Stressed to the Max!

Hi friends,

So the busier my life becomes, and it only ever seems to get busier, I find myself feeling the affects of stress in my body more acutely and constantly having to remind myself about how important good nutrition and exercise are in the midst of craziness.

My neck hurts, I get forgetful and cranky and I don’t digest my food very well when I’m a bit edgy! Sometimes stress leaves me with a glazed look on my face and other times busy-ness can affect my quality of sleep, which leads to all sorts of new stress symptoms! I am daily doing my stretches, squeezing in 1/2 an hour on the treadmill whenever I can and remembering to drink water. I’m also writing lists to help me from getting more stressed about the different things I have to do and hoping I haven’t forgotten anything!

When we feel stressed we can get all worked up about eating properly, some of us overeat while others of us don’t eat much at all. A lot of the time, stress can lead to constipation or diarroea. Ugh. If we live in this stress zone constantly, we can do damage to our bodies that we may not be able to undo later in life.

All sorts of things are going on inside us when we’re on the edge. B vitamins, which are essential for energy and certain hormone functions (B6 is usually lacking when we get PMT) are depleted when we’re stressed as well as magnesium and vitamin C just to name a few. Lacking in magnesium can lead to headaches and muscle pain, and vitamin C as we all know is essential for our immunity and helps keeps our heart happy.

We may think that coffee, jelly snakes and chocolate are essential to our stress survival and keep us going, but poor eating habits can set us up for all sorts of other problems that will give us more to worry about! Did you know that excess caffeine in our bloodstream can affect calcium absorption?

I guess that moral of the story is….in the midst of our busy lives, it’s so important to take care of ourselves and stay strong to be able to go the distance. We all know it, but I think every once in a while we need a gentle nudge and reminder.

In regards to food, remember the 5+2 principle? In a day we should eat 5 serves of veggies and 2 pieces of fruit and enough water to keep us hydrated (approx. 8 glasses). Get hold of a good multivitamin and make the effort to take it everyday. Talk to a nutritionist or a naturopath and work out what good eating looks like for you in the busy-ness of life. Most of all remember to breathe and choose to navigate these busy days well, it may only be a season. If you’re finding it really tough, talk to someone, we all go through hard times.

Ultimately, the cheesy ad is right, you’re worth it! So take care of YOU. I love Robin McGraw’s book ‘Inside my heart’. She talks about how she takes care of herself so that she can give the gift of herself to others, fit and healthy and strong, and for the long haul….

Lv Jane
Nutritionist (just in case you thought I was making it up!) : )