If someone had told me earlier in the year that part of 2020 would be spent at home, in lockdown I would have really laughed. I’ve now lost the count of how many weeks we have been at home, no longer on a proper lockdown, but with life still not back to how it used to be.
When I first heard of the lockdown I thought it’d be a great opportunity to do lots of jobs round the house, update the blog on a regular basis and read lots of books. In reality, working from home and home schooling have taken most of my time. I haven’t updated the blog on a regular basis and all those jobs round the house I was planning of doing haven’t really been finished (some not even started).
Let me tell you what I’ve been up to the past few months….
Baked
I know I’m not the only one here, in fact I think most of the UK have been taking to baking the past few months. Luckily I always have a cupboard well stocked with baking essentials, so we were ok, especially those few weeks where it was impossible to find flour in supermarkets. We’ve baked nearly every week, tried new recipes like an Easter chocolate bark ,recreated some of our favourite ones, Nutella cookies and even baked 2 birthday cakes.
Lost 15kgs
Yes, I’m probably one of the few people coming out of this lockdown much thinner. I’ve lost nearly 15kgs, or 2.3st. I’ve been unwell since the beginning of the year with neurological symptoms and with some random allergies. Doctors did a lot of tests and could not find what was wrong with me. I decided to change what I eat to see if an anti inflammatory diet would make a difference to my symptoms. I gave up gluten, sugar, dairy and many other things and whilst I’m not 100% well my conditions have improved a lot.
In a way being in lockdown made sticking to a healthier way of eating easier for me. No temptations of going out for meals or coffees. I’ve slowly started reintroducing foods back to my diet – I don’t think being very restricted is good long term..
Visited the local woods
During the first couple of months of lockdown we very rarely left the house. We got supermarket food delivery and spent time in the garden. I know it was allowed to go out and exercise but we preferred to stay indoors. We then decided to go out for morning walks at weekends in our local parks. It was nice to have something to look forward to and it was the highlight of our week!
Exercised
Those that know me in real life know that I’m a bit of a couch potato; the only exercise I ever do is walk to the tube station to and from work. That’s it. I’m never been keen on sports and I haven’t got great coordination so never wanted to join any exercise classes. However I thought not leaving the house for weeks on end wouldn’t be good for my fitness levels so I decided to give the “30 day shred” a go. The 30 day shred is a daily 20 minute high intensity workout done 30 days in a row. At the end of the 30 days you are meant to have lost a bit of weight and have a more toned body. Of course I haven’t done it every day but I tried to do it a few times a week, after my work day. It’s been a great opportunity to have a bit of “me time”, because let’s face it, 4 of us stuck at home all day every day has been a bit stressful at times.
Spent time in the garden
Now more than ever I am grateful to have a garden. It’s been great to be able to spend a bit of time outdoors, especially those early months when we did not leave the house at all. Our daily coffee breaks have been taken outside and we had “al fresco” lunch more than ever. We’ve been lucky to have fantastic weather (until July started!) so we’ve made the most of our outdoor space. We’ve even got our paddling pool out out a few times!
Even though things are a bit less restricted now, we’ve even managed to out of for lunch a couple of times, it’ll be a while until we go back to “normal”. I think the new normal will be very different to the previous normal. I’m lucky that I work for a very supportive company that is allowing us to carry on working from home so I’ll be working from home for the near future.
Maybe I’m quite unsociable, but I’ve actually enjoyed working from home quite a lot and I’m not keen on going back to the office!
