Episode 125: What Changed (and What's Stayed the Same) During Quarantine
In this solo episode, I’m sharing what life has been like for the first 36 days of sheltering in place - solo.
I share what’s changed and what hasn’t when it comes to my work, my workouts, meditation, my mindset, and new introspections, and of course, food - and wanting all the comfort food!
I also share what I’ve been up to daily, new things I’ve tried, and three new curated recipe collections that I created for you (that you can find in the show notes for this episode!):
22 Healthy Recipes that Support Your Immune System
14 Healthy Pantry Staple Recipes
12 Healthy and Affordable Recipes
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“Because everyone else has slowed down, it feels like the universe has given me permission to slow down, too.”
Read the Episode Transcript:
Hello my friends and welcome back to the Live FAB Life Podcast. I'm your host, Naomi Nakamura. And this episode was actually supposed to be on an entirely different topic. But at the very last minute, I decided to pivot and do a solo show on what I've been up to while sheltering in place, mostly for posterity, but I'd also love to hear what your quarantine experience is as well.
I am on Day 36 of sheltering-in-place, solo. I've been doing this since March 13th. Since that day, which by the way happens to be a Friday the 13th, I did a quick pick-up run at Target on Monday, March 16th. And it was literally so quick, I wasn't even in the store for more than two minutes. I placed an online order. When I got a notification that it was ready, I went to the store, I ran into the pickup desk, the checker put it on the counter, stepped a few steps back. I picked it up and ran back out to my car.
I stayed home until Thursday, April 9th when I went to a family member's house, met a friend there, and did some exchange for supplies. They had some things that I needed, I had some things that they needed, so it was a quick socially distanced exchange. Then earlier this week, I did have to take Coco Pop, my dog, to the vet for a non-contact visit that she desperately needed. So I have been sheltering in place pretty well.
I'm going to share with you, in this episode, what things have stayed the same and what things have been different, and then just kind of a rundown on some of the things I've been up to. So what has stayed the same? Well, as you know, I have worked from home for the past eight years, so the having to work from home part really wasn't that big of a deal for me because this is what I do every day. And I realize I'm very fortunate to be able to still be employed full-time in addition to the side hustle work that I do and nothing about my work has changed. In fact, perhaps you've gotten a little bit busier because of the nature of the work that we do.
So that part for me on a day-to-day basis hasn't changed too much. I still get up every morning, get ready for the day, Coco Pop and I go on walks outside three times a day. I wear a mask. We stay socially distant from our neighbors. The one thing that is different, in terms of Coco Pop, is that I normally like to drive her to different areas, in my local area to go for walks but we've just stayed in our neighborhood and we haven't driven anywhere, so she is just really so bored right now.
So what has changed? I'm going to highlight five different things that have changed for me. The first one is in terms of work. I mentioned that I've been working from home for eight years, however, and I did not realize this until the past few weeks, is that not all of my colleagues work from home. A large number of them still go into the office every day. So, now that the entire company is under a mandated work from home policy, for my colleagues, it's been a total life change for some of them.
Given that situation, the leaders of our company have found ways to bring us together remotely just for some fun time. And this is what has been very different for me. Now, those who go into the office, of course, they have their daily interactions, where they visit each other amongst their cubes, they all sit among each other, they go to lunch together, they take breaks. I don't have that interaction, so having this social time is not something that I'm used to, too. Of course, those of us who work remotely, we have ways of keeping in touch and having social time as well. It's just very differently.
So we've been having social time within our teams to take the place of the daily interactions that those who do go into the office have, as well as, we, from time-to-time, have off-sites or different team building fun activities that we're not able to have anymore. So we've been having different virtual meetings, really without an agenda but just to spend some time personally. So that has been something that's been a little bit different for me. And because of that, we are actually turning on our videos during our WebEx meetings.
As a side note, I know that Zoom has had massive growth since the whole world went into quarantine, but at my company we use another platform called WebEx because, well, we own WebEx as part of our company. And it's the platform that I've been using for work for the past 18 years, well before I started at the company I work at now. But since then, my company has bought WebEx. It is really how I do my work every single day. It is how I hold my meetings. It is how we communicate with each other with all the different tools. So that part hasn't changed for me. By the way, WebEx is a secure platform.
But with all of us now turning on our videos, it's actually been fun to see people in their home habitats. I'm sure many of you have the same experiences if you're using a virtual meeting now with your coworkers. Or even just watching the news, we see a lot of journalists broadcasting from their homes and so that's been fun. Prior to this, we didn't always turn on our cameras. Some people did, some people didn't. I did not. Not that I had any opposition to, I just never really had a reason to. But we are turning on our cameras now. So it's fun to see people in their home habitats. And a lot of them, when we do have our fun social meetings, they bring their families into the mix or their pets and so we all get to meet them and say hello and that's something that normally would not happen if it weren't for this situation.
