I talk about stress having a huge impact on both health and weight often with my clients and I am sure I will be doing the same on my new radio show. I have to admit; recently I let my own stress get the best of me. I believe that is how I ended up with Costochondritis, which I am happy to report is getting much better. So if preventative health and wellness professional can let life bring them so much stress that it impacts their health. I would venture to say, “It could happen to anyone”. So what to do?
The first step is always to make the decision to change. I recently had to do that. I told myself, nothing is worth hurting my health; I am going to do everything possible to relieve my stress. I have started meditating, doing EFT techniques, walking away from situations that cause me undue stress, stopped listening to the news, and started getting more sleep. I’m not saying you have to do these things. You may have other things that trigger your stress.
I just cracked open Stress Management For Dummies. The words “Grandma never carried a beeper” jumped off the page at me. Yes, past generations had more physical labor, but they did not have to deal with the information overload we are dealing with today. The very things we have created to make life easier often cause more stress. We are online 24/7 and usually available, making it more difficult to take the necessary downtime, so we have to take a stand for our own health and wellness. Shut off the computer and cell phone once in a while. I know I am hearing gasps from my friends in Internet Marketing! The truth is we will all be stronger if we take some free time away and enjoy simple pleasures. We will be that much more likely to be healthy, creative, and strong when we return to our families, hobbies, and work.
Personally, I am still working on managing the stress cycle I created for myself. But, I noticed it was an issue and started working on it. Decide today to manage the stress in your life. I promise, it will make it much easier to reach your goals, whether you want to lose weight, start a new project, or start being more physically active.
With Karen's education and eighteen years experience in the preventative health, nutrition, and fitness fields and personal experience battling weight, she could not ignore the growing obesity epidemic, especially after the announcement by the surgeon general stating, this would be the first generation to die before their parents due to obesity. This is not a legacy Karen wants to leave behind.