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DJ Psyched's structured blog post

DJ Psyched's YouTube video on Staying Healthy During Quarantine.

Episode transcript from Otter.ai:

I'm DJ Psyched, you're listening to the Get Psyched podcast. And today I'm super psyched because I'm talking about something I have been wanting to talk about forever. How to stay fit and healthy in quarantine. What does that even mean? Why is it so important? And how do we do it, I just want to encourage people to try and think about this a little bit. Because I think that there's definitely been an interesting culture around quarantine, we're all trying to get used to it, we're all trying to understand it. We're all trying to develop our lives around this quarantine, especially because we don't know how long this kind of thing will last. And as we're going in developing, the world is changing. We all remember when this started, everyone was going out and getting way too many groceries and buying up all the toilet paper and everyone's doing things very different now. The world looks very different. And we're all kind of settling into quarantine. That's why I think this is a really great time to talk about this staying fit and healthy and practicing wellness in quarantine, because we don't know how long this kind of thing will last. And it's important for us to take care of ourselves. And I think mindset is everything, especially on a group level, we're heavily influenced by the people around us. So the messages that are being put out about quarantine, we got to be careful about what we're saying, we got to be careful what we're spreading online, we got to be careful as a group, how we're thinking of quarantine and how we're thinking of how we care for ourselves in quarantine. And so I want to bring into the conversation, talk about taking care of ourselves and practicing wellness in all aspects of our lives physically. and mentally.

I think that this is the most essential time to practice taking care of both of those things, physically taking care of ourselves is our only defense against this thing aside from you know, keeping our distance and being safe. So it's important to practice that. And it's also really important to take care of our mental health, because it's even harder to manage that kind of thing. When you're socially isolated a lot when you're dealing with something that's really stressful. The whole world is going through this right now. And it's very stressful. It's taxing on our minds. And it's hard to deal with because we don't have people the same way that we used to. And so I think it's really important to do this. But I'm not just here to talk about why this is important, though, I want to talk about real tips that I've been using and tips that I've thought of that could really help in staying fit healthy and well in quarantine. And I think this is really important. So I hope you can utilize some of these tips. And I think this is a really important discussion. So if you think of anything that I don't think of, definitely let us know in the comments below. Hit me up, I would love to hear what you have to say. And before I start this, I'm gonna say there are a lot of people online who are a part of this discussion in a very good way.

I think people like every damn day fitness, I think swole enormous, they've got the right idea. So those are some people that if you listen to this, and you want to find people who have similar messages, I do think that those two are doing a really good job at talking about this right now. So let's just get into it. Here are a few tips of how to take care of your health and wellness during quarantine. First and foremost, I want to say that physical health and mental health are largely controlled by three things, what we eat, how we sleep, and what we consume. I think these three things are really essential in health, there's a lot of other things that go into health. But those three things are such key to being physically healthy. And in helping our mental health. We need to sleep the proper hours, it helps with our immunity, it helps keeps us alert. And it also helps in our social well being and it helps balance mood. So that is a huge one. And also moving getting moving, getting your body getting some exercise, it's good for you, it's good for building your cardiovascular system, it can help with your breathing and your resting heart rate. And it just makes you healthier overall. And then of course what we're eating, we got to be careful to make sure we're consuming the right things, eating the right kinds of foods, getting the right kinds of nutrition, getting the right vitamins, and minerals, all that stuff will benefit our health. So those are three areas I'm really gonna focus in on here. Like I said, eating is a big thing. So I think it's really important when we're in quarantine, to practice things that'll help make sure that we're eating well, a lot of people when this first started, it was like a group mentality that "okay, we're in quarantine, get anything you can from the grocery store, get all the stuff and everything was wiped off the shelves and it was hard to come across good food." Sometimes in some stores, I went to plenty of places that didn't that produce and meats and all that. But we've gotten to a point in quarantine, where that's really not seem like an issue. I mean, at least in my area, I'm able to find good food, everywhere I go. I'm not really scavenging for food anymore. I can go on regular grocery shopping trips, of course, being careful and wearing a mask and not going out too much. But I am able to go on those weekly or every two week trips and get things that I need. So making sure that when you go to the grocery store, you're picking out the right foods, you're not in that mentality of Yeah, I'm going to do whatever I want. 