Another thing that I've noticed with work is that... I work in high-tech and it's a very fast-paced environment and it's very high demanding and there's a lot of expectations there. But with this change, I've also noticed that there is a lot more kindness going on and a lot more compassion. Now, don't get me wrong, we have always had a culture of respect and kindness and compassion. But right now, it also feels a lot more gentle. It feels like there's a lot more understanding, there's a lot more acceptance of things and it just feels a lot more relaxed. If someone's child is crying in the background, we understand that. If someone can't meet because they have some things going on personally at home, we understand that. So things just feel a lot kinder, even though it wasn't kind before... It always has been kind, but there's just a lot more acceptance and understanding. And it's nice, I like it this way and I hope it stays this way.
The second area of some things that have changed for me is with my workouts. Now, if there's one thing, this is probably the most significant change for me. Well, I mean, they're all significant. But I'm used to going to the gym and I try to go the gym about three to four times a week, working out with my personal trainer once a week and I even get a massage at the spa at my gym once a month. Obviously, that has all changed. I have never ever been someone who's been able to work out in my home, like never ever, ever. I need the energy that comes from being in the gym. I like the air condition. I like the space. I like having all the equipment that I need right at my fingertips.
The only alternative for me is to go outside for a run and I've been battling with plantar fasciitis for a while now, so I really haven't run in a very long time, months and months. Not about to start now. So I really miss the gym. And for those first two weeks of sheltering in place, I did nothing. Nada. I ate all the comfort food, which I will get into in a minute. But towards the end of those first two weeks, I could not take the inactivity anymore. So I thought, "Okay, well I can't work out at my house but there's a park in my neighborhood, I'll go to the park and do something there." So I went to the park and I did a body weight workout.
Where I live, in the afternoons, because I was there in the afternoon, it gets super windy. And after doing a bunch of burpees... Which by the way, I gave myself a gold star for doing because I hate burpees, and the fact that I made myself do them is nothing short of a miracle. But when you're desperate for a good workout, you make yourself do the stuff that you hate. So after I did the burpees, it was super windy outside, I was out of breath, so I was coughing. Well, it alarmed everyone in the vicinity and they all looked at me with this like freaked out look on their face. So that was it for working out at the park. I went home and never went back for a workout.
So the day after that, I thought, "Well, I need to do something." So I pulled out my TRX, which I have had for a very long time, but haven't used in years. I do use a TRX at my gym, I just don't use my own at home. And I was quickly reminded why I don't use it at home. Now, I live in a very tiny Bay Area apartment. I don't have a garage or really anywhere to attach the mount to. If you're familiar with a TRX, there is a mount that you need to install in a ceiling somewhere. So I hook my TRX over my front door, and it just does not feel sturdy enough to withstand my weight when I do rows or pushups or anything like that. It's a silly thought because my weight is not enough to snap the door. I am not that strong, but it feels like it will. So I forgot that.
I've always had that fear when I used to use this TRX regularly five years ago. At that time, the trainer that I was working with would actually train me in my home. That I could do, because it was like somebody there to lead me through the workout and to hold me accountable and help me with my form and all of that. So that, I could do. We would use my TRX all the time, but I always had that fear that, oh no, I'm going to break the door. Of course, it's not going to happen, but that fear is always there. So that was so much for the TRX workout. Now, I do use it for stretching and whatnot, but I'm not going to get a good workout if I'm afraid to just give it my all.
Knowing myself and knowing what I need to stay active, I decided to work virtually with my trainer, who I work with at my gym. Now, we meet twice a week, virtually, and he walks me through workouts using five and ten pound weights that I have at home, using a bunch of exercise bands that I have, and then of course my own body weight. And they're pretty hearty workouts, like, it gets my heart rate going, my muscles feel sore the next day. It's been great. It's been really great having that accountability again, to know that I have to show up for someone. And it's been nice to know that I can also support him. Even while the gym is closed, everyone who works at the gym can't do their jobs. So it's been nice to be able to still connect and get the support I need from him, but also support him that way. And it's motivated me to work through some of the mindsets that I have about working from home.
Through Instagram, I found a YouTube channel with workouts that are done really well. It's the Dare To Be Active channel, which I will link to in the show notes. I like that this channel is done by someone who is a doctor of physical therapy. So she knows her stuff, she knows how the body works. I trust her workouts for that reason. And the videos are really well done, and there's a variety of them. There's HIIT workouts. There's upper body workouts, lower body workouts. There's 20 minute workouts. There's 60 minute workouts. There's active stretching. There is yoga flows. I like it because they're all done in her home, so you don't need a lot of equipment nor do you need a lot of space. I also like how she produces these videos. She will have some text on the screen, not for all of the videos but for some of them, where she will list what you're doing now and then she'll list like in another window what's coming next and she has a timer for a countdown. So they're really doable and I like them.
