Three important changes I made to my life during Covid-19

Like all of you, I saw my life changed suddenly and dramatically in March 2020. Omaha, where I currently reside, registered its first case and my company shortly sent us home to work. For a good reason. Since then, I have been in self-isolation, almost close to 9 months now, and it will not change any time soon as we were already told that we wouldn’t be back to the office until next summer. Unlike a lot people, I am alone in the US. I don’t have any family member to surround myself with. My girlfriend is in Vietnam, which has closed its borders since March as well. Alone and isolated in my own apartment, I got to make some changes and I did. Here are the biggest three that I want to share, in case they are useful somehow

Exercise more with The Body Coach TV

It’s not easy to stay fit and healthy while in isolation. Especially when you don’t like running. I understand all the health benefits of a regular run, but it’s just not for me. The gym had been closed for about 6 months and opened its doors again two months ago. However, I still don’t want to go to a place where sweating and sharing surfaces with other people are a norm. Those two things can quickly become ingredients of a Covid-19 nightmare. Hence, I needed to find a way to exercise effectively in my small apartment. Luckily, I found this great channel called “The Body Coach TV”. This channel is owned and developed by Joe Wick, a British fitness enthusiast. He regularly posts short workout clips that range from a few minutes to about 30 minutes. The workouts are either full body High Intensity Interval Training or specifically developed for a muscle group such as upper body, lower body or abs. Spend 20 minutes a day on one of these clips and you can easily burn 250 to 300 calories at least. I have been on a 2-day-training-1-day-off schedule for months and it has been going well so far. I feel good every day after a workout (not exactly the case 10-20 minutes right after) and my girlfriend complimented me on looking leaner. Give it a try. This is the clip I did today. It’s pretty intense, but good.

Recalibrate my eating and find my interest in cooking

Back in July, I came across a research on how our body consumed energy. Apparently, it turns out that we don’t need to eat twice a day to have enough energy to function, an assumption and a habit that I blindly followed for 20+ years. I decided to change my eating routine to only once a day, around late afternoon. For the rest of the day, I resort to healthy food with low carb such as avocados, cantaloupes, chia, soy milk and Greek Yogurt. Pine apples and nuts are sometimes included as well. White rice was replaced by red rice and select vegetables such as broccolis, mushrooms, carrots, asparagus, beans, okras or tomatoes are regulars. It was a bit tough in the beginning, but gradually I grew accustomed to the new diet, but still have enough energy for work and a High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) workout.

As a fan of matcha and coffee, I felt gutted for not being able to frequent local cafes any more. So I decided to invest in equipment to make matcha and coffee at home such as ground coffee, matcha powder, a small aluminum pitcher, an espresso maker from IKEA and a milk frother. If you consume 2-3 caffeine drinks a day like myself, I think you likely will save some money from not having to pay $5 for a latte.

Additionally, my interest in cooking shot up. Isolated at home and glued to my computer for hours a day, I sometimes feel restless and agitated. Besides a short workout, cooking relaxes me. Because I don’t want to invest too much money on kitchenware, my preference is simple recipes which require ordinary equipment from every kitchen, like this one:

I like Gordon Ramsay’s channel. He usually has great and short videos with instructions that an idiot like me can follow

Learn German

The next big change I made is to decide to learn German. With all the free time I have, I figure that I should learn something useful instead of just doom-scrolling on Twitter or surfing the Internet. After weighing all the pros and cons of the options such as a spoken language, an online degree or a coding language, I decided on German. It is the most spoken language in Europe, behind English. An acceptable command of German could open the door professionally for me to European markets later on, in case Trump won or something happens in the US. Since I already code like 5-6 hours a day at work, I don’t feel really like coding in my free time. An online degree just doesn’t excite me. So German it was! I found two very good resources: Germantogo.com and the Easy German channel on YouTube. With a 365-euro annual subscription, you can have access to on-demand video lessons from A1 to B1 and have any questions answered by Juliane, the owner of the site. It’s similar to having a private tutor, but virtually. I have been learning German for 4+ months with Juliane and totally enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Easy German is a YouTube channel which features short video clips through which German learners can improve listening and vocabulary. The Easy German team comes up with a topic question every week and interviews German native speakers on the streets. A casual setting brings the natural speaking pattern and choice of words. Plus, you can learn something about the German culture as well. If you want to learn German like I do, give those two sites a try. Below is a bit about me in German (show-off alert!!!)

Ich heiß Minh. Ich komme aus Vietnam, aber ich wohne in Omaha, Nebraska. Ich wohne seit 4 Jahren hier. Ich bin 30 Jahre alt. Ich spreche Vietnamesisch, Englisch und ein bisschen Deutsch. Ich lerne seit 4 Monaten Deutsch. Es ist eine schwierige Sprache, aber ich mag sie. Weil ich zu Hause bleiben muss, denke ich, dass ich etwas Neues lernen sollte. Warum nicht Deutsch? Ich arbeite in einer Bank in Omaha. Meine Hobbys sind Fußball, Basketball, Formel-1, Tennis, Lesen, Schreiben, Reisen und Kochen. Wer bist du? Was machst du?