Its that time of year we have been waiting for, sun, beaches, warm weather, fun. Yet it's also one of our most stressful times of the year from kids, vacation planning, unrealistic expectations and simply not enough time to cram all your year-long wishes into a short 12 weeks.
In this episode, I share a few short practical tips in keeping your summer stress in check.
If you are a health coach interested in joining other health coaches for growth and community visit Health Coach Growth Network on Facebook.
Music by Alex Grohl and Pixabay click here to listen to learn more
Its that time of year we have been waiting for, sun, beaches, warm weather, fun. Yet it's also one of our most stressful times of the year from kids, vacation planning, unrealistic expectations and simply not enough time to cram all your year-long wishes into a short 12 weeks.
In this episode, I share a few short practical tips in keeping your summer stress in check.
If you are a health coach interested in joining other health coaches for growth and community visit Health Coach Growth Network on Facebook.
Music by Alex Grohl and Pixabay click here to listen to learn more
All the nutrition information out there today. Everything's conflicting, completely confusing. How are we supposed to be healthy if even the experts can't agree? This is outspoken nutrition. I'm your host Laura at Timbrook and we're going to break it all down. Hey, welcome guys. It's Friday and today I wanted to talk about a topic about something that affects every system in our
Speaker 2:adi. It does not discriminate. Anybody is susceptible. It plays a key role in the top causes of death and often it's the, oh by the way, today we're going to be talking about stress and with the summer rolling around, I think this is a perfect time. Often we think of summer as stress free, careless. Yet summer becomes one of our most stressful months. We've been dreaming about the beaches, the warm weather, having fun with the family, and we have 10 to 12 weeks to make this all happen. So a lot of times the kids are out of school. We're worried about what are they going to do camps. We set these unrealistic expectations to have the most epic summer ever. We put so much pressure on us to make it memorable for our kids, and yet a lot of times the memories are the silly things like war, gun, fight in the backyard with mom and dad. You know the stuff that's truly not stressful. So we have these unrealistic expectations. Generally we're lacking sleep because the sun is up longer and we're trying to cram all this stuff into our day and on top of that heat adds additional stress. We find ourselves so stressed out specially towards the end of the summer. Every mom I know in about August is over summer. Oftentimes when we talk to our health and wellness professionals, we address our nutrition, our exercise. We might address our sleep, but sometimes not even. And then it's often stresses, often sideline. It's like, oh, by the way, you know, make sure you're managing your stress. Yeah, stress should be at the forefront of everything because we could be eating the best foods, we could be exercising the best way that's recommended, but of our stress is not handled. None of that is going to change. So really for me, stress and then sleep need to be at the top of that list of what we're really looking at. Let's just talk about practical ways to reduce the stress. So number one way in reducing stress is sleep. Listen, you can do all the meditation, all the Yoga essential oils, supplements you want if your sleep is not optimal, none of that is going to matter. So make sure you're getting a solid seven to nine hours of sleep a night. And I know for most of us that work, there is no way Monday through Friday we can get nine hours of sleep and that's okay. Let's get seven, seven and a half during the week and the weekends. Let's try to get those nine hours of sleep to make up. Listen, if you can get eight hours a night, great. If you can get seven and a half hours a night, great, but some of us can't and we're going to have to make the adjustments to what we're used to. Now, a lot of times this might be turning off the TV a little bit earlier. Listen, I'm addicted to my shows. Game of Thrones, shameless, but sometimes we have to stop and the day of Dvr and Netflix, there is no reason why we can't watch it tomorrow. The next thing to take a look at his alone time. So much of our day is bombarded by coworkers or kids, spouses, families. We need 10 to 20 minutes of just us. Whether you want to do it through meditation, Yoga, a cup of coffee on your front porch in the morning before the kids wake up. However, you have to do it by 10 to 20 minutes a day of just you and I would really recommend it away from devices. A lot of times our devices cause more stress. Listen, we're in a really crappy political climate and with everybody's opinion, it is driving us nuts. Listen, we need to shut it off unless you're looking at pictures of kittens, but the phones down and then take a look at our diet. We already know a poor diet filled of heavy fats. Sugars affects our overall, our healthy being. Keep your fruits and vegetables up. Make sure your water is there. Make sure you're eating healthy real foods cause that will make a big difference too. And then listen, if you're in a really bad stress date, look at some supplements, some of my favorites, magnesium and lemon balm. There's a lot of research out there coming with magnesium and for anxiety and depression, we have used it in our family and it has been amazing with something just as simple as magnesium. Lemon Balm is an herb. You can grow it in your kitchen, you can put it in your water, you could find tinctures in supplements for it. It is a fantastic anti stress supplement. And then if that doesn't work, there's another one out there called Sam-e and Sam-e is actually a joint supplement, but it works amazing on stress. That is my number one go to. But switch them up, try what works for you. Talk to a healthcare professional to find out what might be recommended for you. And then last thing is that night you have to find a way to unwind. If you're looking at your cell phone and reading CNN and then trying to go to sleep right after. No one's going to go to sleep when you're watching your 401k plummet. Don't look at the news. Don't look at Facebook. If you have to read a brainless book, talk to your spouse, do whatever you have to do, but find time to unwind. And those are my top tips for stress. Listen, I hope you guys have a fantastic summer. Don't forget if you enjoyed this episode, share it with your friends. Rate it, and don't forget to eat your effing veggies. Talk to you next week.