” Being a very active person, I felt very low during the lockdown period in the initial stage of the pandemic and was extremely affected by it. I used to travel every 3-4 months for a holiday or to visit my family back in Jakarta, Indonesia. Not being able to do that anymore was very hard for me. The last time I saw my family back home was in February 2020, and I only stayed there for 5 days as I thought I can visit them again in a few months. At that time, it obviously never crossed my mind that this pandemic would happen and I’d be separated from them for this long. A week after coming back from Jakarta, I was sick from dengue fever and was admitted in the hospital for almost 2 weeks. The moment the doctors finally released me from the hospital, the lockdown began! I was depressed and had multiple breakdowns. The only place I usually go to release my stress was the gym, but I couldn’t even do that since they had closed the gyms. Those were some really tough months for me, as I couldn’t even go to workout outdoors because of the heat. I remember I started becoming very lethargic and lazy to do anything. I was only eating junk food and sitting in front of the TV all day and all night for a couple of months. One day, finally, when we could start gathering again in small groups, we had gone to visit my friend. She was completely shocked when she saw me. She said that it was the first time she had ever seen me with big belly, and I looked very different from my ‘fit’ look. I checked myself on the weighing scale and noticed that I had gained 5 kgs in a few months, which was so not usual for me! That’s when it really hit me, about how I had let all this take a toll on me. I then encouraged myself and decided to force myself to start working out. I used to run 7-8 km daily, even with he heat outside. It was tough but it was worth it, because I started to feel good about myself and it released the stress I had accumulated for a long time. I was very happy when the government announced the opening of gyms; I could finally go back to my routines. Even after that, the first few weeks were very difficult for me, as my body was not trained at all for quite some time and I had lost touch, but thanks to all the coaches in my gym (Gymmito) that kept pushing me hard to do better, I finally got back in shape and look fit again. I am still a bit sad because of the travel restrictions, but I also feel grateful that unlike the initial phase, we can now go outside, meet people and carry out most of our regular activities. One thing I can say is that the government did a great job to help us with the whole pandemic situation! I am hoping to see my family again very soon and hope everything will go back to normal like before! ”

 

– Dyan (Indonesia)