Nine tips to beat the ‘Quarantine 15’
Being pent up at home during social distancing can have many effects on your body. Here are nine ways to help keep you from gaining weight while under “stay at home” orders.
1. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. I don’t know about you, but the grocery store is probably one of the most anxiety-provoking places for me at this time, so I try to limit my trips to once per week. This means planning meals ahead of time. Though this may be more difficult for families with children, it’s worth sitting down together to pick three or four meals everyone can agree on. Make enough to have leftovers for lunches or dinner. Same goes for singles. This makes it easy so you aren’t shopping for seven different meals. When we are left to last-minute decision making regarding meals, we tend to go for the easiest option. Most of those involve delivery or takeout, which are not always the healthiest choice.
2. Set alarms for meal and snack times. If you find yourself constantly snacking throughout the day, try aligning your meal times with your typical work or school schedule from before social distancing. This will keep you from grazing all day long. A good rule of thumb is to not go longer than four hours between meals and snacks. So, depending on what time you wake up and go to bed, you may need from zero to two between breakfast, lunch and dinner.
3. Drink water! It can be hard for us to distinguish what I like to call “head hunger” versus “real hunger,” especially if we are constantly looking at a snack-filled kitchen. To help with this distinction, if you think you are hungry before time for your next meal or snack, try drinking a large glass of water to see if that satisfies your feeling. Most likely you were just thirsty, or bored.
4. Speaking of planning ahead, if you know there is a certain snack or chip you will binge on, don’t buy it. Instead, buy a snack you know you won’t feel the need to devour all at once. Fruits, low-fat cheeses, individual yogurts, and raw vegetables are all great snack choices. There’s a reason I don’t keep ice cream in my fridge: I’d eat it every night. So, I just don’t buy it. Instead, I opt for individual mini-ice cream sandwiches for an after-dinner treat or dessert.
5. Practice portion control. I know many of us are buying in bulk to avoid multiple trips to the grocery store. So, if you do have the family-size bag of pretzels or the gallon box of Goldfish crackers (like I do), don’t eat straight from the container. Instead, portion yourself 1 serving as described on the snack’s nutrition label and put that in a separate bowl. Put away the large bag and leave the pantry or kitchen. This will help you think twice before indulging in Round 2. And remember to drink water between snacks! Make sure you are experiencing
hunger, not hunger. Another way to practice portion control is to buy the snack-size packages instead of the family size. This way your serving sizes are already portioned out for you.
6. Practice mindful eating, rather than mindless eating. When we sit on the couch watching our newest bingeworthy Netflix show, we are not paying attention to everything we put into our mouth. That is considered mindless eating. This typically does not feel satisfying because we have not connected our mind and our body. Try snacking with the TV off, maybe outside or in a calm area of your home. Acknowledge each bite and chew thoroughly. You may find you won’t even finish your whole portion because you are more aware of the food you are ingesting.
7. Eating can also be a coping mechanism for many people. Even before COVID-19, stress-eating was a common problem that many people experience. Now that there is a heightened feeling of stress and anxiety, it’s likely more people will experience this. But there’s good news: There are many ways to cope with anxiety and stress, and one of them is sleep.
Getting a good night’s rest is vital to helping reduce stress and anxiety. You could also try going for a walk or run, turning to coloring books, journaling or reading — none of which involve packing on the pounds.
8. Protein is your friend. If you find yourself feeling real hunger an hour or two after eating, take a closer look at your meal. If it was mostly processed carbohydrates such as cereal or chips, then it is likely you really are hungry. Carbohydrates, especially processed ones, digest very quickly and don’t keep us feeling satisfied for very long. My advice: Be sure to include a protein source in all of your meals. Protein foods take longer to digest and will keep you feeling satiated until your next meal or snack.
9. Last, get moving! Create some kind of exercise or movement plan. For me, I love group fitness classes because there is a component of accountability to them. You sign up, you pay, it’s in your calendar, and you’re committed. Now that options are limited, it takes some serious willpower for us to get moving. Give yourself realistic goals. Don’t say you will work out every single day if you know that realistically won’t happen. Start small with two to three workouts or walks per week and go from there. Any kind of movement is good movement. You can also get a friend involved. Hold each other accountable by doing them together via Zoom, and stay connected!
Though these are crazy times, it is important to hold onto some normalcy. By regulating our eating habits and continuing to move, we can hopefully keep some sort of routine and not gain the “Quarantine 15.”