Because we're in a pandemic. We've been in this for a while. We don't know how long we're gonna be in quarantine. And we got to focus on our health. So it's not just about, let's just eat what we want because we're in quarantine. Let's think about it as like this is an important time for me to take care of my health. What can I get and now that I have access to really good foods, what should I get and this is my tip for that. If You're going to be at home a loy . If you're someone like me who works at home, and does everything from home and you're always at home, make sure to only bring good things into your home, you can't really be eating things that you shouldn't or consuming things that you don't want to be consuming when you're bored, if you don't bring it into your house, that's a huge tip for weight loss in general. And during this time of quarantine, I think it's important to remember that if it's not in your home, if it's much harder to access, then you'll be better off. So don't bring things into your home that you don't want to be eating if you're trying to eat better, but you're like, oh, but I'm at home all the time. And there's that tempting thing in the kitchen. Don't put that thing in the kitchen. That's my number one tip on that. But also make it fun for yourself. If you are stuck at home and you feel bored a lot. Maybe you don't know what to do with your time or you're starting to get tired of doing the same old activities. Try and cook, buy whole foods, buy things that you'd have to cook from scratch and build up and cook them. Make these meals yourself. So you know what's going in them learn a little bit about nutrition in your downtime, so that you can make yourself things that you can feel proud of when you eat and you're like, Oh, I'm eating this. I'm nurturing my body. And I know I'm doing something good for myself, it really does feel good to like cook a new recipe and be like, dang, this tastes amazing. I did a good job. And I know this is gonna be good for my body. 

So try new things, explore new things, get some groceries, spend your time thinking about recipes, maybe order a recipe book online or something get involved in that make it a part of your quarantine experience. My next biggest tip for anyone who's really struggling right now, whether you're stuck at home alone, or you have a few family members around you something that's really hard right now on people is the lack of community that is difficult, it's very hard thing to get around. There is of course things like you know, FaceTime, or Skype, you have access to any of that stuff, it can be really neat to talk to your friends or family that way. But there is still this lack of genuine community that can make a lot of things really hard on us, right? Aside from just the fact that it can be lonely at times, it can be hard, if you were the kind of person who went to the gym very regularly, maybe you went to group fitness classes, maybe you were the type of person who really made your fitness a partnership thing, a group thing, it could be very difficult to now be alone. And now you have to figure out like how you're going to motivate yourself on your own without that community. And this is what I have to say join an online community for fitness. There are so many places for free. There's so many people who very much for free, who are promoting really good healthy habits, who are promoting wellness, who are constantly posting about this stuff. And if you are spending a lot of time on social media, then maybe having things in your feed that you think are helping your goals, things that are making you feel like you're a part of something again, that can be really helpful. If you didn't have the money and you don't want to join a community for money. 

There are plenty of communities where you could just go on YouTube watch videos, everyone in the comment section is talking about this thing. Or you could go on Facebook and find a group you could go on Reddit, whatever your thing is literally anything you can probably even find one on discord like a discord for healthy people or people who are trying to encourage wellness and good habits, you can find these communities and searching for a community is something to do. So that's cool, you'll have some fun to do there. And then finding a community that fits you, it's gonna feel so good to have people to talk to you about these things to feel like you're not alone in this journey. Having a community is key in anything with the people you surround yourself with. Like they say, You are the sum of the five people you hang out with the most, or something like that. Basically, who you surround yourself with is kind of who you start to become. Make sure that your community is full of people who have these similar goals, who want to do these things, who also care about their wellness and the physical aspect and the mental aspect. I think that's really important. A very cool tip I have for this one is sweat checks. This might sound a little silly, but hear me out. It's really cool. What you do is once you find some friends who are in this with you once you have some friends or some people in your life, we're like yeah, we want to spend our time in quarantine taking care of ourselves too. We want to do this thing. Let's keep each other accountable. Something that's really easy and fun that really encourages people to do these healthy habits is to post about it online and to make it a group effort. Sweat checks is basically when you take a picture of yourself when you're in the middle of a workout or something and you're doing something for your wellness you just snap a little picture of it and then you write sweat check and you tag the friends you have this agreement with I had a few friends I did this with at the start a quarantine you know I do my daily workout be like sweat check add that @ and then they would do it back to me. You know, they would take their little picture and do it back at me. But we couldn't take our pictures unless we were actually working out right. It was fun. It was exciting. I really loved posting my sweat checks. I loved seeing their sweat checks. We were encouraging each other in these good habits and it was a really fun time. 

