How are you dealing with stress......

I don't know about you but this weekend has been trying for me in the food department.  I had this same problem about half way through last round.  The key issue this time is that I don't have as much gym time to rely on due to restrictions.  I know that it will get better, but really struggling.  But I keep moving forward.

I have always EATEN my stress away.  Over the last year I have found that working out and drinking tea helps, but it is pure will power to not pick up the sugar or the alcohol. 

Happy Day 12..... 1/2 of my family is thrilled the NINERS won today, and there will be a Niners and Hawks rematch.

Welcome to Day 12!

Today, we want you to embrace not only whole foods, but whole health. We’ve talked about diet, exercise, and sleep, but now it’s time to tackle one of the biggest factors in our quest for healthy, happy lives… stress.
Stress is something we all deal with to one degree or another—for most it’s become a “normal” part of our everyday, modern life. Certain types of stress can be good for you (like the fight-or-flight response when being confronted by a snarling dog). However, for many folks, chronic psychological stress can hijack your time, energy, focus, and mood—and create a host of health problems.

So how do you currently manage stress? Maybe one of the ways you used to manage stress was by drowning your troubles in donuts, or pouring yourself a glass of wine to try to forget the day. But right now, on Day 12 of your life-changing Whole30, we want you to step back, take a good hard look at those old stress-relieving habits, and make the commitment to create some new, healthy stress-busting strategies. Evaluate the stress is in your life, and see if you can’t take steps to reduce it, with the help of today’s Whole30 Daily.
Have a great Day 12!

Stress and Disease

It’s common knowledge that when we’re stressed out, we’re more likely to catch that cold or flu that’s going around—but until recently, scientists weren’t sure why. This April 2012 Science Daily article provides new information about exactly how stress is linked to illness and disease. It’s a little technical, so we’ve created some CliffsNotes to help you out:

• Stress wreaks havoc on the mind and body. Psychological stress is associated with greater risk for depression, heart disease and infectious diseases. Until now, it has not been clear exactly how stress influences disease and health.
• A research team has found that psychological stress promotes systemic inflammation throughout the body (via the stress hormone cortisol), and that inflammation can promote the development and progression of illness and disease.
• Systemic inflammation is essentially an up-regulation of your immune activity everywhere in the body. If your immune system is overworked, it means repair and maintenance tasks (like fending off the common cold, healing that stubborn tendonitis, or clearing plaque from your arteries) can be left undone, or done poorly.

This should be ringing some bells here…
One of the missions of the Whole30 (and one of our four It Starts With Food Good Food standards) is to reduce systemic inflammation via your food choices. By reducing inflammation, you take the burden off your immune system, which means you get (and stay) healthier. So if stress also affects your immune system, it would stand to reason that managing your stress is equally as important as managing your food choices, right?

Are You a Stress Junkie?

According to the leading authority on pretty much everything (Oprah, of course), stress addiction is a legitimate condition, with serious consequences. Oprah.com says, “ Stress junkies are people who use their own physiological responses as a mood-altering device. And just like heroin, stress hormones have side effects that can kill you. Pumped into the bloodstream at high levels for long periods of time, these chemicals contribute to ulcers and heart disease, weaken the immune system, and leave us vulnerable to everything from automobile accidents to depression.”
So, are you a stress junkie? Does any of the following sound like you?

• Are you always on tight deadlines, multi-tasking within an inch of your life or creating ridiculous schedules for yourself?
• Are you a perfectionist in everything you do, even when it doesn’t really matter?
• Are you an inattentive listener, checking email, paying bills or cleaning while on the phone?
• Are you constantly worrying about “what if,” stuck in an endless loop of dreaming up worst-case scenarios?
• Do you rush everywhere, all the time, because there are other things elsewhere you should be doing?
• Have you lost all sense of patience, losing your cool when faced with even a minor telephone hold, appointment delay or grocery store line?
• Are you always saying, “Things will calm down soon,” but they never, ever do?
• Does the idea of a restorative yoga class, meditation or sitting quietly for 15 minutes make you want to crawl out of your skin?

If you answered “yes” to one or more of those questions… you may be a stress junkie. Continue reading Part 1 of our Stress Addicts Anonymous series to find out more.