So these are the workouts that I've been doing at home. I also like the impact that it's had on my morning routine. I used to be someone who was either at the gym for a 6 AM class or workout, or out on the roads for a run at 6 AM and that has not happened in like four years. I'm someone who, I like working out in the morning. Just for me, to realistically get in the car and drive to the gym where it's really crowded at the gym in the morning and I do not like being at a crowded gym, and then to have to drive home and I do have to get on the freeway to get to my gym, it's been really nice to be able to just get up, go into my living room and do a really good solid workout and then just jump in the shower and get ready for the day.
I like the impact that it's had on my morning routine. It's gotten me back into the routine of working out in the morning, which I find just really sets up the rest of my day nicely. And I didn't realize that after I finish my workout, I have my breakfast right away, I jump in the shower, get ready very quickly, take Coco Pop out for a walk, and then I'm at my desk ready to work at the same time that I would normally be at without my workout. That just shows you how maybe I wasn't using my time as effectively in the morning, but now I'm ready to start my day at 8 or 8:30 or whatever time the first meeting of the day is. That's what time my day starts.
The third area where things have changed for me is really around introspection and mindfulness. Very shortly after sheltering in place, I started attending a grounding meditation circle hosted weekly by my friend Sadie Adams, who was a guest on the show in Episode 117. She has been holding this meditation circle in person at her Los Angeles location for years. But with the shelter in place order, she's taken the circle online. Now, that it is online, I'm able to attend.
While I feel that I'm someone who's always ruminating on introspective thoughts in my head, I've had a very inconsistent practice with having a practice to make the experience more meaningful. I don't know if that quite makes sense, but I have these thoughts in my head and these deep thoughts and this introspection, but I really haven't done anything with it. I'm also a questioner, so I really have to observe and process a lot of things in my head before I'm able to actively participate and engage. And this community has felt like a safe space for me to go through that process to do so.
It's also introduced me to embodiment work, something that I have felt and had a belief in, but didn't necessarily know what it was or how to articulate it. Now, I'm actually a curious person, so since sheltering in place, I've taken this experience of the meditation circles of really having a lot of deep thoughts. I started working with Sadie, one-on-one, through guided embodiment sessions, and we've been exploring aspects of my personality, and my daily habits, and my attitudes, and how I approach things, and my thought process, and how all of this affects my physical being. From things like holding tension in my body, to my difficulty with sleep and how these things manifest physically. It's been a deeply personal experience to challenge my perceptions of myself and how I see and how I interact with the world. It is such a fascinating learning experience and I am here for all of it. So that is something that has really been a positive, through this experience for me.
The fourth area is around food. Oh, my goodness, where do I start with this? I have so much to say about this topic of food. I had plans to run a 21-day sugar detox group coaching program at the start of April, then this whole thing happened and well, we all want our comfort food, right? I go through periods of also wanting all the comfort food. What does that look like for me? Well, it's things like a gluten-free steel cut oatmeal and gluten-free bread. For a long time, I had to eat grain-free for health reasons. And for the most part, I still do. I feel better when I don't eat a lot of grains, but since sheltering in place, I've indulged in grains because to me that is my comfort food. That might not be for you, but it is for me.
I've also indulged in chicken chips. I didn't even know what chicken chips were. If you don't know what they are, they're like potato chips but they're made with chicken, not potatoes. Anyway, I didn't know what they were either until my friend Diane and I went on one of our road trips to Los Angeles and she had chicken chips as a snack. Now, at the time, I did not embrace the idea of chicken as chips, but chips are my comfort food. They're my downfall. I don't crave cake. I don't crave cookies, well, maybe chocolate chip cookies. I don't crave candy. I do crave pie, more like pie crust. But I do crave chips and I kid you not, I cannot get chips anywhere on any grocery delivery service. It is really hard. The only chips they have are kale chips. Now, look, I like kale chips like the next person, but let's be real, they are not my comfort food. Right? They are not the comfort food that you want in a pandemic.
So Diane, such a true friend, she gave me a bag of her chicken chips, right? That's a sign of a true friend, when they give you something of theirs that they love so much in a pandemic. So she gave me a bag of chicken chips and oh my goodness, they are the best things ever. So I ordered myself a case of them. Yes, I did. And the best thing about these chicken chips is that they're protein, they're not junky carbs. I've been tracking macros now for a few months, working with a macros coach for almost 12 weeks and it is glaringly obvious through my tracking that it takes a concentrated effort for me to meet my protein targets every day. So, chicken chips because they're protein, they help with that. That's my comfort food.
Then lastly, social connections. The biggest change for me over the past 36 days has been the lack of in-person social connections. I mean, it's not like I'm a social butterfly here, but there are people, family and friends, who I see regularly. And it's been tough not to be able to hang out with them, to go on dog walks with them, to go out to eat or even just to sit around and do nothing. It's been tough, been tough sheltering in place solo.