So I definitely think that doing something like this having a little challenge like people love social media use it for good. Don't let social media control you control it make it the platform you want it to be follow the communities you want to see. See the messages you want to see and post about what you want to post. So if you're trying to get healthy, make your feet all about the health good people who are giving you good information, and then post things that matter to you. If you want to post your workouts. Don't let anyone make you feel bad about it. If it encourages you go for it. tag your friends in it. Get them in on this, make it a group effort, make your own community if you don't want to go search for one, I just went on a whole rant there. But yes, community is a huge one, especially this time of quarantine. Having a community like that could be so essential to your health and wellness, you want to surround yourself with people who have similar goals who are trying to build themselves up as well. People who care about their well being and people who care about your well being people that can grow with you make sure that you're surrounding yourself with that kind of energy. And you will see improvements in yourself, even in this time in quarantine, where we can't be close to people. A few other very relevant tips I have for this are well okay, let's say you want to find a community online. Let's say that you want to search for one you want to join one. How do you know if something's absurd versus genuine wellness and genuine tips that are actually going to help you and benefit your life. If someone's telling you exactly what to do if there is this generic, not at all personalized thing that someone is selling you in the world of health, it is probably just someone trying to make money. If someone says eat 30 cucumbers every day or workout on this exact routine all the time, like they didn't even ask for your goals. They didn't ask what you're looking for. They're just like, do this. That's not the kind of community want to join. You don't want to join a community of people who are just like, this is the thing that works do this thing. 

Unless you're really into something I don't know, maybe you've already tried something on your own. I like fasting, I would be down to talk to people who like fasting, but also fasting is in my whole life. I think wellness goes way beyond fasting. I don't think it's for everyone. And I don't encourage everyone fast. It's just something I like to do. I also have a podcast on that if you want to see my thoughts on fasting, but it's just something I do. It's something I like, but I don't think everyone should do it. And if you're following people who are like everyone should do this, that maybe isn't the best community in the world. So look for communities that are generally giving you wellness tips, do these things that are safe and quarantine and good for you. And then they're also saying things like well eat foods that are tailored good to you make sure it's good for you. I really likes  swole enormous and I know I keep bringing  swole enormous up. But I really do like swole enormous because swole enormous says things like you should do an elimination diet, see what foods aren't good for your body and then tailor your food to you. That's brilliant. He also does things like meditation, all these other good things. And I think those are all great practices. And I think that's the kind of community I'd encourage. I'm not saying you have to run off this video and go watch  swole enormous and every damn day fitness though I think that's great advice. I think that you should find a community that entices you, that speaks to you and make sure that it's something that is actually looking out for your well being is actually looking for you to build a good lifestyle. We are individuals, we need to tailor what we do to ourselves, we tailor our food to ourselves, we tailor our workouts to ourselves.

If someone is selling a service more like you can be my client, I'll help build you a custom workout plan, we can have these group chats. And if they're making it an experience that's more of a lifestyle and they're tailoring it to you, that's much more likely to be a legit thing. When you find a community make sure that it's a good one. And my last tip on this community building is if you know someone who is really into fitness or well being and you're just kind of stuck, like even after watching this video, you're like, I want someone to help guide me more individually, then go to that fitness friend. I'm not saying everyone's just gonna go around giving out free workout plans or anything like that. But try and talk to people around you who have already done these kinds of things. A lot of people know someone who's been on some kind of fitness journey. A lot of people know people who probably understand this a little bit more have been on their journey a little longer. Maybe try and reach out to them. I mean, there's someone who's a resource has already gone through this, maybe they have the right ideas, but don't ever take anyone's information was like, the end all be all. Even someone in real life could be doing things that maybe aren't the best. Like I said, always go for that general wellness, don't take someone's word if they're just like, do this thing. And that's gonna work. But that's a tip I have, you could definitely talk to someone, I would be more than happy to talk to anyone in my life about this kind of stuff. If someone wants to sit down have a conversation to me about wellness and their goals. I'd love to talk about it. And you could definitely talk about it with me in the comments below. I'm not out here making progress people or anything. I'm just saying in a general sense. I do love to have these conversations. I am a nasm certified personal trainer. But aside from that, I don't like have huge credentials. I have a bachelor's in psychology, if that means anything. But again, I just like to do things more generally, I think this advice is just helpful in a very general sense. 

