Nutritionists share diet, indoor exercise tips to stay in shape amid Omicron

Your fitness journey need not stall in the current scenario of Omicron spread and Covid-19 related restrictions including work from home. Check out these health tips on diet and indoor exercise routine to stay in shape amid coronavirus pandemic, as revealed by nutritionists

Worried that your New Year's gym or fitness resolutions might be beaten hollow, courtesy Omicron lockdown or Deltacron emergence? Sweat not because despite the stay-at-home orders and work-from-home life brought on by this pandemic, we got the perfect solutions for people needing extra motivation to get healthy in 2022 and shed that unwanted fat acquired while staying indoors.

Nutritionists share diet, indoor exercise tips to stay in shape amid Omicron   (Photo by Windows on Unsplash )

Your fitness journey need not stall in the current scenario of Omicron spread and Covid-19 related restrictions including work from home. Check out these health tips on diet and indoor exercise routine to stay in shape amid coronavirus pandemic, as revealed by nutritionists.

Diet tips:

Mugdha Pradhan, Functional Nutritionist and Founder of iThrive, reveals that one's diet must be compliant with one's body's needs, lifestyle and environmental stresses. Suggesting a few changes that one can make to have a healthier lifestyle, Mugdha listed:

1. Eliminate harmful foods such as seed oils, sugar, refined flours and processed foods

2. Include nutritious foods such as eggs, red meat, organ meat and ghee.

3. One of the most beneficial changes one can make is to choose to snack on fruits. Fruits are a bonus boost to your health.

1. A simple diet of home-cooked meals is the most sustainable option for health. Here, not just the quality and quantity of meals is important, but time of the meal is most crucial.

2. Aligning our body clock to the sun clock ensures proper digestion of the meal and optimum assimilation of the nutrients.

3. Start your day with a warm regional breakfast like veg poha/ veg upma/ idli/ parantha. Keep it in a portion that will encourage you to feel hungry around lunch time.

4. Finish your lunch by 1:30pm maximum. Lunch can be dal/ sambhar/ kadhi plus roti or rice and a seasonal cooked vegetable.

5. Have a mid-meal around 4pm that can consist of tea and peanuts or chana or makhana.

6. Aim for an early dinner. This can be simple roti plus sabzi/ nutrella/ paneer.

Indoor exercise tips:

“Functional movement and exercise are two different things. Exercise is just one part of the movement; it's something we have come up with to bridge the gap created by our constant state of immobility. The best way to combat it is to keep your body in motion,” nutritionist Mugdha Pradhan suggested. She recommends:

1. Take the stairs

2. Attend a call on foot

3. Try to keep your relaxation activities as active as you can (like going for a walk) and not sit binging on TV shows.

4. Make sure you take regular breaks when working and are not glued to your chair for long durations.

As per nutritionist Madhavi Karmokar, “All four aspects of workout- strength, stamina, stretch and stability can be adhered to at home with a smart combination of workouts.” She suggests:

1. Design a weekly workout timetable.

2. Include yoga twice a week as Yoga addresses strength, stability and stretch elements beautifully.

3. Strength training using resistance bands or weights help build lean body mass and in addition to improving metabolism, keep hormones in a state of balance. Even as little as 2 sessions of strength training in a week help you reap these benefits.

4. Inclusion of HIIT workouts or Tabata sessions keeps the cardio element intact. These are small sessions of high intensity workout that improve heart health.

5. If you have a stationary bike or a treadmill at home, you can do a 30-45 minutes routine twice a week instead.

Recommending these ways to ensure that we build a sustainable approach to diet and exercise amid the ongoing pandemic, Madhavi pointed out, “Don’t forget the most underrated aspect of good health- sleep. Sleeping for 7-8hours helps balance hormones, thus preventing any sugar or junk cravings. Good sleep also aids in recovery and you see faster results from your workouts.”