By Mikaela Kristina Acido-Muega
The quarantine has afforded us time to do things that are usually not prioritized on our daily schedule.
We now have more time to watch K-dramas, learn something new, write a story, make an artwork, play with our pets, spend time with our family, and eat. Yes, eat. While a basic need, eating has become a pastime for some; many people tend to eat more when they are bored.
Overeating is bad and eating a lot of preservatives and sugar-laden food—which are popular staples during a situation like this due to their longer shelf life—is another monster that could harm us.
I, for one, am having a hard time dealing with this problem.
I do home workouts that I find on the Internet and achieve surprising and significant weight loss and increased endurance! Nice, right? But my body weight fluctuates like a firefly’s light most of the time: I gain weight, lose weight, or stay in the same weight range.
That’s when I noticed it all boils down to what we put into our bodies. If we eat lots of fatty food, the excess fatty acids are stored in our bodies making us gain more weight.
Similarly, food preservatives can have adverse effects on our body. Eating too much food with high sodium content results in water retention, which is when salt makes our body hold water thus making us feel heavier than normal, among other things.
But this doesn’t mean we should quit our favorite snacks cold turkey. We can all stay healthy and fit during the lockdown by wisely choosing the food we eat. If possible, opt for less preservatives and less sugar and less fat.
Also, we should start walking in our backyards at least or plant vegetables and fruits, which is economically and socially relevant during this time. We can also try other workout routines that don’t require lots of space, like ab, stretching, and breathing exercises. Dancing counts as exercise, too.
See, not all hope is lost! Yes, we can still eat those sweet candies and tasty chips, but let’s keep it within the limit and do our exercises.
You see, this lockdown probably isn’t so bad after all. For one, it gives us more time to stay in the kitchen and eat the food that we want, but it also allows us to make smart decisions on the kinds of food that we eat and the exercises that we need to do in order to stay healthy and fit.
