Stress Part II: Sleep It Off

This is one of the most difficult strategies surrounding stress – getting proper sleep. It often becomes a vicious cycle – the sleep stress pattern. When many of us are under stress, one of the first things to go is proper sleep. Your mind does not settle, and it keeps you awake, or all the things in your mind that are causing the stress awaken you during the night.

Getting a good night’s sleep is a major component of good health (in partner with healthy eating, exercising, and not smoking). Sleep allows our body to go through two types of restoration: mental and physical. During certain sleep cycles, our body restores itself physically and allowing the body to re-energize (and yes, still burn calories). During other sleep cycles, our body restores itself mentally, allowing the brain to compartmentalize everything from the day and put it into memory. Think of it filing everything from the day. Generally, when we fall short on sleep, it is the mental restoration that is shortened, since the body must physically function to keep going.

So, when we are stressed and we are having trouble sleeping, and wake up even more stressed, what can we do?

Before turning to sleeping pills or alcohol, consider these tips:

1. Set your bedtime: plan what time you are going to go to bed tonight. It could be 10 pm or mid-night or even 2 am. Regardless of when it is, plan on it and set it.
2. Set a time limit: shut yourself off or shut things out after a certain time. Make it your own, and be firm. You need to relax before heading to bed – ideally a couple of hours, but realistically, let’s make it an hour before your bedtime.
3. What are you shutting off? Everything – the computer, phone, Blackberry, television… you are beginning a relaxation time before bed, which will be a ritual for you from now on. The iPod/CD player may remain “on” if it is playing relaxing music.
4. Setting your ritual: This can include your cup of (decaf) tea, washing your face, brushing your teeth, writing down (with a pen and paper) something you need to do tomorrow (do not touch that computer or other electronic gadget), taking a bath, or reading a book.
5. Don’t exercise: Please don’t take this literally, but take it to mean not to exercise within a 2-3 hours before you plan to go to be. Raising the body temperature and the heart rate doesn’t help you be calm for bedtime.
6. Avoid caffeine, food, and alcohol: These disrupt sleep if consumed too close to bedtime. Eating right before bed does not cause weight gain unless you are eating too many calories, but it can cause sleep disturbances if you have too much food in your belly.

Setting the Room:

• Sex and sleep: You’ve heard it before and you have it here. The bedroom should be used for only two things, and blogging or twittering isn’t one of them. Keep it to what it was meant for, and nothing more.
• Dark and cool: The room, not your partner. The room should be dark, and ideally cool. Not too warm – that’s what the covers are for.

While planning these sleep rituals may seem like they are taking away from “important” tasks that you need to accomplish, consider this: will you accomplish those tasks more efficiently after you have a good nights sleep, or just accomplish them and miss out on good sleep? Either way, they will get done, but will they be done better when you are in better mental shape?

Work on these things. It may take time and practice, but it is helpful to have these rituals to get you to bed on time and peacefully.

Sleep well tonight – or very soon.

Stress Part I: Move it to Lose It

Everyone looks for something to relieve his/her stress. Whether it is a massage, a drink, a movie, or a good book, we all have out favorite stress reliever. One of the most beneficial stress relievers however is exercise. I know, how SILLY to think of ADDING something to my life, another think to my schedule to contribute to my stress, but lets look at some of the benefits:

• Exercise can decrease the production of stress hormones.
• Exercise helps build up the immune system.
• Exercise increased endorphins – the feel-good hormones.
• Exercise helps build muscle and strength in your entire body including your heart.
• Exercise helps clear your mind of fatigue and helps you think better.

Whether it is aerobic/cardiovascular, strength training, or flexibility (yoga), any type of exercises you can and will engage in usually will have a benefit for your mind, and almost always on your health.

It takes practice and time to get to the point where you can exercise without your mind going to where you think you should be. For example, going on that walk and thinking about the “to do” list, or “clearing your mind” in yoga class, but eventually it happens. It can take weeks, or months, but you will get there with practice.

You learn to not feel guilty about all those things you should be doing instead of exercise, because when you get back to your task, I promise, it will still be there. If it isn’t…all the better!

How much exercise should you do? Based on the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, here is the reality of it:

• All adults should avoid inactivity. Some physical activity is better than none, and adults who participate in any amount of physical activity gain some health benefits.
• For substantial health benefits, adults should do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous intensity aerobic activity. Aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes, and preferably, it should be spread throughout the week.
• For additional and more extensive health benefits, adults should increase their aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes (5 hours) a week of moderate intensity, or 150 minutes a week of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity. Additional health benefits are gained by engaging in physical activity beyond this amount.
• Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities that are moderate or high intensity and involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week, as these activities provide additional health benefits.

