The past eight weeks almost seem surreal as we spent our days at home to stay safe amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Not only did we juggled working from home and lent a helping hand to our children in their home-based learning, but we also took this time to try out new things that we might not have time to do before.
As a nation with a huge love for great food, one of the things that brought us all closer together is our eagerness to try out new recipes (Hello Dalgona Coffee!). And so, our days were spent tinkering around in the kitchen whipping up new dishes and enjoying them together with the family.
Now that the circuit breaker is lifted, it’s time to ease into a “new normal” way of life as activities that were a part of our lives previously are gradually brought back in stages.
If you’re looking to give your body a break from all the feasting and fancy treats, we’ve got just the plan for you! It all boils down to healthy lifestyle habits and here are some that you can start introducing into your daily routine to shape up and feel good all over again.
Read also: Yes, Your Marriage Can Survive the Stress of COVID-19 and the Circuit Breaker!
Healthy Habits to Regain Your Health
1. Makeover Your Daily Meals
You realised that as you cooked up a storm for the family, you might have overloaded your meals with carbs, which is not the best choice to maintain your waistline. With the kids back at school, you now have more flexibility over your meal choices.
Start incorporating healthy habits by choosing healthier ingredients to plan your meals around. Some great choices include fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meat and wholegrains such as brown rice, oatmeal and millet. As wholegrains are packed with fibre, the dishes that you put together will also keep you full longer.
Consider swapping bread, rice and oily dishes with healthy bowls featuring a medley of nutritious ingredients. This also gives you the chance to be creative in adding colours to your meals with your preferred fresh vegetables, beans and protein.
For inspiration on planning your healthy bowl meals, head over here to get started.
2. Healthy Habits: Consider Your Cooking Oils
If you plan to cook using oils, do choose wisely.
According to health and nutrition experts, the best oils for cooking are those that remain stable even under high temperatures. The stability of the oils depends on how easily they oxidise, or how easily they react with oxygen to form free radicals. One of the key factors in determining the resistance of oils to oxidisation is the degree of saturation of fatty acids.
Oils with saturated fatty acids have a very stable structure that resists oxidation. This is typically found in tropical oils such as palm oil and coconut oil, as well as animal fats such as butter or ghee. This makes them suitable for deep-frying and heat-heat cooking.
Oils with monounsaturated fatty acids are less densely packed, and so they can’t be exposed to high heat. As they are found in olive oil, avocado and nut oils, these oils are best used for salad dressings.
On the other side of the spectrum are oils with polyunsaturated fatty acids which have the most unstable structure and produce high levels of free radicals when heated. This includes the likes of canola, oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil and sunflower oil which are the least recommended options for cooking.
While the various types of oils come with their own pros and cons, using a controlled amount of oil in your cooking can help you reap the nutritional benefits of essential fatty acids. As our body can’t make these acids, the best way to get them is from the food we eat.
3. Rethink Your Cooking Methods
Who doesn’t love fried foods that come with a crunch?
While fried foods may not be the healthiest choices, all hope is not lost yet! There are various other types of cooking methods that you can use to create healthier versions of your favourite fried foods without dousing them in buckets of oil.
Baking and grilling your food is a great alternative to deep-frying. Not only is less oil used, but you also get to achieve that crunch that is essential to the dish. But if you do not have an oven or prefer not to use one, air-frying also gives you the same results as deep-frying – with zero oil used and a lot less mess to clean up after.
4. Snack Smart
The stress of working from home and managing your children’s free time may have led to endless snacking sessions.
While it is not to say that snacking is off-limits, but if your snack choices tend to lean towards the sugary, greasy or overly-salty category, it is time to change things up. Make a conscious effort to go for healthier substitutes so you’ll always have healthy options available the next time you crave for a quick snack.
Some great choices to keep stock include nuts such as almonds and walnuts, packs of dried fruits and popcorn kernels, so you have the freedom to season it in a healthier way. When it comes to nuts, do go for the unsalted ones and control your portion by measuring a ¼ cup per serving.
5. Healthy Habits: Let’s Have Tea!
Heard of people who drink tea to help them lose weight?
Teas are known to have high amounts of health-promoting substances called flavonoids. In particular, a type of flavonoid called catechins is believed to help boost metabolism and help your body break down fats more quickly. What’s more, the caffeine in some teas increases the amount of energy you use, which leads to you burning more calories.
While this combination of healthy habits works best together for weight loss to occur, drinking tea alone may not be quite enough. Research suggests that tea may help you lose some weight when paired with a sensible diet and exercise plan.
But for what it’s worth, by drinking tea daily you are cutting down on other beverages that you’d drink such as mocha latte which trims down quite a sizeable amount of calories from your daily intake. Remember, taking small steps towards healthy habits like this makes all the difference in the end!
6. Crunch Time!
No, we’re not referring to cheat days where you get to indulge in your favourite snacks – but instead, it’s the part where you fit in some form of exercise during the week.
In order for fat loss to occur, we need to be burning calories by staying active during the day. Some of us might have discovered how easy it is to exercise at home, thanks to the many home fitness programmes available online.
The great thing about these programmes is that they are designed for various fitness levels and are just a few minutes long. There are also a variety of routines to target different parts of the body – so you’ll never get bored of doing the same thing every day.
A great place to start with this is by following the workout routines of fitness influencers such as Kayla Itsines, Chloe Ting and Kelsey Wells. While most of them charge a nominal subscription fee to access their workouts, Chloe Ting has been offering her programmes at no cost as they are all hosted on her YouTube channel. This has put her at the top of the list in recent months as people from all over the world relied on her workout programmes to help them stay fit while on quarantine at home.
Read also: Our Mums Share Their Ups and Downs of Staying Home During the Circuit Breaker
Let’s Stay Healthy As We Embrace the “New Normal” Way of Life!
It looks like it may be months away until things can go back to the way it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. So, let us all keep our spirits up as we make little changes to our lives for a healthier version of ourselves.
Stay safe, everyone!
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