Here’s How to Stay Healthier in the Lockdown. By Ujunwa P. Dike.
6 min read
Staying at home because of a lockdown and the security situation in the southeast states might cause numerous physical and emotional health problems. Most people are unaware of this fact about their health, and some don’t like to discuss it. Most people frequently worry about their businesses, occupations, or financial situation. However, maintaining excellent health while under lockdown is quite advantageous and can assist you in returning to a regular and healthy life following the lockdown. You have been given some advice in this article on how to maintain healthy physical and mental health.
Staying Physically Healthy
1. Eat well-prepared, homemade food: Eating well-prepared, freshly prepared food at home is encouraged. Eat little from meals sold by outside vendors. The components in some of the foods might not be fresh. This is meant to encourage you to eat fresh food that you prepare at home with natural spices (avoid too much salt and artificial sauces). This is not meant to disparage those who sell food in restaurants or by wheelbarrow. When taken in moderation, excellent food can even secure a life free of most diseases and illnesses. It promotes good health. Try out different eating recipe/styles. Eat garri/akpu with different soups( okazi, egusi, ogbono, oha etc.). Last but not least, you might wish to experiment with some organic herbal meals like freshly boiled lemongrass water and fragrance leaf (nchanwu) water. You could drink one cup every day.
2. Take Fruit: Try eating fresh fruits. Fruits have been shown by scientists to fight off diseases and infections by boosting your immune system. Examples of fruits you can have include oranges, carrots, apples, some vegetables, avocado pear (ube beke), African star fruit (udara), black pear (ube), watermelon, pineapple, etc.
3. Get Enough Sleep And Rest: Good sleep is generally good for a healthy life. So, even in a lockdown, try to get sufficient sleep. Some people don’t usually sleep well during the normal days because they have many things that occupy their time, ranging from selling in the market, taking children to school, going for church programs, being at work from morning to evening, going to the farm, and the list goes on. Always find a good time to sleep, even if you’re still busy during the lockdown. One way to do this is to ensure you go to bed early and rise early. Avoid some unnecessary night visits or visitors. Avoid eating late at night as well. During the day, find a time to rest or take a break from the day’s work. Relax and feel some quietness and peace inside. It has a great impact on your physical and mental health.
4. Do you need to take any medications? Please take them: Because they are usually preoccupied with normal daily activities, some people are prone to failing to take their medications as directed. The lockdown is an excellent opportunity to ensure that you are taking your medications correctly. Medicines are beneficial, especially when used to treat illness or manage health issues. You should also take supplements if you have them because some of them are made from natural substances.
5. Do Some Exercise: If you are staying at home during the lockdown, it is recommended that you keep your physical health in check by doing some light exercise. If you are elderly, you should attempt taking a 30-minute stroll around your house every morning. You could also do some farm labor (ngbula), such as weeding your farm (ngbula) for 20 minutes every two days. If you have a bicycle, you can ride it from your residence to the junction (amah) in 30 minutes.
6. Drink Enough Water: Drinking an adequate amount of water is good for your overall health. It helps reduce the impact of stress on the body. Water helps to support other activities one engages in on normal days as well as the lockdown. Our body is supposed to be filled with adequate flesh, fluid, water, and blood, therefore denying your body an essential component is like looking for trouble you cannot handle. Water also helps your food to digest and be absorbed well.
Keeping Your Mental Health In Check:
1. Reduce Stress: minimizing the amount of stress you are going through in the lockdown is good for your mental and physical health. Before the lockdown, you were already going through the country stress, while going to market or office, so you must learn to reduce the stress in the lockdown to help you get back strong after the lockdown. Minimize overthinking, eat well, sleep and rest well, be intentional about staying happy, and enjoy the moments in the lockdown. You’d be stronger mentally to continue your normal life after the lockdown.
2. Develop a Happy Thinking Habit: Trying to worry less about your problems is one of the things you have to do when you’re in lockdown. Think of how to solve them instead of worrying and feeling sorry about them. If you were owing someone, you could call them and inform they to give you more time to pay back, they might be happy you called them, you never know. You’re not the only one who worries about aging. We all get older, and that doesn’t even have to be a personal problem. Find ways to keep a good thinking and meditating habit. If you normally go to church, engage in prayers and meditations as well in the lockdown because it helps reduce worries and causes relief and peace to your mind
3. Stay In Touch With Families, Relatives, And Friends: Don’t avoid some good family members in the lockdown. You have friends and relatives who are worth visiting especially if you have a good and healthy relationship with them. If some of them are abroad, this is a great opportunity to call them on the phone or WhatsApp video/voice call. If you have children who are abroad or outside the southeast, you can call them and gist about all that is happening in the village or southeast in general. Remember that during normal days, you may not have had the time to call them, now is a great opportunity. Communicating with loved ones has a good impact on your mood and mental health in general.
4. Reduce Alcohol Intake: During a lockdown, people tend to drink more alcohol than usual. Partly, due to being less busy than on regular working days. Some people also think alcohol can help them get rid of some mental stress and worries. However, drinking much alcohol can bring more problems than it seems to solve. First of all, alcohol brings an even higher feeling of depression in an individual than normal. It causes anxiety and a bad mood. Alcohol is also responsible for interrupting your normal sleeping pattern. Some people even find it difficult to eat well after drinking alcohol. Drinking alcohol may end up being a bad idea. If you drink too much alcohol, it is recommended you have at least 2 alcohol-free days in a week, or you reduce how many bottles you take in a week. For example, from 2 bottles a day to just a bottle per day. Overall, your mental health would be in a good state if you reduce your alcohol intake. You’d have good sleep, appetite, mood, communication with others, and eventually be happy.
In conclusion, staying healthy in the middle of lockdown or during normal days is essential for your living. Going to the market, office, church, contract site, etc. all demand one to be healthy to engage in such activities, hence it cannot be overemphasized that good health is important to our daily life. Good health is cheap when you have and maintain it, but it is expensive when you want to recover from sickness back to good health. Therefore stay healthy and strong.
