Tag: quarantine

27 Acts of Kindness: Days 5, 6, and 7

mollyt1dLeave a comment

Long weekends are weird when you’re quarantined.

Normally, I’m a big fan of long weekends…for obvious reasons. But the fact that I had this past Friday off from work just felt bizarre. I put a lot of pressure on myself to use the time off wisely and be super productive, but to be totally honest, I just…wasn’t. I got tired halfway through the day and did nothing but perform my best couch potato impression.

And I was disappointed in myself for being so lazy.

I’m trying to reconcile the compulsion to make good use of all my time in quarantine with the desire to lean into my feelings and allow myself to be down in the dumps over the whole situation. It’s hard to find a happy medium between the two. Luckily, though, my determination to complete 27 acts of kindness each day leading up to my 27th birthday does help me feel like I’m putting a small iota of goodness back into the world during a time that I feel so listless.

Plus, it was a special weekend: a holy weekend. It only felt right to celebrate the holiday (in part) by continuing my kindness acts…

27 Acts of Kindness_ Days 5, 6, and 7
Acts of kindness over Easter weekend carried a special meaning.

Friday, 4/10 – Act of Kindness #5: I decided to do an act of kindness that would benefit my parents, so I did a semi-detail of their cars. I say “semi” because it wasn’t the full detail that I wanted to give them; I’d planned on washing the cars, but the weather forecast prevented that from happening. But I still managed to vacuum the heck out of their cars’ interiors, as well as wipe down the windows and remove as much dust and dirt, in general, as possible from the seats and dashboards. This act of kindness was only half-fulfilled in my book…but at least the effort I put into it yielded great blood sugars, so it was technically a fairly successful act nonetheless. It’s “to be continued” another day!

Saturday, 4/11 – Act of Kindness #6: Nobody in the house felt like cooking Saturday night, so we placed an order with an area restaurant for takeaway instead. I was in charge of ordering, so when it came time to pay I decided to leave an extra-large tip for the restaurant waitstaff because I know that this small, local business is struggling to support its employees during these difficult times.

Sunday, 4/12 – Act of Kindness #7: I felt so much gratitude on Easter Sunday this year. I was thankful for nice weather and a large, delicious meal cooked up by my mother, as well as the opportunity to experience a semblance of normalcy by attending church virtually. I decided to write to my church’s priest to thank him for his dedication to our parish, and for calming our anxieties in this uncertain time. This particular act of kindness might seem minor – especially since I’ve already done a couple acts of kindness that involved me using my writing skills – but this actually brought me out of my comfort zone a bit because I simply had no idea how to properly express my thanks. But eventually I found the words that felt right, and I’m glad that I got over my hesitations and sent the note.

And with that, one full week of acts of kindness done…and I’m just getting started.

 

How to Hit Your Step (and Blood Sugar) Goals When You’re Stuck at Home

mollyt1dLeave a comment

My diabetes has never liked it very much when I’ve stayed idle for too long.

Unfortunately, my diabetes and I don’t really have much of a choice these days other than to stay put – and I know that just about everyone else in the world is in the same boat.

So how do you hit your daily step goals when you can’t leave the house?

You get creative.

hugging the cactus - a t1d blog
With a little creativity, you can find tons of ways to stay active when you’re stuck at home – which will make your blood sugar and body happy.

And, in turn, your blood sugars will generally respond positively to any extra movement you get throughout the day…plus, with endorphins spiking (instead of bg levels), you can see a huge improvement in your mood. And who doesn’t need a mood booster right now?!

Here are the ways in which I’ve been getting 10,000 steps or more each day:

Taking spontaneous dance breaks. My mom and I are both working from home and sitting in front of our computers for long stretches of time Monday through Friday. To combat this, we’ve come up with a ridiculous but fun game called “DJ Dance Party”. It’s simple: Every couple of hours, one of us cues up music and we just dance around for the duration of the song. DJ Dance Party is a welcome reprieve from work, especially when it happens right after long conference calls!

Playing with pets. Our animals can get just as stir-crazy as we can, so by helping them combat boredom, we’re also doing ourselves a favor by getting off our butts. I play with my parents’ dog, Clarence, by chasing him around the house, throwing his toys at him, taking him for neighborhood walks, and kicking the soccer ball around in the backyard (weather permitting).

Dust off those old fitness videos. Do you have old Jane Fonda/Windsor Pilates/Jazzercise tapes or DVDs just laying around, untouched for years? Dig ’em out from wherever you’ve got them and give them a spin. It might feel silly, but then again you might also get a good laugh in addition to some exercise. I’ve done a few Zumba routines in the last couple of weeks because we have some old DVDs, and they’ve been surprisingly fun.

Hit up YouTube and other fitness platforms for free workouts. Personally, I pay for a subscription to Beachbody, which gives me access to countless workouts lead by professional personal trainers. I’ve used Beachbody workouts in lieu of going to the gym for about a year now and it has worked really well for me, but if I didn’t have the service, I know I could rely on YouTube – in fact, one search of the word “workout” on that platform brought up tons of results that vary in length and intensity. It’s a treasure trove!

Pace around when on conference calls. When I’m not attending a virtual meeting with a video chat component, I’m constantly walking around while I talk on the phone. And it honestly helps me become a more active participant in meetings, sometimes, because I don’t have the distraction of my computer monitors in front of me. I imagine this is the closest I’ll get to having a fancy-schmancy treadmill desk, but I don’t knock it because it works!

March in place while watching TV. Binge on all the TV shows and movies you want guilt-free and challenge yourself by marching in place in 15-minute intervals or at every commercial break. Steps rack up quickly this way, and it’s a go-to for me when I can’t get a walk in during the day.

So even though I’ve barely left the house, doing one, two, or a combination of these above exercises have guaranteed that I’ll meet my step goal each day. And they’ve also really come in handy after meals and long stretches of sitting, when my blood sugars are most prone to going up.

Staying at home has disrupted routines for most people, but it’s good to know that we can still control how much exercise we get in a day.