Five Positive Quarantine Habits

While I must admit my introvert self is doing just fine with most of the quarantine, there are still  parts of life that I’ve let slip and haven’t noticed until I reached a grumpier “woe is me” point. We all operate off of having systems in place in our lives. It becomes evident when we deviate from these systems as our mental health suffers. With all that in mind, I wanted to share a couple of things I’m working on this week to get myself back on track.

1. Avoiding my phone. I’ve gotten in the nasty habit of scrolling social media immediately upon waking up in the mornings. Despite it being an effective tool to keep me from rolling over and going back to sleep, we all know it’s not a healthy way to start the day. Instead we’re turning on the lights and opening the blinds, maybe some light stretching. 
2. Getting dressed. Perhaps another more obvious suggestion, but it’s easy to roll out of bed and throw on my bathroom and immediately clock in for work. Before you know it, it’s lunchtime and I’m still not dressed. I’m not talking crazy, like fully getting ready/dressed if that’s overkill for your life but putting on some leggings/sweats that make you feel a little more put together.
3. Limiting caffeine. Before quarantine I’d take my thermos cup of coffee for my morning commute and then be done with coffee aside from the odd two cup day. Now that I’m sitting at home, it’s too easy to decide to finish off a pot of coffee or go for a second pot to warm up later in the afternoon. We all may be struggling a little more with sleep, and caffeine certainly isn’t around to encourage that. Instead, I’m focusing on drinking more water. I’m really good about it when I’m at work and I need to carry it over at home.
4. Cleaning up. When we’re in our house all the time, we can’t easily avoid messes. I’m not the neatest person, and I get in cycles of dropping my clothes where I take them off only to see a large pile accumulate by the weekend. There is no reason I can’t sort and put the rewearable clothes away and the dirties directly in the laundry basket. The same goes with dishes. We’ve been cooking a lot more and therefore more dishes to wash. It can feel like the dishwashing never ends. We’ve gotten a lot better about cleaning as we go during the prep downtime. 
5. Movement every day. I unfortunately threw out my back last week the one day I had to go to the office, which made for a painful day. Since then I’ve been testing out stretching and still going for walks as I can. Today I finally feel like I can try out a good full body workout and I feel like it’s necessary. I notice I sleep better at night if I exert myself physically, so whether that means doing a long walk or however you translate it, it might be beneficial for you as well!

Those are just a few things I’m working on this week. I realized I needed more systems in place when I’d lay down at night and start on an internal guilt trip on what I didn’t do that day. Instead of continuing to beat myself up, I thought about what I could do to fix it. Since we’re at home for at least a couple of more weeks, what better time to make new habits. They take 21 days to stick, and I’d love to come out of this quarantine taking care of myself in better/smarter ways. That’s not to say you need to “work on yourself” during this time. If you feel inclined to make a change during this time, we’d love to hear about it below!

These outfits were shot pre-quarantine (just to let you know we’re not gallivanting around Milwaukee). We are both wearing the beloved Amalli Talli denim jacket, which is a tall girl must have. There is no better fitting stretchy, but structured jean jacket than this one. It is worth every cent. Caitlin is wearing a graphic t shirt from ASOS mainline, and a midi skirt also from ASOS mainline. Unfortunately both are now sold out. We’ve said it before but their mainline stuff still has plenty of gems that will work for our elongated selves, specifically midi skirts. I (Jenilee) have on an old sweater from Express and my new white stretch curvy white jeans from American Eagle. They have a great high rise waist and they aren’t see through, which has been an issue with my white jeans in the past. Plus they are only $30 right now and come in up to XL inseam.

Outfit Details

Amalli denim jacket. Jenilee’s white jegging.