It\u2019s been a tough year, no doubt. The COVID-19 pandemic has kept us sheltered in place, unable to visit loved ones or do things like exercise at our favorite gyms, shop at our favorite stores, or eat as healthy as we\u2019d like to. One unintended side effect of the past year\u2019s quarantine has been weight gain. Some are calling it the \u201cQuarantine 15,\u201d but no matter how you put it, weight gain during the COVID-19 pandemic is not an uncommon phenomenon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Weight gain throughout the COVID-19 pandemic has averaged out to be about two pounds per month per person. Food and drink are obviously among the biggest reasons we\u2019ve been putting on a few pounds. Staying home all day has given us every opportunity to eat the things we are most fond of, and comfort foods tend to give our bodies more than they need as far as fats and sugars go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re also pairing those delicious comfort foods with more glasses of wine or beer than we\u2019re used to. In fact, pandemic weight gain statistics have shown that Americans have been drinking two to three times more during the pandemic than in the year before. These empty calories add up and have certainly contributed to the increase in our average weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another obvious cause of COVID-19 weight gain is the closure of gyms. With no access to group classes, weight and cardio machines, or personal trainers, people are having trouble holding onto their fit figures. Working out at home is hard to begin with, and those who were trying to set up a good home routine found that weight sets were extremely difficult to come by in the first few months of quarantine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How do we break away from these negative pandemic patterns? Well, now that gyms and other public places are starting to open up again, you can get back into a healthy fitness routine. Making schedules and sticking to them is a great way to get the ball rolling again. Instead of saying \u201cI\u2019ll start this week,\u201d give yourself an exact day and time to go to the gym and set an alarm. Tell a close friend or family member and ask them to hold you accountable. It may not seem like much, but just mentioning it to someone and saying it out loud can help you commit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As far as the food and alcohol habits go, make a healthy grocery list at home and don\u2019t stray from it! A wandering eye at a supermarket can lead to many impulse purchases, most of which involve sweets. Cut back on drinking by limiting the amount of alcohol you allow yourself to purchase. Give yourself a weekly budget to make it harder to indulge in a couple extra drinks per week. The road back to a healthy lifestyle isn\u2019t always easy, but by adding more structure to your schedule and diet, you\u2019ll be living healthy again in no time. The whole country will be back to normal before we know it, and you will too!<\/p>\n\n\n
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It\u2019s been a tough year, no doubt. The COVID-19 pandemic has kept us sheltered in place, unable to visit loved ones or do things like exercise at our favorite gyms, shop at our favorite stores, or eat as healthy as we\u2019d like to. One unintended side effect of the past year\u2019s quarantine has been weight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellemedical.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}