How To Build Wellness Into Your Work-From-Home Routine

Published on April 8, 2020 - By Cecilia Amador

• As the health crisis disrupts our lives, it’s essential to build a new routine to help create an element of normality.
• Wellness is more important than ever, and that goes for both your physical and your mental health.
• These 5 tips will help you to build wellness into your new work-from-home routine.

As work and life continue to be disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, people are increasingly searching for ways to keep some part of their routine intact. 

With gyms closed and lockdowns in place, many are finding it harder than ever to remain physically fit, particularly if they don’t have any workout equipment at home. 

Below are some ideas to help those working from home (or those just staying at home) build wellness into their new day to day routine.

5 Ways to Build Wellness into Your Work-from-Home Routine

1. Start with a balanced diet

While you may not have had enough time to eat a full breakfast when you worked in the office, this is the perfect time to treat yourself to a hearty, healthy breakfast. Eggs on toast, oatmeal, yogurt with fruit and granola, breakfast burrito, or protein filled pancakes — these are just a few ideas that can help you get started. 

The same goes for lunch and dinner. Take advantage of the extra free time you have on your hands to try  new recipes and get into the habit of enjoying your meals rather than rushing through them to get back to work.

You can find a variety of self-quarantine recipes here. 

2. Get creative with your snacks

Snacking is an important part of the day, especially when you’re working hard. The right snacks can fuel our brain, boost our energy, and provide us a much needed break from work. 

You can go the easy way and eat snacks similar to those you brought into the office or, alternatively, you can get more creative and experiment with flavors and recipes since you’re already at home. Some ideas you can try out:

• Banana chia chocolate chip muffins
• Salty garbanzo bites
• Home-made hummus with veggies
• Chocolate banana bites
• Sweet potato fries (baked instead of fried)
• Apple slice cookies

3. Get moving

You might find it harder than ever to motivate yourself to get some physical exercise in, but the effort is well worth it. You’ll get an energy boost plus a much needed dose of endorphins. 

Even if you don’t have any workout equipment at home, you’ll find that there are plenty of easy-to-follow workout videos that don’t require any equipment. 

If you would like to add some weight to the exercises, you can always use a couple of jugs of milk or juice, some water bottles, or even some grain filled bags. 

If you like to switch up your workout regimes, consider doing zumba one day, yoga the other, HIIT workouts another, ab challenges, squat challenges, and stretching… you get the idea. 

Here are some exercises you can easily do at home. We also suggest searching on YouTube and Pinterest for some of the most popular at home workout videos; there’s something for everyone, whether you’re a beginner or a pro. Here is a great list of curated videos. 

Pro tip: I’ve found that one way to get myself to actually work out while working from home is to do it at the same time every day. 

4. Don’t forget your mental health

These are stressful times for everyone. So it’s important that you take care of your physical health as much as you take care of your mental health. 

Find ways to relax and keep yourself positive during these challenging times. Below are some ideas:

• Meditate (you can use apps such as HeadSpace to get you started)
• Consider implementing a coloring time, as coloring has been found to relax the brain
• Practice deep breathing
• Turn off the news if it’s making you more anxious than anything else
• Pamper yourself (with a bath, a face mask, a glass of wine, whatever works for you)
• Read a good book; it’s amazing how a book that hooks you can help you forget about everything else, if only for a couple of hours
• Get into a routine
• Breathe in fresh air, even if this means sitting close to an open window
• Disconnect yourself for a few hours a day
• Don’t be afraid to reach out for help if you need it. Many therapists are offering online sessions to support those who need it. 

5. Get enough zzz’s 

Sleep is essential to our wellbeing as it can protect our mental and physical health. Sleep can help improve our productivity, reduce and prevent stress levels, and boost our attention-spans and concentration. It lowers weight-gain risk, it helps the body regulate itself, it can prevent depression, it can reduce inflammation, and it boosts our immune system. 

There’s no shortage of benefits from getting enough sleep. The great news is that since you’re working from home, you’re likely to have some time to squeeze in a power nap after lunch.