Leyla Weighs In: Finding opportunities for healthier living in the midst of this crisis
Unless you’re a first responder or essential elsewhere like in the food production arena, you’re likely at home. And if you are, hopefully you’re able to work remotely to ease any impending financial concerns and maintain some sense of normalcy that can be felt with a structured day.
If you’re home with not much else to do, and after you’ve done your deep housecleaning and rearranged your closet(s), reflect and take stock of the situation.
Then make stock! Chicken stock. Vegetable stock. Bone broth. They’re all good!
For all those countless times you wished you had time to cook, learn a new cooking method, or prepare a luxurious meal from scratch, now you do! Albeit, not of your own volition, but there it is. All the time in the world…it seems. Get your groceries, maintaining a safe distance as prescribed by authorities, then get into your kitchen and cook—after you’ve thoroughly washed your hands—and the produce.
Bring your laptop or tablet into the kitchen with you so you can follow recipes and watch any corresponding videos. Watch instructional videos so you can learn how to sharpen your knife and your meal prep skills. This is a good opportunity to find new recipes for your favorite dishes, and those that you never seemed to have time before to prepare. Dust off those old cookbooks and bring them back into circulation. Boeuf bourguignon anyone?
Find recipes using the seasonings you have on hand—since you’ve already rearranged your spice rack and taken inventory of it. Learn workarounds for the spices you don’t have (because you likely won’t go back out to the grocery store until you have to) and find out what good substitutions exist.
You may discover you have the talents of a world class chef! Talk about a silver lining…
If you’re discouraged because you can’t go to the gym, your next project is to devise a way to do your workout at home. If you’re tight on space, as many of us are here in New York City, consider rearranging the furniture layout to create some room for exercise. You don’t need much room for floor exercises like squats, lunges and pushups. And these types of functional exercises will serve you well because they’re strengthening, using all the major muscle groups.
Take advantage of your time at home to devote to the things you never had time for before.
To your health!
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