4 Ways to Maintain Nutrition and Wellness in 2020

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging, but you can make small changes and do little activities throughout your day to make it easier. Here are a few ideas to maintain nutrition and wellness in 2020.

1. Lifestyle Modification

It can be difficult to change ingrained habits, especially when you're trying to keep yourself and others safe and healthy during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the ways Dr Amy Lee helps her patients maintain nutrition and wellness is with lifestyle modification. Lifestyle modification isn't going to overhaul your daily life, it supplements and tweaks your current habits to help you work toward healthier living. With your doctor, you'll work out a plan to slowly change certain habits or integrate new ones, practice those habits over several months and try to stick to them. This type of treatment plan is often used for obesity, chronic inflammatory conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis. If you're cooped up inside in 2020, you can try to implement short bursts of exercise throughout the day, learn to cook or practice meditation and mindfulness.

2. Exercising at Home

Physical activity is incredibly important for maintaining both physical and mental health. Exercising releases endorphins, which can boost your mood and help you relax. Just getting up and moving a little can reduce tension.

Even when gyms and parks are closed, you actually still have several exercise options available to you at home. You can check out online exercise classes. There are free videos available as well as subscription packages. Some physical gyms are also starting to offer access to live streams and video recordings with instructors that you can access from the gym's website or social media. If you don't have time for a full class, try getting up periodically throughout the day and moving around. You can go for a walk, do some chores or play with your kids or pets for a few minutes.

3. Mindfulness and Structure

Mental health can affect and be affected by nutrition and wellness just like physical health. It's important to practice mindfulness and set structures to replace those you would have at school or the office. Have a plan and a budget set for when you go to the store and don't deviate. Make a meal plan for the week and stick to it. That can provide some variety to your diet and give you a chance to try new recipes. You can also try meal prepping. Try to stick to your usual morning and evening routines and keep up with your work or school schedule.

Practicing mindfulness can also help reduce anxiety and stress. Like exercise classes, there are plenty of meditation and deep breathing options available now, from apps to youtube videos. Meditation isn't one size fits all, so try out some different options and styles to see what's right for you. It's also important to stay positive and cultivate connections even if you can't see friends and family in person. Text, call or video chat loved ones. Share jokes and tell stories. If you need to talk about bad things, don't avoid them, but don't feel like you have to talk about them either.

4. Eating Right

Being stuck inside more often can make it easy to give in to the temptation to laze around and graze on junk good. When you're shopping, make a point to buy healthy, wholesome ingredients instead of junk. Rather than going for the chips and ice cream, grab some nuts or seeds and a tub of low-fat yogurt. Focus on fresh ingredients and home cooking rather than take out, frozen meals and pre-prepared food. When you cook, you can better control portion size, salt sugar and fat intake and include healthier ingredients.

It's also important to stay hydrated and reduce alcohol consumption. Hydration is key to a healthy lifestyle. Alcohol can increase negative feelings as well as weaken your immune system and interact poorly with certain medications, so it's best to avoid it if you can.

These are just a few ways you can practice wellness. Try some out and see what works for you.