That being said, I have had the opportunity to catch up with friends who I don't necessarily speak to or see on a regular basis through virtual meetings, through FaceTime, through Voxer or simply just text messaging. Which, if you think about it, it is kind of silly because we could always catch up at any time, pandemic or not. But I'm glad that with all of us confined to our homes, we feel that we have the time to do so now and we're actually making the effort, so I really appreciate that about having this time right now.
I am not one to ever not have anything to do. Between my full time job, my side hustles as a health coach and a beauty consultant, producing these weekly podcast episodes and my own personal projects, I have been as busy as ever. I haven't watched a single Netflix show, although that will be changing when the fourth season of The Last Kingdom drops this week. Instead, I've continued to produce podcast episodes, and I'm actually ahead three weeks, which is not including this impromptu episode which is a really big deal for me. I have stayed connected with my health coaching clients as well as with my fellow Beautycounter teammates and my Beautycounter clients. Been supporting them and letting them support me as well. That has been really nice. I've had a few friends who... they know that I'm sheltering in place solo and so they reach out to me on a pretty regular basis, just to check in with me to see what I'm doing, give me someone to talk to and I really, really appreciate that. It's made a huge difference for me.
But I've also been busy creating different resources, like the three curated recipe collections that I recently released. I released one called 22 Healthy Recipes to Support Your Immune System and those are concentrated on some specific vitamins and minerals that support our immune system. 14 Healthy Pantry-Staple Recipes, so those recipes are concentrated around using staples that you already have in your pantry. And then 12 Healthy and Affordable Recipes.
Now, full disclosure, I am not a recipe developer, far from it. When I first became a health coach, I thought, "You know what, you have to be able to create your own recipes, right? Because that's what all health coaches do." Let's be honest, I can barely cook. But that's not true, you don't need to be able to create recipes to be a health coach. It's not a requirement of the job. But being able to provide people with resources is. So I have different tools that I use that help me curate recipe collections like these and that's what I've been spending my time doing.
I spent the first few weeks of sheltering in place, putting these collections together. You can download them, you can find them on my website at www.livefablife.com\resources, and they're free PDF downloads. I'll be putting more resources there, so be sure that you bookmark that page and check back often or make sure you're subscribed to my email list, which you can also do so on my website, or follow me on Instagram to get the latest news of when these additional resources will be available to you.
Other than work and the things that I've just shared with you, I've also been spending some time baking, making a macro friendly banana bread that my friend Diane created and she shared the recipe with. I've also redone my succulent terrarium and I have planted more of them. I don't have planters, so I had to get creative and use different things that I already had in my home to use as planters. I've also signed up for a virtual plant repotting class with the sale that I'll be doing this week. And as per my last episode, Episode 124, I have continued to declutter my home.
So this is what my quarantine has been like. I have yet to experience cabin fever. I'm very fortunate that way, even in my tiny Bay Area apartment. Taking three walks a day with Coco Pop has helped. While I know that this is a terrible situation, terrible pandemic that we're in with unspeakable things happening all over the world, personally, I can't help but appreciate this time where the whole world has been forced to slow down.
It's like at the end of every year, when my company has a shutdown during the holidays, all 80,000 employees are forced to take about a week-off between Christmas and new year's. It's so nice because everyone is on leave. It's not like I'm on vacation, but people are still working so the emails are still coming in and the work is still piling up during my absence and that's kind of what it feels like right now. It's like, I've been given permission to slow down and even though it doesn't sound like I have, truly I have. It's a whole mental thing. It's a mindset thing where I don't feel like I have to do everything yesterday, that I'm always behind trying to catch up. And because everyone else has slowed down, it feels like the universe has given me the permission to slow down, too.
Now, I want to hear from you. What are you doing during the quarantine? How has life gone for you? Has it gotten tougher? What's your new daily routine like? Have your perceptions of anything shifted or changed? I'd love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on the show notes for this episode at www.livefablife.com/125 or connect with me on Instagram @livefablifewithnaomi.
In the meantime, thanks for listening. Thanks for being here and spending your time with me. Hang in there. We will get through this together. We'll see you next time.
Naomi Nakamura is a Functional Nutrition Health Coach. She helps passionate, ambitious high-achievers who are being dragged down by fatigue, burnout, sugar cravings, poor sleep, unexplained weight issues, and hormonal challenges optimize health, find balance, and upgrade their energy so they can do big things in this world.
Through her weekly show, The Live FAB Live Podcast, programs, coaching, and services, she teaches women how to optimize their diet, support their gut health, reduce their toxic load, and improve their productivity, bringing work + wellness together.
Naomi resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and can often be found exploring the area with her puppy girl, Coco Pop!
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