Have you found it hard to keep your diet in check while working and training from home?
If the answer is ‘Absolutely’..
Then you aren’t alone.Sticking to our nutrition was already hard enough before gyms and work places closed across Australia, now the challenge has become even greater…
Letting our diet slip while in isolation will not only have negative effects on our waistline..
If we were to rely on ‘comfort food’ and binge eat…
We would see severe impacts on our mental and emotional health which can be more damaging than the affect on our body composition during these tough times.
Why has our nutrition become even more of a barrier while in isolation?
Lack Structure & Routine
Boredom and Stress Eating
Lower Training Capacity
So how shall we approach our Nutrition while in lockdown so we can maintain our health, fitness and well-being during these uncertain times?
Maintain Structure and Routine
Being able to maintain a sense of normality is the #1 key to maintaining your health & fitness while working/training from home - especially when it comes to nutrition.
When we are working in the office and training in the gym, our feeding schedule is dictated by boundaries.
For example:
Alarm goes off to wake-up = Breakfast
Mid-Day break = Lunch
Training after work = Pre-Workout meal
Post Training = Dinner
But when we are working from home and have more freedom in our schedule, we lose these boundaries and therefore lose our daily structure. When we lose structure our eating becomes more sporadic and our chances of compliance lessen greatly.
Skipping meals, random snacking, binge eating etc
Our recommendation while working and training from home is to maintain your regular schedule as if life was back to normal.
Wake up and go to sleep at the same times
Keep your break times similar
And train at the same time
Which in turn will keep your feeding times the same as normal, helping you to maintain your diet and stay in track with your health & fitness
Eating When You Aren’t Hungry
When we are bored or stressed we seek vices. And for most of us (myself included) food is our favourite vice.
While working and training from home during lockdown, we are exposed to high levels of stress and boredom - the word ‘Isolation’ explains it all…
And let’s face it..
When we are bored or stressed we don’t binge on Vegetables and Salad..
We seek high calorie, processed, fatty or sugary treats.
The help overcome our need to seek comfort food while working from home:
Keep your energy levels consistent with a regular feeding schedule (see above)
Full your plate with protein and fibrous vegetables which are both slowly digested
Stay focused and busy at work
Stay hydrated (this will keep you fuller for longer and curb cravings)
Daily Activity & Reduced Training Loads
The amount of calories we can consume without splitting our pants is dictated by our TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). Part of which makes up the amount of calories you burn each day is your daily activity and your strength-training capacity.
Local parks in Perth would suggest most of us getting plenty of daily walks in to help bump up our daily activity..
But unless you have the luxury of a full power cage and weight set at home, we can assume your strength-training routine has had to change.
Without the ability to hit compound movements such Squat, Bench and Deadlift using the usual loads and volume - we won’t be stimulating our muscle mass as much as we would if we were training in the gym.
Our suggestion during lockdown would be to slightly reduce calories and carbohydrates to accommodate the reduced training loads.
Without the need of high levels of carbs to fuel our heavy sessions, we can maintain our body composition with a high protein, moderate fat, low carb diet.
Protein and Fats keep us fuller for longer and we would never recommend zero carbs - we merely suggest you don’t need as many at the moment and could risk blowing out if those delicious carbs aren’t put to use while training from home.
As soon as gyms reopen and you get your hands back on a heavy barbell, you can bump those tasty carbs back up and get back to work!
Need help with your training and nutrition while training from home? Click the button below to learn more about our at-home coaching programs for the people of Perth: