30. The Hidden Stressors Quietly Ruining Your Health

Stress doesn’t always look like a crisis. Sometimes it’s the chair you sit in all day, the endless pings on your phone, or the tiny choices that pile up until your willpower is toast. I dig into six hidden stressors and share simple, evidence-based steps that fit real life.

Walk away with a clear, calm playbook to design days that work for you, not against you. If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a reset, and leave a quick rating so more people can find these tools. What’s the one change you’ll start this week?

I am happy we can share this journey of leveling up, together. Send me a text by clicking the link at the top of the description. I would love to hear from you :) See you next week! 

- Alita <3 

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This podcast is intended for general educational purposes only. The content discussed does not replace professional medical, nutritional, or fitness advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Individual needs and responses vary, especially with exercise and nutrition. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making significant lifestyle changes.

Transcript

Welcome & Why Follow

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up? Welcome back to Vita with Alita. This is a podcast about evidence-based wellness for real life. I'm Alita and I'm here to talk about fitness, health, mindset, and building a strong and sustainable life. But doing so without extremes, guilt, or perfectionism. If you care about your health, but you also want a life that you can actually live, you're definitely in the right place. Now before we jump in, I just want to say thank you for being here. It genuinely means a lot that you choose to spend your time listening. And I don't take that lightly. If you've been enjoying the show, following the podcast really helps it grow and lets me know that you're enjoying what you're listening to. And it will actually help more people find these conversations, which means I can keep bringing you new episodes every single week. Alright, let's get into today's episode. I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you. And if you like what you hear, I would highly suggest you follow the show to make sure that you have an episode right where you need it every single Friday. Alright. So when most people think about stress, you probably think about the big obvious things. Work deadlines, a major life change, some sort of relationship conflict. And yeah, those are stressors, but honestly, some of the biggest stressors in modern life are actually ones that we may barely notice. And sometimes they're even so deeply built into our routines or environments that they just completely go over our heads. Even in the way we might structure our days. So today we're talking about hidden stressors that are probably quietly affecting your health. And we're gonna get into some small changes that can make your daily life a little healthier and a little more sustainable. Before we get into the episode, as always, let's talk about the word of the week. This week, the word is celubrity. Celebrity? Salubrity. It kinda sounds like celebrity, but it's it's celubrity. Celebrity refers to the quality of something that promotes health and well-being. You may often hear it used to describe environments, things like clean air, healthy living conditions, or places that support wellness. But I like thinking about celebrity in a broader way. Your health isn't just determined by workouts or your nutrition. It's also shaped by the daily conditions that you live in. These make up your routines, your habits, your environments, and when we improve the celebrity of our daily lives, even small adjustments can have a big long-term impact. So let's talk about a few hidden stressors that may be working against your health without you even realizing it. Stressor one. We touched upon this one last week, but I think it is worth reiterating, and that's sitting for long periods of time. The first hidden stressor is something that many of us do for hours of a day sometimes. Just sitting. Modern life is incredibly sedentary. Many people sit while commuting, you sit at work, you sit while relaxing in the evening, you sit while studying, you sit while reading. And research consistently shows that prolonged sitting is associated with higher risks of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease, and even early mortality. A large analysis published in Analysis of Internal Medicine found that people who spend more time sitting actually have a higher risk of chronic disease even if they exercise regularly. Just let that sink in. So one helpful strategy researchers talk about is, again, as we talked about last week, exercise snacks, short bursts of movements throughout the day, walking for a few minutes, climbing the stairs, stretching quickly, these small interruptions can actually help reactivate your muscles and circulation. And over time, they'll actually improve the overall celebrity of our daily routines. Stressor number two, low daily movement. The second hidden stressor is just simply not moving enough throughout the day. And I know it's hard. I have these days too where I sometimes get like a thousand steps in, if that. And you've probably heard of the recommendation for 10,000 steps per day. And while that number originally came from a Japanese pedometer marketing campaign, modern research still supports the general idea that more daily walking is strongly associated with better health outcomes. And a large study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that higher daily step counts were actually linked with lower mortality risk. Walking regularly is associated with improved cardiovascular health, better metabolic regulation, improved mood and cognitive function. And one of the best things about walking is that it is incredibly accessible. It doesn't really require equipment, it's low impact, and it can easily be built into your daily life. Take a little short walk after meals, walking while listening to a podcast, choosing to walk short distances instead of driving sometimes, are simple ways to increase movement. And sometimes if the weather is absolutely horrible outside, I will even walk in my own house. So try to move around as much as you can throughout the day, is honestly just going to set you up for success. It's one of those minor things that maybe we don't think about, but I really urge you to think about it. Alright, stressor number three, constant digital interruptions. So another hidden stressor is just constantly being bombarded by the technology around us. Notifications, emails, messages, alerts, and they just fragment our attention throughout the day. And every time our focus is interrupted, like your brain has to orient reorient itself to the task that we were actually working on. And research in cognitive psychology shows that task switching increases mental fatigue and reduces productivity. And studies from the University of California found that after an interruption, it can take over 20 minutes to fully regain focus on the original task. Whoa. So this means that constant digital interruptions can create a subtle but persistent form of mental stress. So a few strategies that can help include turning off non-essential notifications, setting designated times to check messages, placing your phone out of reach while working so that that temptation is not there. These small boundaries can protect your attention, but also create a calmer mental environment for you. And it may actually just make you feel calmer overall, and you may not notice it until it's gone or until you actually do something about it. So I urge you to try, see, see how it goes, and I guarantee you'll probably feel a little bit better, a little bit calmer, a little bit less stressed, a little bit less distracted. Alrighty, our next stressor here is spending too much time indoors. Listen, I know, I understand. It's like minus 20 degrees Celsius sometimes, and you just the last thing you want to do is go outside. I understand 100%. But sometimes it gets a little bit too much. So many people move between indoor environments all day. Think about it. You go from your home to inside your car, to inside the office, to inside your gym, to inside your home again, and you're just always inside. But exposure to natural environments can have significant health benefits. Research published in scientific reports found that spending at least 120 minutes per week in nature is associated with better health and well-being. Even small exposures to outdoor environments can help improve mood and reduce stress. So things like taking a walk outside, spending time in a park, getting sunlight early in the day. Let's say it's absolutely horrible outside, maybe working near a window, crack the window a little bit open. Just be outside. Think of a time you were in nature, you were outside, I don't know, you were staring at a tree, you just feel calmer, you just feel a little bit better. And I personally feel a little bit more relaxed. So if you can incorporate that into your day, however that looks, then honestly, I think it's just better for your overall health. It's in moments like this where I really appreciate my dog because she forces me to go outside when she needs to be walked, and I never come back from that walk regretting going on the walk in the first place or going outside, right? So if you can get yourself outside. And just it's a nice little little habit to incorporate, I think. Alright. Stress number five, and this is decision fatigue. And this one's probably overlooked a lot because we may not realize that we're doing it, but throughout the day we have to make hundreds of small decisions. What to eat, what to wear, what task to do next, whether I should exercise, whether to respond to a message, how should I respond to a message? Over time, all of these decisions place demands on the brain. And research in behavioral economics and behavioral psychology actually shows that when decision fatigue builds up, people are more likely to make impulsive or less healthy choices. So, what does this mean? When you're tired of making decisions, you're just gonna stop caring and just do and just and just at the end of the day, you don't know what to eat, you're just gonna reach for the yummiest food, even if it's not the healthiest food or what you're intending to eat. So, one way to reduce the stressor is by simplifying certain routines. So planning your meals ahead of time, creating a consistent morning routine so it becomes somewhat automated, scheduling workouts in advance, so putting it in your calendar so that you don't have to make the decision to do it, you just know when you're gonna do it, reducing unnecessary choices, and just not thinking too much about things that maybe don't really matter. Structure can actually reduce mental stress and free up cognitive energy for more important decisions that you actually need to make throughout the day. It might be boring, but honestly, a boring life sometimes is a healthier one. Alrighty. Stressor number six, and this is the lack of mental recovery during the day. This is the final hidden stressor I'm gonna talk about today, and maybe one that we don't pay attention to, hence hidden, but many people probably move continuously from task to task, and we don't really give our brain the time to reset. Just just take a like a snippet of your day for like 10 minutes. Work, email, phone, social media, more work, food, dog, gym, work, email, phone, like but you know. Research on attention and productivity shows that the brain benefits from short breaks throughout the day. And studies on cognitive performance suggest that even brief breaks can help restore attention and reduce mental fatigue. These breaks don't need to be long. Two to five minutes can help. And this includes stepping outside, haha, two in one, stretching, walking briefly, closing your eyes, breathing for a moment. Notice how I did not include technology in these breaks. Okay? So these are intentional breaks that we're taking, and they are mindful breaks. And these micro breaks can improve focus, productivity, and overall well-being. Personally, I suggest taking these breaks naturally when you have finished a task, when kind of the thought has been closed. Like you sent, you finished reading all your emails and you're about to close your inbox and move on to the next task. Before you move on to the next task, this is where you can go outside, take a deep breath, do your thing, take that mental break, and then come back refreshed to move on to the next task. So many of these stressors are not dramatic, they're subtle. They're built into the way modern life works today. So because they're so normal, we we rarely question them. But improving your health doesn't always require major lifestyle changes. Yes, it does, to a certain extent, but we're here talking about overall well-being. And sometimes it's just about paying attention to the small patterns in your day. Standing up more often, walking just a little bit more, reducing digital distractions, spending time outside, simplifying your routines, taking small mental breaks. These small adjustments can gradually improve the celebrity of your daily life. I know it might be a little bit overwhelming, so start with one thing. Start with one thing, and I hope you'll notice that it's your day is so much better with that one thing. And you can kind of combine some of these things. Like the break that you want to take could be you getting fresh air outside. You planning out what your meals you want to have is just going to help with many things at once. It's going to help keep you on track with your nutrition, but also reduce decision fatigue. So just try as much as you can to make life a little bit easier for yourself. You want to keep be putting your best foot forward whenever you can, but then keeping that mental energy for actual important decisions rather than scattered last-minute impulsive ones. Alright, so here are our stressors one more time. Sitting for long periods, low daily movement, constant digital interruptions, spending too much time indoors, decision fatigue, and finally lack of mental recovery during the day. Thank you everyone. That is all from me, and see you next week. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I really appreciate you being here. If something in the episode clicked for you, send it to a friend. Or you can reach out to me directly using the link in the description. I genuinely love hearing from you. And if you want more evidence-based wellness, you can connect with me via my Instagram. Again, that link will be in the description below. Take care of yourself this week, and I'll talk to you soon. See you on the next one. Bye bye.