Like many students in this academic year our household had an unwelcome visit from Covid when one of our housemates tested positive. Following the government guidelines, this meant that, as a household of 9, we had to self isolated for two weeks. At first we were not looking forward to spending 14 days enclosed in the same four walls together, not even leaving for a walk around Lidl, however, in reality, the time flew by.
If you are unfortunate enough to have to self isolate to then don't worry! It can be daunting at first but here are some tips that really helped us in our two week confinement.
1.) Try and keep up with Uni work but make sure you are having breaks
It is easy to fall behind on Uni work when you are not able to have your normal Uni routine but try and set aside a part of your day to catch up with the work you may be missing! This made a massive difference coming out of self-isolation and returning back to normal life, when our sentence was up, as it wasn't like a massive crash back to reality. That said, if you are experiencing symptoms or struggling with your mental health, don't feel guilty about giving yourself a break!!
2.) Ration your food!
You're not going to be able to frequent Lidl or just pop to the Coop for some bread or milk. I found the best plan was to order a big shop from Asda at the start of the week and to try and make that last the whole two weeks, this way I saved money and was still able to have all of the fresh ingredients I needed.
Batch cooking will be your absolute lifesaver, especially to be able to still be getting nutritional meals toward the end of the week. Try to make a large batch of soup, curry or chilli to freeze so that you have reserves of home-cooked meals with ACTUAL vegetables in them. I found that, when nearing the end of the isolation period, my go to meal was frozen Quorn nuggets and chips (not so nutritional and healthy) or a quick Deliveroo meal (not so cost effective).
Try to use up all of your fresh food first before it goes bad, you want to avoid waste where possible!
3.) Try to do some exercise in your home
Even if it is just a bit of stretching away from your desk or your bed, a bit of exercise will make you feel so much more alive. I found that a quick 10 minute ab workout or some yoga in the morning really helped me get my head in the right place for the rest of the day. As you can't walk anywhere, you may feel like you have less energy so it is important to get the blood flowing!!
4.) Keep checking that everyone is okay
This is the most important point, everyone deals with isolation id different ways, some find it easier than others. Keep checking on your housemates to make sure that they are managing okay. There will be frequent calls from the NHS throughout this period to check up on you and make sure you are coping, if anyone needs any support you should encourage them to seek this out.
5.) Make a countdown
It is only 14 days, so make a countdown crossing off each day as you complete it, this will help conceptualise the whole process and help put into perspective how little time this actually is. If it helps, plan something for the day you are all allowed out, giving you something to look forward to and count down towards! After all it won't last forever!
:)) xxx