How The Pandemic Has Affected My Health

*This is a collaborative post on how the pandemic has affected my health. All words and thoughts are my own

A lot has changed in the past year, and for a lot of us, our lives will take a while to get back to any sort of normality. While I’ve enjoyed the slower pace of life and the ability to work from home it’s not come without its negatives. For a lot of people- mine included- both mental and physical health has taken a bit of a beating.

So many articles have reported similar feelings amongst most adults. The American Psychological Association conducted a survey which revealed that “physical health may be declining due to an inability to cope in healthy ways with the stresses of the pandemic. Many reported they have gained or lost an undesired amount of weight, are drinking more alcohol to cope with stress and are not getting their desired amount of sleep.”

I know I’ve not coped in the healthiest of ways. As I’m working from home and constantly bored I’m snacking a lot more and ordering myself treats as a quick dopamine hit. And because I’m not really going anywhere I’m not walking around as much as I used to, which in terms means a lot less fresh air.

How the pandemic has affected my weight

My weight has been a constant battle for most of my adult life. Other than when I got down to my personal target weight (for all of a month) I’ve been considered ‘plus size’ or obese as a BMI calculator would suggest. I’ve tried diets that didn’t work out too well. And I’ve tried general healthier eating which has had mixed results. When the pandemic first kicked in it caused any good habits to fly out of the window; mainly due to stress. As the pandemic was getting worse and we were bracing to go into lockdown I was in the process of changing jobs, and me and Luke were buying our first home together.

There was a lot going on and eating healthily just wasn’t the biggest priority to me. I thought when I went back to work I’d get back into good habits of healthy lunches and minimal snacking. But that was a year ago and I’ve yet to go back to work, heck I’ve not even started working in my new office.

So over the course of last year, I put on some weight. I couldn’t be 100% sure of how much as I hadn’t weighed myself before but I’d say up to a stone. And sadly it seems us ladies have gotten the raw end of the deal. As in comparison to men, women were 14.17% more likely to gain weight over the pandemic according to a survey conducted by Run Repeat.

How I’m trying to tackle the changes the pandemic caused

Around August/ September time last year, I knew something had to change. I was getting lazy, continuing to put on weight and as we had no end in sight for any form of normality who knew how long it would go on for. The first thing I did was started to think about exercise as I knew this would be easier to start with than addressing my eating habits. While I don’t enjoy the actual exercise I am a fan of how it makes you feel afterwards. And that’s where Peloton came into my life. m

I’ve done a whole post on my Peloton bike which you can read here. But it started off with the app and a cheap Amazon bike to see how I got on. And to see whether the real thing was worth the commitment. Quickly I realised it was and my Peloton bike was delivered in November. Other than a week away and some days over Christmas/ New Year I’ve worked out every single day. Most days it’s a cycle class, but I also do strength weight training and I’ve dabbled in things like pilates, meditation and yoga. Eventually, I’ll try running, but one thing at a time.

I know I can still push myself to work harder or do longer sessions. But I’m pretty happy with my exercise routine. And it is now a routine, something I push to do every day.

Addressing my eating habits

As I mentioned above my eating habits have been harder to do something about. There are loads of tools out there to help work out a healthy way to lose weight such as a weight loss calculator but a lot of it relies on self-motivation.

For the last six weeks or so we’ve been weighing ourselves on a weekly basis. If nothing else it means I can keep on track with my weight and ensure I’m not putting any more on. And then I began to look at my snacking habits. As I mentioned above snacking has been something I’ve struggled with. Working from home so close to snacks. And just being pretty bored I’ve been snacking between meals more than ever since the pandemic started. I’m trying to cut out snacks between breakfast and lunch, and limit myself to one low-calorie snack between lunch and dinner. And I’ve been tracking this habit through an app to keep track of how often I’m managing it.

I still have a long way to go with my weight loss journey. But I’m excited to see where I end up in another years time. Hopefully lighter, healthier and stronger than I am now.

Have your eating habits changed over the past year?

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