Apart from this COVID-19 induced lockdown, there may be other reasons when you are forced to stay at home for extended periods of time. During such time, while the desired goal would be to try to lose weight, many would agree that a more practical target would be not to gain weight and stay mentally calm. During these uncertain times, one gets a lot of mixed feelings like anxiety and stress, loneliness and depression. Now, our body does not like stress. It tries to find ways to get out of it; meaning that we increasingly find ourselves reaching out for that chocolate bar or that extra helping of dessert. Slowly but surely, we start dumping healthy food choices and we start preferring to binge watch the tele rather than getting up and taking a walk.

Here is a workable strategy to help you make the right choices in these stressful times to make sure you don’t gain weight and maintain your lean muscle mass.

• Get a calorie tracker

A lot of mobile apps are available that can help you track your calorie intake as per your pre-set macro-nutrient intake goals. This will help you get on track to know what you are eating and whether you need to dial down or up your carbs, protein, or fat. Fulfilling your daily protein requirement is absolutely necessary if you wish to maintain muscle mass. Feel free to take that scoop of your favorite whey protein. It will help you fulfill your daily essential amino acid requirements.

• Prep your meals and snacks

You now have plenty of time to prepare your meals and snacks. Include healthy options like whole foods, greens, moong sprouts, nuts, etc. and drop refined foods and snacks, chips and cookies from your grocery list.

• Keep the stress out

Just by keeping this devil out, you can significantly ward off those cravings and late-night binge-watching. How to do it? Get your daily routine straight. Set your daily waking and sleeping timings just as if you were heading to the office or school/ college. Fill up your calendar with useful to-do’s. Meditate or at least sit quietly in a silent place for half an hour. Take a relaxing bath. Take your time to enjoy meals with your family. Fix time for exercise. Call up your dear ones, friends, and colleagues and ask about their health. Donate online. Donating is believed to be a great stress reliever. Read a few pages of a book every night. Keep the screens away at least an hour before you sleep. Take calls but don’t go on to check social media apps every time you hang up the call.

• No TV while eating

This will not appeal to many but believe it or not, numerous studies show that we overeat while watching TV. Sitting down for meals with your family, without the TVs and laptops and mobiles, helps your mind and body focus on when you are full by taking note of the signal to stop eating at the appropriate moment.

• Move!

Remind yourself that you need to get up and start moving every hour. If you can’t remember, put an alarm. There are ample before-and-after videos and life experiences of people who have lost upto 30 kgs in a month just by walking 10-20 thousand steps daily. Just get a step counter app and you are good to go!

• Get your exercise

You can’t go to the gym because of the pandemic. Don’t worry, there are a number of body-weight exercises that you can perform right in your sitting room that will help tone up your muscles and even lead to muscle gain for some. For best results do your exercises in a time-bound manner. Doing honest HIITs for 7-10 minutes is more than enough to exhaust you!

• Walk after meals

This is the last and the most important, yet simple tip. Just by incorporating this simple habit will work wonders for you. Studies have shown that a leisurely walk for 15 to 30 minutes after each meal helps in meal digestion and significantly lowers the post-meal blood sugar level spike. This one factor only can help you prevent weight gain.