The bright and the beautiful amidst COVID times - Story #7

No surprise about this Deepa Ramki,  you are indefatigable!  The menus and the dance are both enticing as are the pictures. 

With almost the whole world in lock down because of Covid 19, my life has been no different. Going from a fast paced life of a 9-5 job, housework, driving the children around to their after school clubs and teaching weekend dance lessons to absolutely shutting down felt quite daunting in the beginning. Not knowing when life would be back to normal was not only bothering me but my friends felt the same way too.

When one of my adult batch students was worried about the new routines which are heavy on knees and legs, I suggested about setting up a weight loss/ fitness challenge to keep ourselves motivated and energized, I jumped at the opportunity because it was not only going to benefit us physically but it was going to help preserve our sanity. Knowing that all of us are going be housebound, working from home and managing our families, a healthy, positive mind and body is essential. I floated the idea to the other adults dance groups and few friends. Everyone jumped in the wagon and have been working towards a realistic 2-3 kg weight loss by Easter! The program involves eating 3 healthy meals by 9 am, 1.30 pm and 6 pm coupled with exercise, yoga and walking at home too! The internet has many wonderful ideas like 1 mile happy walk, 3 mile walk which can be done in the comfort of our homes without venturing out.

Each day, many of them post pictures or send messages of their breakfast, lunch and dinner. It not only motivates us to stick to our healthy eating habits but also gives us ideas for cooking our meals. Many of us post our exercise routine and share some new videos for everyone to try out. Almost all struggled with not snacking in between and keeping up the exercise routine but with constant encouragement from each other, everyone has been able to move past their struggles!

I have also started my online dance lessons for all my batches. They seem to be coping well with it, of course knowing that they have each other to support. That is the only time that I get to see all of them if not in person at least through webcam! Technology and the internet has definitely made our lives easier especially in the current crisis. 

I guess everyone like me, feels that the entire situation feels surreal and we are living life differently but we can be positive about the whole thing, use our time wisely, productively, stay safe and learn many things that we should be doing correctly by not taking advantage of nature and everything that we have.

-Deepa Ramki