Cabin fever —that’s what a snow storm can do to us. People get frustrated being cooped up inside, especially folks from the northern states. Even though I am from the Netherlands, I lived in Indiana for six years. The difference there they have the equipment, staff and salt to take care of the roads. Here, they don’t have the equipment, people and salt to deal with the inclement weather, and it’s quite treacherous. The road I live on, right off N.C. 150, hasn’t been touched as of Sunday.

We had the Y closed for two days. It was just too bad to open, and we have staff coming in from all over the county. We opened the fitness, gym, mezzanine and indoor track Saturday and it was packed. Everyone was so happy to be out and exercising.

So what do you do when the roads are just too bad and you can’t get out to exercise?

If you haven’t seen the holiday edition of Salisbury the Magazine, I have a 15-minute workout in there you can do right at home. You can even go through it two times and make it a 30-minute workout. There are also many resources online for at-home workouts. How about turning the music on and dancing? The key is to do something. Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime all have exercise program choices.

I saw many videos and photos of people sledding, young and old. That is exercise, too.

Walking my dogs through the snow was a hard workout. I used this extra time to do some deep cleaning and did some baking. I baked healthy goodies and snacks, such as cookies with oatmeal, flax seed and dates, and also made dark chocolate oatmeal brownies. I also made a healthy vegetable soup. It’s easy to go for the chips with dip, unhealthy cookies and so on, but there are choices you can make. I typically plan my “off” days, even these snow days.

And I didn’t have time to stock up. I looked in my pantry to see what I could make, checked what I could do for exercise, and planned what to eat and what snacks to have. For me, it makes it easier to stay on track this way. I was very active through our snow days and made sure I had healthy and tasteful foods and snacks. When I look at my diet, I try to stay in the 80-20 range; 80 percent what I eat needs to nourish my body and 20 percent can be “fluff.” It works for me — I have to eat my forbidden foods sometime!

The Y should open on normal opening and closing schedule but might have some areas which will not open. The best way is to call, check our website at www.rowanymca.com, Facebook or Twitter. Stay safe, stay warm and stay active!

Ester H Marsh, JF Hurley Family YMCA