Holiday Stress Buster Tips

In an effort to get you through the holidays without permanent physical or mental scarring, Natasha Atkinson has put together some tips to navigate this year’s silly season!

Natasha has been in the fitness industry for two decades and understands the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. It’s through this commitment to fitness and living a healthy lifestyle that she expresses her passion and gets her clients to reach their full potential. She enjoys training clients of all fitness levels. She especially enjoys working with women to help them overcome the many barriers they face in their pursuit of fitness. Her certifications include Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 1 and Exercise Coach from the C.H.E.K.Institute, National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and American Council on Exercise (ACE) Personal Trainer certifications.

With the holiday season underway, most of us are already experiencing some sort of stress. With a little planning we are able to make the season a lot more enjoyable. At every other time of year, we know that sleep, exercise, and a healthy diet are key factors in keeping stress at bay. With the fuss of the season, cooler temperatures, and the temptations of holiday treats, our normal healthy habits go quickly out the window. By just following a few simple tips, you can keep yourself on track and celebrating the new year with a healthier and happier you.

1. Moderation.  Overindulgence only adds to your stress and guilt.  Have a healthy snack before holiday parties so that you don’t go overboard on what you eat and drink. Skip seconds during large holiday parties and enjoy treats in smaller quantities. Opt for fresh fruit, cheese or nuts instead of heavier dips and pastries whenever possible.
2. Sleep. During the holidays, with all there is to do, the parties, the preparations, the shopping, the wrapping, and the cooking, it is easy to pay for the additional time required from our sleep time. Understand most of us don’t get the 7-8 hours we need a night as it is. Sometimes that 20 minute power nap will do wonders for your mind and body.
3. Budget.  Set a financial budget and stick to it. Falling prey to impulse buying and going all out with credit cards will only cause guilt and repercussions in January when the bills come in. You can’t buy happiness with gifts.
4. Prioritize.   It’s okay to say no. You can’t possibly attend every party, social event, buy every gift, visit every relative, and send out cards to a hundred people. Trying to do this only leads to massive stress. Ask yourself: Do I really want to do this? … if the answer is no, then cross it off your list.
5. KISS.  Keep it Super Simple. Don’t try to do it all. Save some for next year. If baking the cookies from scratch will be too much, try store bought cookies and let the kids decorate them, they will have just as much fun. When possible order online, ship item directly to out of town family or have the store wrap the gifts for you.
6. Expectations. We believe we should feel good during the holidays but many of us find ourselves anxious and overwhelmed. The holidays are a time when our schedules and routines change dramatically. Also, our expectations of what the holidays should be very often set us up for failure. Taking a different approach to the season may make a difference. If you change your perceptions, you change your reality.
7. Acknowledge your feelings. If the holidays bring a sense isolation or loneliness to you, consider seeking out community, religious, or other social events they can offer support and companionship. Volunteering your time at soup kitchen or food pantry will offer a rewarding feeling and possible lead to new friendships.
8. Enjoy.  It’s the journey, not just the destination. Find happiness in all of it. People often get so caught up in getting ready for the one day and they fail to realize it’s all the small things that make the holidays special.

We all want the holidays to be a happy time. By having realistic expectations and not overextending, you will keep your stress levels in check. I wish you a “full of joy” holiday season!

Stress Hurts

In preparation for my presentation on stress for the Charles County Chamber of Commerce’s 2009 Working Women’s Day Retreat and the Longevity Studios Seminar, “Stress Mastering Techniques”, I came across this article, Stress So Bad It Hurts — Really.

I like the article because it’s basically a nice-n-tidy summary of how stress starts to affect your body. The body doesn’t care about where the stress is coming from or even if it’s real or perceived. Your body produces a stress response and adds all your stressors up to produce your overall stress level. As a human performance consultant, I have to look at a person’s current level of stress, which we call physiological load, and determine what are the appropriate actions to reduce their load. Most people come expecting to just have exercise thrown at them. When I find people with some of the following stress symptoms, I know it would be irresponsible to just give hard resistance or cardio training, because that would only add to their physiological load.

Stress Symptoms

• Pain of any kind
• Heart disease
• Digestive problems
• Sleep problems
• Depression
• Obesity
• Autoimmune diseases
• Skin conditions, such as eczema

From my experience, I would clarify one thing from the article. Christopher L. Edwards, director of the Behavioral Chronic Pain Management program at Duke University Medical Center, says:

“Stress does not necessarily cause pain, but it exacerbates the [physical] situation that may already be there. It diminishes your ability to cope.”

I have seen a direct correlation between unchecked stress levels and a person’s pain level when they come to see me. Chronically elevated levels of cortisol eventually result in pain. Reducing your overall level of stress is critical for reducing your level of pain.

I like to hear from you about your levels of stress and what symptoms you notice. Until then, relax and take a deep breath!

Perspective in Tough Financial Times

This clip has been floating around YouTube for several years now. It’s called The Miniature Earth and it puts things into perspective. Especially during a week in which the US is about to increased its debt by about one trillion dollars, it important to not get caught up in watching the news on a 24/7 basis waiting for the next shoe to drop. It’s also very important not to allow it to cause you to enter a survival mode and overreact to what is going on around the country.

One of the things many people allow to happen to themselves is to enter a state where the worry about the something, in which they really have no control, takes control of their life. If the stress and worry are high enough and stay long enough, usually what I see is that they do get “poor”…in health!

In a situation like this, I always feel the best steps are as follows:

1. Wake in the morning and be grateful for all that you do have.
2. Know fully your talents and skills and how you can best make use of them.
3. Be informed, but not inundated, with the current happenings.
4. Understand the difference between your circle of influence, circle of concern, and what lies outside of both of them. (Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)
5. Take informed and specific actions to leverage yourself to be in the best position you can be.
6. Evaluate with long-term vision in mind.
7. Be grateful (again) that you have the abilities to do any and all of this!

If this seems too simplistic or way too complex…start by enjoying the YouTube clip and see if you can move yourself through step one. What do you have to lose?…besides your worry!

Stressed Sleeping

I hear more complaints about problems with sleeping from clients in a one week period now than I used to hear early in my career in a year’s time. Sleeping has almost become a dysfunction of sorts. Without proper rest, you can’t get the results you want from any exercise program. Your body repairs itself as you sleep. When you don’t get enough, you are setting yourself up for getting sick and memory issues, as your memories are stored at this time as well.

This article from Men’s Health has some good info. It seems they point to stress as today’s main culprit as a sleep robber. Jeffrey Thompson, director of the Center for Neuroacoustic Research and creator of an audio sleeping aid called the Delta Sleep System says:

Our nervous system is built for a sprint, but we’re living in a stress marathon. If you go to bed worried you’re probably going to wake up in the middle of the night and when that happens, as you probably know, the next day is pretty much shot.

As mentioned, there are many other factors that can have a disruptive nature on your sleep cycle, for example caffeine intake, blood sugar highs/lows, and frequent urination. For my clients that do have sleep issues, before they seek the drug route, I try to establish a sleeping routine that helps to better prepare them for the habit of sleeping. I like to give this article “33 Secrets to a Good Night Sleep” and then work to decrease their overall life stressors. When I am able to help people to develop healthy practices around their sleeping, it isn’t long before they are sleeping like babies!