How to Avoid Gaining Weight During Quarantine

Since March 22, 2020, the advent of social distancing and self quarantine from the Covid-19 Virus has been taking a toll on people not only emotionally, but physically as well. Immediately, as stay at home orders were put into place, social media was filled with jokes and comments about people gaining weight during the quarantine. Here are some easy to implement health hacks that could not only prevent you from gaining weight during quarantine, but even get you on the right course for losing it.

1.) Protect and Feed Your Mind

Stress produces a hormone called “cortisol” which is a fat storing hormone. When there are excess amounts of physical, chemical or emotional stress the body will store fat as a potential energy source for the future. Your body doesn’t know how much energy you will need to expend to “protect your life” (stress was originally meant to indicate a danger to your life), so it preserves the fat to be used later on. Sometimes people can go through a stressful time in their life and can actually lose significant amounts of weight because the stress suppresses their appetite. Unfortunately, that weight will inevitably come back plus an extra 10 or 15 pounds as an added bonus 😉. However, at some point the stress will eventually catch up to you will most likely make you gain weight.

It’s easy right now with the world full of fear, uncertainty and negativity, to fall into the trap of what Zig Ziglar has coined as “Stinkin’ Thinkin’.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Stinkin’ Thinkin’ is “a bad way of thinking, that makes you believe you will fail, that bad things will happen to you, or that you are not a very good person.”  News outlets, social media, and people in general often “thrive” on fear and negativity. I put thrive in quotations because to truly thrive usually implies growing in a positive way. In this situation however, news agency’s and social media are growing their fortunes through fear. Please don’t get me wrong, this is a serious condition; but, a lot of people have a lot to gain from us being fixated on it 24 hours a day. Not only does the constant focus stress you out, but it negatively effects your health and makes you gain weight too. These platforms have their place and can be very helpful in many ways. However, one can become a victim of fear very quickly if you’re not careful.

My suggestion is to only listen to the news as often as you have to. Obviously, if either your job or some other responsibility requires you to watch the news more frequently, you may have to tune in regularly. If, however, you really don’t need to, then limit your exposure to preserve your health. Better yet, just have someone who is less sensitive to the stress update you weekly on the things you need to know. You really don’t need to see the pictures of victims and other really emotional things, it doesn’t benefit you in anyway.

What Can You do to Protect Your Mind?

-Limit news and social media as much as possible. 

-When you do have to listen to the news, do it early in the morning so you can work through any negative emotions you have to process by bedtime. Reading stressful materials too close to bed may prevent you from sleeping properly.

-Read daily devotionals, religious scriptures or other positive and uplifting materials.

-Pray or meditate regularly. 

-Listen to life coaches like Tony Robbins who talk about handling anxiety, depression and fear.

-Come up with daily positive statements that direct your mind like: “Every day, in every way,  I’m getting healthier and healthier!” Say positive statements like this over and over again with excitement and passion.

-Start and end your day writing in a gratitude journal. Write down everything you are thankful for in your life.  The more you focus on what you are grateful for, the more grateful you become. Gratitude is powerful because it is the opposite emotion of fear, depression and anxiety. You cannot feel gratitude and one of these other emotions at the same time. Isn’t that incredible? So why not choose gratitude?

2.) Keep a Strict Schedule

Even though staying up late and sleeping in every morning is very tempting, these bad routines will end in lifelong destructive habits if you are not careful.

Schedule the following important tasks:

-Going to bed. Your biggest release of growth hormone (an important fat burning hormone) is at midnight and if you are not sound asleep during that time you will miss out on its benefits! As you get older, the growth hormone spikes become less and less which makes sleep, more and more important as you age.

-Getting Up

-Exercising 

-Taking your vitamins

-Praying or meditating

-Family Time

-Work Time

-Feeding Your Mind

-“Me” Time. With everyone in your household on top of each other constantly, having ”me” time is not only important for you, but it’s important for your relationship with your family too! If you don’t do this, you will become resentful and it will cause upsets in your relationships.

So keep in mind, you may never have this opportunity to stay at home and be the boss of your own schedule again! Take advantage of it and create some really good new habits and routines that can last a lifetime!

3.) Don’t Allow Yourself to Graze

People have a desire to eat when they are happy, sad, bored, anxious, stressed, tired or thirsty. So it’s very tempting to keep running to the cupboard or refrigerator as you go through the emotional roller coaster of the day. Unfortunately, brainless eating will definitely lead to a significant amount of weight gain overtime. Stay hydrated so you feel less tired and more full. Don’t let yourself eat a snack until you have had a big glass of water just to make sure you’re not really just dehydrated. Keeping a higher amount of good fats in your diet will also help you feel more full. Try to keep the bad foods out of the house and only eat when you really are hungry.

4.) Choose 2 Cheat Days Per Week

Pick a day mid week and on a weekend and plan in advance the treat you will be having.  This will allow everyone in the house to have something to look forward to and will help you stay strong during the in between days. It’s still important to try to find the healthiest recipe you can find. Throwing the word “keto or paleo” in front of anything you want will most likely find you a healthier alternative. Sugar suppresses your immune system so using a natural sugar substitute like stevia is better than using a sugar version of the particular item you desire. People often feel a sugar hangover the next day which makes it difficult to get back into your normal routine, so consider cheating on a Saturday instead of a Sunday if you have to work on Monday.

5.) Take the Time to Exercise

The excuse of “I don’t have time to exercise ” is totally out the window right now! Take this opportunity to implement exercise into your daily routine. Even if you just commit to three or four times per week, anything is better than nothing.  Some people try using the excuse of still having to work from home. They seem to think because they are working from home they are spending as much time working as they did before, but that’s not necessarily true. Take the time that you have saved from not having to drive to work and use that to exercise.  The truth is, you will find time to do the things you value, so just make it important enough and find the time!

6.) Implement Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent fasting is where you decrease your eating time and increase your fasting time. In other words, stop eating around 5 or 6 PM and then don’t eat again until around 9 or 10 AM the next morning. The goal is to work up to a 16 hour fasting window. Of course, this is something you should work up to slowly; building up to one or two days a week. When you are eating, your body is in a constant state of insulin production. Insulin is a fat storing hormone so it makes you hold onto fat instead of burning it.  Check out our YouTube channel for fasting, keto and other weight loss videos. You should not do intermittent fasting if you are a type 1 diabetic, or have any health condition that would prohibit it. It’s always best to discuss this with a qualified doctor before starting a fasting program.

Conclusion

Instead of focusing on how awful this time of isolation is, focus on what an awesome opportunity you have to drastically change your life and finally become the boss of your health, your body and your life! If you’ve enjoyed this article please share it and help others to use this time of quarantine to grow in good ways, NOT BAD!

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