It has been a month since the lockdown measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. All of us are isolated at home, unable to do our routine physical activities, exercise, and even worse, we can’t see our aesthetic providers – hair stylist, beautician, aestheticians, and cosmetic doctors. This is not ideal. With the end of the lockdown still not in sight, we need to change our routines to stay looking well and fit. I would like to offer a few suggestions as follows:
- Stay active – It is easy to just curl up and watch Netflix all day to catch up with all the shows that we always wanted to watch. Don’t. We need to establish a daily routine of at least walking around in the house or in the private areas around the house to simulate the equivalent what we usually would do during our workday. It would be even better to do more – walk for an hour privately every day.
- Reconfigure your exercise routine – We can substitute most of our exercise routines that we usually do in the gym with those that we can do at home with less equipment. We might need to compensate with more reps, but we can get similar results. We can certainly attend the virtual group exercise classes widely available online. Just do it.
- Eat well – We now have all the time in the world to cook and try out new recipes. Actually, this is a great time to try out and perfect recipes that are delicious but healthy for us. We then can use those same healthy, great tasting recipes after the lockdown. Freeze and store them while we have lots of free time now.
- Try out new home-based beauty routines – There are many beauty products and devices in the market, but we did not have time to study, examine and explore while we were busy working before the lockdown. This is a great time try out some of them. Telecommunicate with our aesthetic professionals to get advice or do online research.
- Stick to a routine – Some of us are working but just remotely from home, so we are still following our usual workday routines. But for some of us that are unable to work from home, it would be ideal that we create a routine to repurpose our work in the home setting. Doing so, we would avoid changing our sleep routine – which can affect our metabolism, and the alternate “work” routine can help us stay healthy and well mentally.
- No Botox or filler, no problem – Most of the dermatologic aesthetic measures can be restarted after the lockdown with no residual adverse effect, so don’t worry. If we are using medical measures for conditions such as acne, we should continue to do so, and most healthcare providers can refill your prescription through telecommunication. We certainly should continue our regular skincare routine, and the aesthetician usually can ship to us any specialized skincare product if needed.
Stay well and healthy!
Michael Lau, MD