How to beat the covid blues
First important note. I am NOT a psychologist nor am I trained in this field. I am a martial artist and my undergraduate degree was in psychology (close to 17 years ago) and I only chose it because my best friend at the time chose it. I am writing this post mostly as a reminder to myself. It’s an opinion piece with no research cited, but I hope its a good read and may lift you up just a little during this crazy time.
How to beat the covid blues
The three pillars of everything In my opinion has always been diet, exercise, and sleep. March was messy. I totally wrecked this. I haven’t had time off to myself in years. So as I spent ALL day watching news, I scarfed down MMs and tried to treat the whole thing like a staycation. I own two gyms so eventually, I’d get squeezed pretty good (living in NY) but at the time I had no clue. I was exercising significantly less because you know, all the gyms were closed. I’d figure it was a great time for me to rest and recover. This was also around the time I discovered Tiger King. And “you”. And the perfect time to rewatch Breaking Bad. I developed a re-love for Netflix and it kept me up. My daughter is around 2 so she woke up at 7am. My sleep schedule was a mess.
So march was a disaster. I looked at myself in the mirror and I couldn’t fathom how I was able to survive a potential apocalypse. I owed to it myself and baby girl to be like Will Smith in I am legend or Rick Grimes in Walking dead (you see, too much Netflix). So here is. how I got back on track.
1. Putting myself back on a sleep schedule.
I read the 5 am club. And by read, I heard someone talking about it in my online MBA class and I watched the YouTube videos. Im quite impressionable (every well spoken professor at NYU is my hero of the month), so I made it my priority to put myself back on a sleeping schedule. I practiced all the sleep hygiene tips you can find online which I won’t list here. But the one that helped me the most was not using my phone in bed. I was tied to my phone to fill the gap in human connection that I was lacking. Being a Judo teacher, I am used to interacting and grappling with people. I wanted to feel connected. But being on my phone in bed in 17 different group texts constantly going off was detrimental to my sleep.
2. Limit smart phone time.
I had this really cool marketing professor who wrote a book about phone time. He was really really cool. Did I mention I was very impressionable? Anyway, he wrote a book all about phone time. I started to shake my head and say things like, “you’re such a screenager” to my geriatric parents and judging everyone around me. “do you even keep track of how much time you spend on your phone?” I was insufferable. text, reddit, email, news, text, YouTube, news, Facebook newsfeed, text. So I read this book Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked (linked on the right). Really read it this time. And started to limit my screen time.
3. Diet
I’ve written about diet before so I won’t go too deep into it. I understand also diet is one of those really personal things that have lots of nuances that makes it hard to “just take advice".” So I will give you some tips that help. Treat your calories like your finances and have a budget. IF you get paid 2000 dollars per X-time, you would need to budget out your expenses to have some money left over to lose on Robinhood right? Same thing with calories. Except, if you don’t budget, instead of having no money, you’ll get fat. When you budget, you don’t just give yourself a daily spend (which many people do). You take into consideration longer term horizon too right? Same thing with calories. I try to look at my daily in and out and my weekly.
2000 calories per day is my budget. If I get extra exercise, it’s a bonus. 2000 calories of 90% Whole Foods is a good measure. If you feel like that is too much, then make it work for you. Start with 50%.
4. Exercise
Progressive overload is king of being strong. I love going to the gym and maxing out my deadlift. Well, I used to before I blew out my back and started having back issues. But we dont have this luxury anymore. So I keep it very simple. I go for a walk everyday. I sprint once a week. I have a push day, pull day and a leg day. If I miss, I dont beat myself up about it. And on a push day, if I only do push ups, that’s okay too. Just get do something. Walking is probably the best think you can do right now to keep the covid blues away.
5. Count your blessings.
Its easy to think of the doom and gloom. The things that aren’t going right. The uncertainty. Betting the wrong direction on Tesla stock. It’s important at times like these to count your blessings. Give it a shot. What are you grateful for? Double down on that. Be mindful with your interactions. If you aren’t on your phone as much, perhaps we can seek out more eye-to-eye communication (with 6 ft apart)? Maybe you checked your diet exercise and sleep. Now it’s time to help others do it too? I think helping your peers conquer some of these personal habits is a way better use of your time than reposting the new slackivist trend. These peers that may support you, make you laugh, love you and annoy you are some of your biggest blessings. Start with them and count your blessings.
