Finding Ways to Cope with the Covid-19 Pandemic

Generating a quick solution to anything that is bothering us is something that most of us do best!

There is little doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has created challenges for all of us looking for ways to survive the effects of reduced social interaction. Fortunately, the human spirit has often focused on self-preservation over self-destruction each time we encounter a fork in the road of life.

Given that humans are genuine “social creatures,” we have all been forced to seek creative ways to minimize the negative effects of “sheltering in place.” As a case in point, over the past year, I found myself indulging in comfort food to numb myself from the effects of my limited social interactions. Of course, since every action generates a positive or negative reaction, I should have been prepared to expect that my poor nutritional choices would eventually generate negative consequences.

As faith would have it, my latest annual check-up with Dr. Francesca, led the doctor to firmly tell me, “your latest nutritional choices have generated a serious uptick in your cholesterol and triglyceride blood-work readings.

“This should not be a big deal,” I told my Doctor since it is probably a temporary one-off outcome.” “Not so fast,” my doctor reiterated in a rather ominous tone. “You will need to start life-changing decisions because I noticed that your weight is also up 12 pounds since your last visit which may have contributed to your elevated A1C reading.” I immediately joked that “this rather unknown term (for me) can’t be all that bad since it perfectly articulated the initials of my name.”

“This is no laughing matter,” Dr. Francesca, declared as she pounded a table in the examination room. After she was finished speaking, you could hear a pin drop as the crushing effects of her silence penetrated my soul.

“You are not getting any younger,” Dr. Francesca said, slowly raising her voice to a scary crescendo, “the time to act is now and not when you are in an operating table with fewer options.”

Ironically, I was very proud of myself for finding a way to deal with the pandemic without suffering any mental setbacks. As many of my friends colorfully described bouts of depression and anxiety, I felt I had dodged a bullet by successfully discovering a way to remain cheerful during my period of voluntary confinement!

And while my actions provided me with a way to cope with my inability to enjoy the simple joys of life – I now had to begin facing the negative consequences of my actions. Without leaving any room for negotiation, my doctor directed me to immediately begin a course of cholesterol medication and advised me to begin exercising and changing my nutritional choices.

To deal with this life-long gut punch, I remembered one of my parents telling me when I was a young child, “emulate other people’s successes while avoiding their errant ways because life will not give you enough time to experiment with all alternative courses of action.” This encouraged me to survey how others were coping with the pandemic using techniques that resulted in a positive health outcome.

Yet how could I accomplish this task in a world where we were all strongly advised to reduce interactions with others, including our loved ones. At that moment, an exciting idea came to me, one possible solution was to visit my social media postings and carefully review how others were coping with their self-imposed confinement with an eye towards achieving a healthy outcome.

However, during my initial search, I mostly encountered cheerful stories of individuals posting recipes and pictures of tasty meals that they had created. Many of those meals used ingredients that the doctor had warned me to avoid.

But just as I was about to give up looking for the magical silver bullet that would address my health challenges, I noticed an advertisement for a Peloton bike! Wow, that would solve my multiple problems by easing my boredom while simultaneously eliminating some of my weight gain, I experienced from my newly adopted sedentary lifestyle.

This inspirational idea led me to conduct due diligence on this exciting exercise equipment. Sadly, I learned that due to excess demand during the pandemic, delivery times were currently stretched out to 5 to 10 weeks for anyone ordering the product.

Unfortunately, the e-commerce sector has spoiled all of us by generating deliveries of most purchased products within 24 to 48 hours after making a purchase. And while some products often took a few days longer, waiting 5 to 10 weeks to receive an exercise bike was clearly a non-starter.

Following the famous saying of J.R. Ewing (a fictitious oil baron from the popular 1978-1991 Dallas TV series), who often said, “my Daddy taught me that when you can’t get in the front door, use the backdoor ...” led me to find a way to satisfy my desire through an alternative e-commerce website.

There I found a folding stationary exercise bike. And more great news! The product was in stock and available to be shipped and received within just a few days.

Soon, I began to watch my favorite programs on my tablet and catching up on webcasts while I was pedaling away! Now each time, I had a desire for comfort food to ease my boredom, I simply jumped on the bike.

It is still early days so I don’t know if this will resolve all my unfavorable medical readings, but for now, I remain very confident that I have taken an important first step. As a famous Chinese saying reminds us, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”