6 ways to improve your fitness and mental Health through the Covid lockdowns.

if you're reading this article i would assume you've exhausted all your options for entertainment and are now looking to self improvement to make these strange and trying times that little bit more bearable.

This process i completely understand as i had a similar occurrence around a year ago. Just to provide some perspective to where i was physically and mentally i will describe a regular day before i decided something had to change.

Generally i would wake up, Have a coffee.. or two and smoke cigarettes until at least 10–11 am, Clearly a bad start. I would then proceed to work backwards stressing about things i hadn't done or how pressed for time i was. This would lead to panic and procrastination which then led to 0 productivity starting the cycle all over again.

My sleeping patterns were sporadic and i was at best eating two big greesy meals a day. This effected not only my health but my finances. I would drink every weekend and some weekdays as a distraction from things i considered failures.

So that being said, Here are the 6 steps that helped me turn my perspective around and has completely ungraded the way i look at reality.

Step one: Admit and accept the fact that you aren't where you want to be but don't chastise yourself for it. It is in our nature to ignore and suppress negative factors in our lives , The only way to overcome them is to confront them. Once you can accept that things are not ideal you can slowly change the elements that cause the problems and progressively create a better reality

Step two: Remove toxic factors, Now this can be a group , habit or even someone you feel obligated too. The reason you need to identify toxic behaviour and remove your self is because generally toxic people are quite manipulative , having someone close to them experience personal growth limits their ability to manipulate. A toxic person will never support your journey so before you get hurt hoping for it , Cut them off and focus on the little things you can influence in the immediate future. If it is a habit that causes you to have negative feeling of self then you need to slowly reduce what ever it is and consider every day you've done better than the last a win. This will keep you spirits up and keep you motivated for the next days goal.

Step 3 : Diet and hydration!

This one sounds simple. But i struggled harder with this and still do than most factors of this process.

The reason i struggled is i'm a fairly picky eater and have never had an easy time eating earlier in the day. I struggle to keep weight and at my lightest i was incredibly skinny and unwell.

Now i know what you expect, Some crazy diet and gym routine that will give you a 10 pack and make you grow 2 inches. But thats not the case at all. Since this was the hardest part of the process for me i had to find ways to make it easier and having a strict diet of things i'd never seen let alone tasted was far too daunting for me to jump straight into.

So my advice is, Start with one meal a day , i started with breakfast. And make that meal as healthy as you possible can bear while you will still enjoy it to some degree. It might not be your favourite food. but its not your last choice and its a slight improvement on what you regularly eat (if anything) 

continue this process weekly until the breakfast is as good for you as can be and within the realms of not tasting completely horrible , This will make it a lot easier to make those small changes. Once you've made a couple it will become easier and eventually you'll train you subconscious to expect that kind of behaviour 

Step 4 : Training

Once again , This isn't a boot camp and its definitely not the military. You're trying to improve your mental and physical state and every small gain will add to that feeling. The main issue i see with people getting into training for mental and physical well being is the pressure that people put on themselves for results and also to train a particular amount of time. I feel these pressures often lead to people giving up as they cant meet that high expectation they have put on themselves. I know this because i've done it multiple times in my life For instance " I'm too unfit to train, I'll come to the gym once i loose a bit of weight " But thats a catch 22. Take the pressure off, Train for 5 minutes, 20 minutes or an hour and a half. It doesn't matter how much you do as long as every single day you do something. Even 10 pushups. Every little bit counts and your mind and body recognises that. It will react and slowly but surely you'll feel the changes.

Step 5: Gratitude 

This ones quite simple , Affirm to yourself everyday that you are grateful for the things you have. Count your blessing and focus on the things in your life you want to grow. Our minds are incredibly powerful and the conscious thoughts you feed it have a direct effect on how we perceive reality.

Also showing gratitude to people in your life will bring more positive behaviours from them and this will in turn effect how you perceive the world.

Step 6 : Meditation 

This one is completely subjective and there are so many times of meditation but one thing i can say. Regardless of the kind of meditation i have always felt a new sense of calm and perspective afterwards. If you're after money then meditate on abundance, if you're after love meditate on that. Choose what suits you best in what concept of mind your developing and make a habit of doing it everyday. even if its only for a short period it will have a positive impact.

Thanks for reading, I will continue to learn and share any positive habits and concepts as i continue to discover them.