Continuing on, let's say you've gotten yourself to that point where you've decided Yes, it's the mindset I want. I want to take care of myself in quarantine, I want to do what's best for me. That's amazing. you've joined a community or you found people that have similar goals and you're ready to go at this. All right, good. Now what I do have some more specific advice. There is a lot you can do with at a gym. There's a lot you could do at home. And I think it starts right on this platform. If you're on YouTube. If you're on YouTube, then right here on this platform. There is so much information for you. There are so many at home workouts right now. Everyone is posting them because we're in quarantine. There are so many at home workouts you could find right now that can be customized to what you have and your goals. It can be hard when you're a beginner to know exactly what you should be doing. And I can't really sit here like I said, I can't sit here and tell you like this is what you should do this what you should do. I don't know your goals. I don't know your stories. I don't know If you have any injuries or anything like that, but there is a lot of information you can get online if you are injury free and you feel comfortable doing at home workouts guided by YouTube, then search up some see what's out there, watch these videos. There's a lot of really good ones. I can link below some of my favorites. Like I said, there's not an end all be all i'm not saying you should do the workouts I do. But I'll just post some that I like if you're interested in seeing because there are a lot of really cool free at home workouts right now because people are trying to help people are trying to do their part. And some people do just kind of post their teasers you know, like they'll post like one workout on their YouTube channel so that you'll buy their program for at home workouts. You don't have to buy their program if you don't have the money or don't want to you just watch the free videos, do some workouts, explore with different channels, see what you like there's so many free resources for you to do stuff at home.

And the cool part is you can straight up go into Google and type in like let's say you just have one set of dumbbells that are kind of light for you say light dumbbell workout at home. There's someone has made a video on that by now you can put in whatever equipment you have. If you're limited with like very few equipment if you have absolutely no question you could type in no equipment at home workouts. bodyweight workouts are good for you doing cardio is good for you. There's plenty of workouts you can do without having any equipment. But if you do have equipment, and you just don't know how to use it, there are plenty of resources that teach you how to use whatever equipment you have. And just like I said, with the communities, there's going to be information out there that's good for you. And there's going to be information out there. That's not so good. Personally, my thing is, like I said, I like people who are looking out for my wellness, who are not trying to sell me one little thing really quick fix quick fixes. They don't exist with your health and your wellness, it's about having habits that are good for you consistently keeping up with habits that are good for you. And just doing the wellness all the time making it a part of your life, there's no quick fix thing. So if you're looking for something that's a quick fix, that's not the right videos, it's not we should be looking for look for stuff that's more like lifestyle workout, that is more long term. If it says you're gonna make abs in seven minutes, I wouldn't trust that.

Sometimes people do have good videos, but they're just advertising it ridiculously because they want to get views. Don't believe that a seven minute workouts gonna get you shredded, targeted fat loss does not exist. I'm not going to get into too much detail about that stuff. It's all about doing what's good for your body working out well. You can target muscle growth, but you can't target fat loss. Fat Loss happens in the kitchen caloric deficit. That's that's is that now moving on. My last tip is on equipment. If you're interested in equipment, if you know you've decided like I actually want to kind of invest in some equipment, what what do you recommend, like I said, I'm not like a huge expert on this. But I do want to talk on some of the stuff I bought because it's been very helpful. I miss having a gym, I miss having a gym so much, but I don't feel comfortable going into a gym right now. So I'm not going to do that. But I have acquired a little bit of workout equipment. During this time in quarantine, when quarantine started, I had three sets of dumbbells and that was it, I was still doing as much as I could with those three dumbbells. But I did eventually decide that I wanted to vary my workouts a little bit have something that could give me some variety in my workout. So I got resistance bands disclaimer like with anything, you got to be careful, you got to kind of know what you're doing. Don't hurt yourself, a resistance bands, you know, you got to be careful with them. But they have been helpful to me I like the resistance bands I'm using having three sets of dumbbells, I think is really nice. If you are looking to have a minimal setup, but you want something that's effective, I would say figure out what weights are good for you figure out what a normal weight is for you in most workouts and figure out what a heavier weight would be for you and what a lower weight would be. I think three sets of dumbbells is really cool, because you could have that mid range weight that is generally good for most workouts and they get that lightweight that you could use for certain workouts like when I work my shoulders and stuff, I'm going to use my lightweight most of the time and sometimes my mid range. And if I'm going to do stuff that's a bit more compound, you like kind of doing a Romanian deadlift or something, I'm gonna want something a little heavier. 

