Home Wellness Resources to Help You Through This Pandemic (And Beyond)
by Valeria Tivnan, Director of Population Health Strategy & Well-being
Government mandates have ordered approximately 95% of Americans to stay home right now. Non-essential retail businesses are closed, and non-essential employees have made the shift to remote work where possible. It’s being speculated that even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, the way we work, shop, and socialize will drastically change.
Most of you are becoming more accustomed to daily life at home… as best you can. Some of you are thriving in this new normal, using the time you earned back from your usual daily commute to cook something healthy, go for a jog, or learn something new. Some of you are struggling, and we totally get that. The feeling of being cooped up can be an immense drain on a person’s physical and mental health, which can hold us back from seeking out healthy activities and ultimately making healthy choices. That’s what motivated me to write this blog post – I wanted to share a few of my favorite home wellness resources with you to hopefully make choosing healthier choices easier and more accessible. I hope you find some value in the following resources!
Photo from 9 Miles East
9 Miles East Home Delivery
Anyone who knows me knows I absolutely love 9 Miles East. Run by CEO and Founder, Gordon Sacks, his farm (located 9 miles east of Syracuse) produces a delightful variety of food options. Their workplace model brings a mini farmer’s market into your office – delivering organic produce, eggs, bread, soups, salads, and other healthy prepared meals. Recently, they introduced their Home Delivery model for individuals in Upstate New York and the Greater Boston Area (and any area between). Similar to HelloFresh or Freshly, you simply subscribe, select your meals, and enjoy freshly prepared meals delivered right to your home every week. The best part? It won’t burn a hole in your wallet. Each meal comes to $10 or less, you can choose to receive as few as 3 per week, and delivery is $5 for orders below a certain threshold.
You can sign up here and check out their upcoming menus here.
Calm
Another resource I am constantly praising (and using) is Calm. The Calm website and mobile app offers guided meditations, sleep stories, soothing music, and more. You can enjoy the free version anytime or spring for the premium version for only $12.99/month, $59.99/year, or $299.99/lifetime. I have recommended this app to countless clients, many of whom ended up purchasing the annual subscription and holding weekly guided meditations for their employees through the app. It’s extremely user-friendly and they’re always adding new tips to help you stay mindful and, you guessed it: calm!
Consider gifting a subscription to your employees, a friend, colleague, family member or yourself, and check out their free resources like their calendars of daily mindful living challenges.
Photo by Medium
Home Workout Planner app by Verv
I am obsessed with this app. It is an all-in-one solution for fitness, mind, and sleep training. The app offers fitness workouts for all levels, plus guided running training, meditations, and interval walking. You can find healthy recipes, music and sounds to go with any workout, from running to yoga, and even soothing sleep sounds to help you fall asleep faster and wake up easier. I highly recommend this app for someone who is looking to make a lifestyle change and needs some motivation to stay on track. It has a one-week free trial period, and after that is only $59.99 for lifetime access! (That is a limited time offer so it may not be available at the time you’re reading this).
You can learn more about Verv here. Note that the app is currently only available for iPhone users.
edX.org
I’m not sure about you, but learning something new makes me more energetic and feel more fulfilled. But between my full-time job, my part-time job as an adjunct professor, and my family, I simply can’t commit to a traditional course. That’s why I love edX – from the comfort of my home and at my own pace, I can consume the content that I’m most interested in from over 120 institutional partners, including Harvard, MIT, BU, Berkeley, and more. Right now, I’m taking a free course titled “Fight COVID-19 With Epidemiology” from Johns Hopkins. They even offer Micro-Bachelors, Micro-Masters, and master’s degrees at an extremely affordable price.
Register your account today to start learning, and view their course catalog here.
Fitness Blender
Chances are that you or the person you’re quarantined with has a home workout tool or routine. But if you’re still trying to find something that works well, go explore fitnessblender.com. Their workout search tool is great – you can filter by duration, training type (like yoga, cardio, HIIT, etc), difficulty, and even what type of equipment you’ll need, if any. Once you sign up for your free account, you can schedule any of their hundreds of free workouts ahead of time or add any of their paid programs to your calendar. It takes all the thought out of it – you just head to your computer each day, check your calendar, and click play. I love the “FB Bored Easily” workout, which is a 4-week program for people who get bored easily – there are no repeated moves within each day!
You can sign up here, explore their free workouts here, and check out their paid programs here. They also have a new membership platform called FB Plus that I haven’t personally explored, so if you opt for a membership, let me know how it is!
UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center
The UCLA Health website has a wealth of meditation resources. They have weekly free drop-in meditations for anyone interested in learning how to “live more presently” in life. They hold online mindfulness and meditation retreats, with a sliding scale of costs based on your budget – no one will be turned away due to lack of funds. They even have a section for youth mindfulness, so you can get the whole family participating in this training. They also offer Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) for those who are seeking to learn more about mindfulness and meditation, with courses that blend lecture, practice, and group feedback and discussion.
Check out their class schedule here, including pre-recorded online classes and live webinar classes.
Drop me a note in the comments section of this blog post and let me know which one of these you’ve tried!