It may seem like a lot, but lets break it down: 150 minutes is 30 minutes five times a week and 300 minutes is 1 hour a day five times a week.

Will exercise prolong your life? Maybe, maybe not. But it will help it be a healthier life while you are here. Trust me – there is time to do this. One day, there will be plenty of time, but by then it could be too late. The stress will have caught up to you and by then the chronic disease will have caught up too, and you will wish you could do some walking on your own. I hope you saved for retirement and got a good long term health care plan.

Stress Is Relative

If you are the least bit like me – you stress out on many things, the littlest things, and anything. As I noted in my October 18th posting prior to my marathon, I had nerves, I had a headache and I had trouble eating. Even the morning of the event I got into a “fight” with my husband (meaning I was irritated and crabbing at him) as he was driving me to the event because I wasn’t going to get there as early as I wanted to. He even said to me – “it’s only a run!” I KNEW that! I wasn’t running for anyone but me. I was stressed about the run, but my stress presented itself in irrational behavior toward him.

Five days after the marathon I was in a meeting in Chicago with about twenty other dietitians. We did an exercise/ice breaker where we stated our most stressful moment in the last five days. I mentioned my marathon – and while it was a personal accomplishment, it had been (one of the) more stressful moments of the past five days. I could have also mentioned trying to make sure I packed all my things for a cold weather five day trip into one suitcase so I wouldn’t be charged a $25 luggage fee by American Airlines, or hoping that my airplane didn’t get delayed since I needed to be at a meeting in downtown Chicago an hour after I landed, or any number of things that I chose to stress about that week, but the marathon was the biggest.

I was the first to go, but once others took their turn mentioning their stressful moment in the past five days, I realized how my stress is so…silly? One person, who owns her own business, was upset by having to lay-off one of her employees due to slower business in the current economy; another had her business partner in her successful community magazine leave her and she was completing what would be her last publication that weekend; a third woman whose husband serves in the special forces in the military, helped another wife bury her husband the days before we were sitting in the room. All this had happened in the five days prior to our meeting!

Two days later as I am speaking to my husband on the phone, he is quite upset over how our son left a crayon in his pants and it “ruined” a pair of his jeans and he had just spend half and hour cleaning the dryer. I almost laughed. “It’s a pair of pants,” I told him. A pair of pants and thirty minutes cleaning a dryer is nothing compared to still having a job, a companion, and a life. He got my point, but was still irritated.

I WILL still stress about “silly things,” I just cannot help it. Unfortunately, it is my personality type and I know it. However, I recognize, and we must all recognize, that most of the time (of course, not all) the stresses in our lives are brought upon ourselves. But most importantly, the way we respond to the stresses in our lives is very important to our health and wellness.

If we choose to blame others for the stresses, then we will be unhealthy and have repercussions of the stresses. If we choose to make changes, adapt, and/or accept the environment we are in, then we may be healthier for it.

Stress is relative. When my son’s car broke down, literally in the middle of the road – that was very stressful AT THAT MOMENT. It was soon over. A new stressor will present itself soon, and so will many others. I can choose to be upset by things, or do my best to take it in stride. I have several mantras for this:

• A year from now, will this matter? (Only once was that the case, and that was when my dog was missing. It turns out he was at the neighbor's house, so it ended up not being the case after all. Most of the time, a week from now, it won’t matter.)
• There is a reason for everything. There is a purpose for this. I just may not know what it is.
• This isn’t the worst that could happen.

Work on realizing what stressors are really YOU choosing to be stressed.

Halloween Tips on Treats

As Halloween is very soon, and the time change to fall back is soon after, here comes the season of food and feasting on treats. Let’s tackle some wellness tips for the first fall food holiday – Halloween.

It does not matter whether you have kids to take through the neighborhood, a local party or other treat gathering event, or they come to your door, you must maintain the control. Here are some tips to help you with that.

Make a Plan: You must decide ahead of time what you are going to do on Halloween night. Are you taking the kids out? Or are you the designated greeter? Even better, turn off the porch light to have a quiet dinner and a movie. You may not be able to get away with the last one, so lets go to the next tip.

Don’t Buy Early: Do NOT buy your treats more than a week ahead. Even a few days prior is sufficient. I bought mine just two days before. (The candy company and the stores are banking on you buying way ahead, cause they just KNOW you will be back for more.) Purchase the treats for the kiddos, not for you, and avoid opening them prior to the big night. Even better buy treats you don’t even like. (Peanut butter taffy anyone?)

