University of Kent Occupational Health and Wellbeing Manager, Brenda Brunsdon<\/p>\n
Have you heard of \u2018Quarantine 15\u2019? Or the \u2018Covid 19 pounds\u2019?<\/p>\n
There appears to be a type of battle going on between two camps of journalists and bloggers.\u00a0 One section focuses on the importance of staying fit and being mindful of not snacking additional calories through the lockdown.\u00a0 The other section focuses on the importance of not putting additional stress on oneself over this period and not becoming anxious if you do a bit of comfort eating.<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly, a heightened focus on weight, food consumption and body shape will not be a help to those who have eating disorders or body image dysfunctions and can trigger anxiety for them.<\/p>\n
The easy availability of food when working from home is probably at the root of putting on additional pounds.\u00a0 Boredom is an even more inevitable trigger for casual snacking which leads to weight gain.\u00a0 This is even worse for people unable to work from home.\u00a0 Then you can factor in comfort eating; accessibility and consumption of food is a hard-wired solace to us when we are worried.\u00a0 It goes back to being part of a tribe of hunter-gatherers; if there is food in the store, we will survive, and eating as a family\/group feels comforting to all involved and helps bond us together.<\/p>\n
One article I read estimates that each of us is prone to eating an extra 300-350 calories daily throughout the lockdown period.\u00a0 In the long term, that will cause a slow weight gain.\u00a0 Is that so bad?\u00a0 If you are a good weight for your frame and are keeping up some sort of exercise routine throughout the lockdown, it is unlikely that it is.\u00a0 But it is possible that these additional kilograms or pounds could tip you into an unhealthy weight category, where it could start to impact on your health.\u00a0 With particular reference to the risk from Covid 19, there is a researched connection between heavier body weight and a worse outcome if you go down with the disease.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s good to be body positive and important to accept that women and men do not need to look like models and \u2018A\u2019 lister actors to be considered to be attractive and representative of humanity.\u00a0 Yet, I think I speak for a lot of us when I say we all dread the pounds creeping on because they are sooo difficult to shift later if\/when you decide you want to do that.\u00a0 So, with an eye to the future, I think a level of eating mindfully is a good thing while we find ourselves bored and largely confined to our homes.\u00a0 And eating mindfully is seen as a positive thing for people with eating disorders as well.<\/p>\n
So, without getting weighted down by the subject, lighten up and adopt a mindful eating approach to your relationship with food over the lockdown.<\/p>\n
Articles<\/u><\/p>\n
\u2018Stop Obsessing Over Quarantine Weight Gain and Cut Yourself Some Slack\u2019: Christine Byrne; HuffPost<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018If Y\u2019all Are Worried About the \u201cQuarantine 15,\u201d You\u2019re Not Paying Attention\u2019: Taylor Trudon; Cosmopolitan<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018We aren\u2019t piling on pounds in lockdown, digital scale maker finds\u2019: Geoffrey A. Fowler; Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Coronavirus: How to stop overeating and avoid weight gain in self-quarantine\u2019: A.Pawlowski; Today<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018How to not gain weight during the coronavirus lockdown\u2019: Doree Lewak; New York Post<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018How to eat mindfully in 8 simple steps\u2019: Olivia Petter; The Independent<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018A Guide to eating Mindfully\u2019: Harriet Smith; Surrey Dietician<\/a><\/p>\n Wellness Wednesday is part of Kent Sport\u2019s\u00a0 #KentSportStayWellAtHome series of daily blogs and vlogs to keep you positive during these unusual times. To be sure not to miss our updates, Like us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and follow on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a> @UniKentSports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" University of Kent Occupational Health and Wellbeing Manager, Brenda Brunsdon Have you heard of \u2018Quarantine 15\u2019? Or the \u2018Covid 19 pounds\u2019? There appears to be … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5725,"featured_media":5622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[127083,124],"tags":[127013],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5725"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5620"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5624,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5620\/revisions\/5624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/kentsport-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}