So having three sizes of dumbbells, I think has been really helpful and really cool. Having the resistance bands to that also have different levels of tension so that I can make it really light or really heavy. It's really nice to have that variety in there. And then the last two things I have are yoga mat and a pull up bar. Yoga mat is easy, it's nice and comfortable. It's more comfortable and laying on a towel in my opinion, but it's not totally necessary, you could definitely do those kinds of moves or something else. I do think a yoga mat is a good investment because it may just be a simple like oh you're just off the ground a little bit but it does help if you're trying to do those kinds of movements and it helps with stretching and there's a lot of at home yoga workouts you can do so that's a really cool option. Last thing I have is a pull up bar. My pull up bar goes up on that door there like I said with anything you got to be careful on the pull up bar has been really cool. I really love that I can do pull ups now. It's a really good compound workout and I love doing pull ups. So that's been a cool development. My general tip is you don't have to go out and buy a bunch of equipment at once and just like have a whole home gym made overnight. I got all this stuff at different points. in quarantine. I use just the dumbbells for a very long time. Got the resistance bands after moving into this apartment and then only a few weeks ago, did I acquire that pull up bar. It's a slow, steady process. It doesn't have to be terribly expensive. You don't need to get a whole like bench press machine that you can do deadlifts with and squat right away if you don't have space for that kind of thing. There's still stuff you can do, there's still plenty things you could do to work out. And like I already said, there's a lot of cool things you can do outside too, if you're not really into weight training or you're not ready to do that. Or if that's just not a part of your goals, you know, you can always go run outside, maybe get yourself a bike or some skates or something and go do some cardio, just going on walks. Just because there's no gym doesn't mean there's no fitness doesn't mean there's no taking care of yourself in movement. It's good to get up, get moving, get the blood rushing, it feels really good. It feels really good. When you're stuck indoors all the time to go outside for a walk to go outside for a little jog. It feels really good to break out and it can be a very safe thing and a very enjoyable thing. 

So those are my tips. Those are my biggest tips for staying fit and healthy. And well in quarantine, I think it really does matter. I think it's really important to think about these things in this time in quarantine. This is not just an aesthetic thing. This is not just a me being like have mad gains and quarantine, like I did post a picture of myself flexing, because I was excited about it. I've been doing things like this all throughout quarantine, I've been in communities I've been watching these videos during my workouts I've been trying to eat healthy, I've been trying to cook more meals at home, they do add up to making me physically healthier and making me feel better. And they do help with my mentality. I think it gives me structure it gives my life a bit of a routine a schedule. If you are working at home right now maybe your hours are flexible. Or maybe you're in a situation where you really don't have that structure that you're used to workouts can be a great way to build that structure. Eating healthy can be a great way to build that structure. Because once you have like, you know you're cooking meals and you're working out, you have a little bit of structure around your days. And that can be really helpful. I will link a blog post below actually about something that Dr. Rupert Nacoste talked about to start a quarantine structure your days that is so essential to your wellness or mental wellness. It's good for us. I think it's very important to have structure in your days to have something to look forward to and to take care of yourself in this time in quarantine. I'm gonna stop rambling now. But thank you so much for listening. I hope these tips were useful for you. I hope that you could use this information and if you have any suggestions, something I maybe left out some cool tips that you found, leave them in the comments below. I'd love to hear what you think and I'd love to leave a reply. So thank you very much for listening to this podcast and until next time, stay psyched, stay healthy and stay safe.