September 20, 2015

One evening last week as I was working diligently to get dinner made at our not so early mealtime of 7:30pm, my eight year old daughter asked me, “Mom, how do you have so much energy at night when you get up at 5am? Is it because you eat healthy?” I have to admit, one thing I try to do well is adjust my lifestyle as best as I can when it is not working for me. If my energy is low, I know I need to start looking at what I am eating (yep, even I fall into the sugar trap every now and then) and how much I am sleeping. If I get a cold, I can generally link it to too many nights trying to burn the candle at both ends and too many sweets. I am just not one of those people who can thrive on less than 7 hours of sleep. Finding the lifestyle that works for you is a matter of small tweaks over time while being mindful of the response. Lifestyle takes into account what we eat, our sleep patterns, how we breathe and address stress, activity level, exercise, mental stimulation, work, relationships/connections, and how we recharge.

 

One thing is for certain, pharmaceutical companies are making a killing off diseases of lifestyle. If you don’t believe me, just take a look around the aisles and behind the counters at the drugstores. As I heard someone say recently, “No one makes money out of teaching people to empower themselves.” But empowering yourselves to look at your lifestyle and the impact it is having on your health and wellbeing is the gift that keeps on giving. It not only can improve the quality of your life, but it is the gift that can improve the lives of generations to follow. I heard Daniel Siegel speak last Wednesday at Menlo Atherton High School on the teenage brain and he was talking about the power of mindfulness as a tool to reduce stress and anxiety and cited that it has been shown to have more successful results treating patients with bipolar disorder than medication, but you cannot get funding for the studies because no one is profiting from them. If you can treat bipolar disorder with mindfulness, just think how many kids and college students could get off their medications for anxiety and depression if we were offering mindfulness training in schools from a very early age.

If you are consistently tired, overstressed, run down, sick, irritable, anxious, suffering from aches and pains, low energy, and mentally frazzled or have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, prediabetes, or type 2 diabetes, it is time to take a serious look at your lifestyle as part of the cause.

I know this time of year can be particularly stressful for many people. It seems like the busyness of September is just a big ball that builds on itself as it rolls on through October, November, and December. But you have a built in stress reducer, oh yes you do – it’s called your breath! Here is a recent NPR segment on deep breathing and if you do not currently know how to properly deep breathe and practice often, I highly recommend you click on the link.

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/06/131734718/just-breathe-body-has-a-built-in-stress-reliever

And if you need help addressing your own lifestyle or the lifestyle of your family, let me know.

We have a full schedule of classes this week. I sure hope to see you all in one or more classes. You can sign up online at www.stellafit.com.

Best in health,

Stella