Keeping Off #Quarantine15 - Ways to Stay Healthy in 2020

These days there’s a lot of talk about #quarantine15 and all the extra weight people are gaining while staying at home.  Unlike the #quarantine15 trend, I’ve personally been able lose weight over the past couple months and I’m proud of myself! My weight and fitness haven’t always been consistent over the years, but I make a solid effort to exercise regularly and eat right. This lifestyle began for me sometime during college as I was studying physiology and the importance of exercise for overall health. At that time, I felt inspired to make exercise part of my weekly routine. It’s never been easy, and it especially isn’t easy now as a full time working mom, but I believe that with determination, consistency, and the right systems in place, it is possible. I’m here to inspire you to take your own health into your hands, and make lifestyle changes that will benefit your health in the long term.
 
As part of this discussion on overall health, I do have a confession – I love anything and everything chocolate flavored AND I also love French fries. Those are just a FEW of the junk foods I like to reach for. The good thing is that even with my sweet and salty cravings, I also value a healthy diet. It’s all about balance. A balanced, healthy diet is so important, but we all deserve to enjoy ourselves from time to time with our favorite cheat foods. Let me briefly discuss the ways I stay physically healthy even with my busy schedule and hopefully you can incorporate something you read here!

​

1. Eating a mainly plant based diet and tracking my calories on an app – I’ve been a vegetarian for a few years and I quickly found that cutting meat out of my diet keeps my meals lower in calories and excess fats. Also, I use the app My Fitness Pal to count my calories for the day. This seems way more tedious than it is! I simply monitor and input what I’m eating throughout the day and this helps me to make decisions as to what I can snack on and how to plan out my meals. This is probably the main way I’ve been able to lose weight.
2. Finding lower calorie/healthier versions of my favorite unhealthy foods – so instead of a big bag of doritos, I might reach for 9 sweet potato chips which is only 140 calories. Or instead of a brownie, I can snack on a chocolate peanut butter Kind bar which is 200lf calories. Another great snack I eat just about every day is an apple and grapes. You can never go wrong with fruit since it’s in its purest form and unprocessed and it tends to be very low in calories.
3. Monitoring my activity level with my apple watch – I just got this watch about a month ago and I’ve already noticed how motivated I am to take more steps and reach my goals each day! A fitbit would do the same. Once you’re aware of how much you’re moving, then it’s easier to set higher goals and work to achieve them.
4. Doing high intensity interval training workouts 3 times a week, especially those focused on core and strength training from Popsugar Fitness (linked below) – High intensity interval training involves “cardiovascular exercise strategy alternating short periods of intense anaerobic exercise with less intense recovery periods.” The workouts tend to last 30 minutes altogether and work to burn fat and tone muscles. I’ve seen a dramatic difference in my stamina. Try it for yourself! It’s very hard at first but definitely gets “easier” with time.

 
These are just a few of my habits for staying healthy and staying active. None of them are easy but with time, if you incorporate them into your lifestyle you will see positive results! What do you do to stay fit?? Leave a comment down below!
 
<3 Beryl