Rethink the Treat: Try something different. Ideas: fruit snacks, single-serve microwave popcorn, pretzels, cheese and cracker or peanut butter and cracker packages, packages of trail mix, sugar-free gum, single-serve packages of instant cocoa or cider, sticks of beef jerky, 100 calorie snack packs, rice krispie treats, granola bars, individual servings of dried fruit. Want something completely new and different to give-away? The PLAY-DOH Halloween Trick or Treat Bag (not candy but still edible – though it does contain wheat). It’s 20 cans for $4.00 so not too bad, and I would have loved to get this as a kid! http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/default.cfm?page=products&product_id=20702

With Your Own Kids: Walk the kids, don’t drive them around the neighborhood; the exercise is good for both of you. Don’t take your kids candy and treats, and after five days get rid of anything that is left; if it is still there, then it really isn’t a favorite.

After it is over: It’s the season for the non-perishable food drives, so take your extra candy and donate it. Some of the children in the shelters or for the families, who can’t afford food, aren’t really able to get out there to trick-or-treat, so let them have the leftovers. You certainly don’t need it and your kids don’t either.

Follow these tips and you will safely get through the Halloween season and on your way to the next Fall Feasting Day...

Sharing a Personal Success

It is done! After training for almost 6 months, this past Sunday I accomplished one of my life goals: to complete a marathon before I was 40.

I ran the Duke City Marathon yesterday with the true goal of completing it, and a hopeful goal of completing it in under 4:30 hours.

I completed it in 4:28.02. Even with training for the last 6 months, it was tough the last 6 miles, just as everyone who has done this had promised. However, I think the worst part I was that my husband, who supported my through most of the race, had parked the truck about 1/3 mile away and I had to walk to it after running for 26.2 miles! Sometimes you feel that you can’t just do anymore, but you do.

A colleague of mine who has run many marathons, including Boston three times and Chicago last week in 3:10 said I looked much better than she did last week. That was nice of her. I feel pretty good today – just a little bit of soreness and glad to have a banister on the stairs at home.

Will there be another? Highly unlikely, but who knows? It was just something to check off the list.

See the full results here: https://www.runraceresults.com/secure/raceresults.cfm?id=rcls2008

Nerves – cause for pain in the stomach, in the head and in the legs…

The day and days before the big day and I’m asked if I’m nervous… I didn’t think so, but three big things are happening.

I’ve been having difficult time eating. Not good, since I should have been loading up on carbs and calories for the last couples of days and especially today. I’ve dropped three pounds in the past few days, which may not seem like much, but this is from my morning weight.

I’ve been having my bout of migraines. I get migraines on a pretty regular basis, but now and then I get a batch of them over the course of three days and even with my meds they are only controlled but never completely go away. Today is day three. Hopefully today is the last day.

I had those terrible night leg cramps in my calves on Thursday night/Friday morning really bad in my left leg, and then one in my right leg about an hour later. They were so bad that today, a day and a half later I’m still sore in my left leg.

So, what can one do?

It is rarely that we dietitians do this, but we do say it: force yourself to eat. I’ve been eating on a schedule today. I’m not hungry, but I’m eating. I set my timer and eat something – high carb – every 3 hours. I had oatmeal for breakfast; yogurt and tortilla for early lunch; cheerios for late lunch; banana and peanut butter for snack; I’m having popcorn now, and making some gnocchi for dinner.

I stay hydrated and take my meds for my migraines and just pray that tomorrow I wake up fine.

Those leg cramps (ouch). Stay hydrated, water and Gatorade (at least this last couple of days), take a calcium supplement, stretch, and take an Advil to take away the pain.

Hopefully, all will go well, and the only pain will be from fatigue at the end, or near the end, tomorrow.

One of My Life Goals - Being Checked Off on Sunday

One of my goals: Run a marathon before I'm 40.

Coming up on Sunday, October 19th, I will run my first marathon - the Duke City Marathon here in Albuquerque. The only goal that day: to finish (before 1:30 since I have a massage scheduled for 2 pm).

My very first race was a 5K at the Duke City events four years ago on October 24th - and it was excrutiating and exhilirating at the same time.

Since then, I have run six official 5K, three official 10K, the La Luz Trail Run twice, and three Half Marathons (all in Albuquerque).

Of course in training, I have run those distances many times and I improve my time most of the time.

I'll decide next week, or maybe later, if I will run another marathon, but for now... I'll be ok with sticking to the half marathons with most of the runners in the U.S.

Live by example.

Oh yes, and I just turned 39 two weeks ago...