do so.With people being at home and not spending any money I started to get more online clients! 

A positive outlook and consistency should be applied to everything you do, I’ve had to leave jobs, unfriend people in real life and made extremely hard decisions in my life that I always questioned at the time.However, if you let yourself, you will learn and grow from every experience. 

Nothing ever changes being stuck in a comfort zone.

If I had sat back and said “I can’t leave the house or go to the gym, I just won’t train and I’ll watch Netflix all day.” I wouldn’t have got as far as I have with my business, physique and mental health. 

Positive self-care is about creating habits that will positively impact your mental or physical health, create structure, balance, a positive outlook, being grateful, being humble, being willing to learn, to grow as a person and see others’ perspectives and saying no to anything you don’t want to do. 

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Eliot

Start today, start NOW – Exercise is the BEST thing for your physical health, mental health and improving life quality! 

Contact me today via email at: coachedbykashima@hotmail.com – To arrange your FREE consultation for my online coaching.

Or visit the ‘Client reviews’, ‘Online coaching’ and ‘Your coach’ tabs on my website for more information. 

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