Stress Rehab

So what’s a stress junkie to do? Telling one to “chill out” or “relax” is inane in this situation, given the addictive nature of the stress response. (It’s like telling an alcoholic, “You know, you should just stop drinking.” How effective is that strategy?) Still, identifying habits and patterns and admitting you have a problem is the first step. So stop the 27 things you’re doing right now, take a deep breath and say it with me – “I am a stress junkie, and I have a problem.”
Take a gander at these coping strategies:

• Identify your triggers, change your habits. Take time to figure out what precipitates stress in your life. Ask family and friends to help you here, as you often aren’t a good judge of your own triggers.
• Control and predictability – create a routine. Procrastination, multi-tasking and chasing your own tail self-perpetuates the stress cycle. Creating (and sticking to) a routine can to add some predictability to your day, and remove some opportunity for unexpected stress.
• Exercise some, not too much. Low intensity exercise (like hiking or swimming) blunts the stress response for up to a day after each session – but it has to be something you want to do. (Forcing yourself to exercise only creates more stress.)
• Don’t (purposely) fast. Deliberate caloric restriction and extended (or regular) fasting provokes a physical stress response, and only adds to your overall stress burden.
• Skip the coffee. Caffeine is a stimulant, and the last thing you need is more stimulation.
• Meditation – sort of. Studies show psychological benefits while someone is meditating – but those benefits don’t necessarily continue after the session is over.
• Social support – try giving. The right network of friends or family can help you manage stress, but often the stress junkie simply won’t ask for help. So try giving – offering social support in a volunteer or charitable setting.
• The E – R – C strategy. Make a list of stressors, and identify those you can Eliminate, those you could Reduce and those you must simply Cope with.
• Practice the 80/20 rule. In the case of stress, take the 80/20 rule to mean that 80% of your stress reduction can be accomplished with the first 20% of effort.
• Get help. Sometimes, working through your situation with an impartial party is exactly what we need to put things into perspective.

You can read more about how to break the stress addiction cycle in Part 2 of our Stress Addicts Anonymous series.

Meditation 101

Meditation doesn’t have to be an hour of you + the universe unveiling all of its mysteries… sometimes the beauty is merely in the pause. As Traver H. Boehm explains in the first article below, “That pause will let you ask yourself, ‘Is this situation really about me or am I just the closest warm body to someone with their own issues?’ ‘Is this situation really worth getting upset over, or am I reacting simply because other people would believe I had the right to react?’ ‘Should I smile and walk away or do what I want and bop this individual in the nose?’
But still, though the “why” of meditation might be self-evident, the “how” often trips people up. Check out these three articles dedicated to the “how,” and get your own pause on today.

• A self-described “chronic meditator” explains The Simple Why and How of Meditation in this Breaking Muscle post.
• Still not sure if meditation is for you? Read these 5 Common Myths about meditation and see if you can change your mind.
• Only have a minute? We’ve got you covered. Watch this short clip on how to meditate in the moment, and change your perspective, your attitude, and your mood in just 60 seconds.

Find Your Happy Place

Is all of this talking about stress stressing you out? Here is a list of 10 more very simple and scientifically recognized things you can do each day to create a moment of peace (besides reaching for a Twinkie):

• Laugh out loud. A good long laugh not only reduces stress, it can also stimulate circulation, help relieve pain, and fight illness.
• Eat breakfast. A study out of the MindLab in England showed that participants who ate breakfast had an 89% drop in anxiety when faced with a hard task.
• Pet your dog or cat. Research shows that petting your furry friends releases hormones that not only make people happy but also decrease the stress hormone, cortisol.
• Listen to music. In particular slow, classical music. Or Gregorian chant. But any music you like and find relaxing can serve as a distraction and, if you want to take it a step further, making your own music is proven to brighten one’s mood and reduce depressive symptoms.
• Drink tea. Akin to petting your pup, drinking tea is shown to reduce cortisol levels. The warm, liquidy goodness also increases people’s perception of relaxation.
• Breathe. By practicing deep breathing you can train the body to react differently in stressful situations. There is even some research that suggests regular deep breathing can even change you at the most basic level by altering gene expression.
• Be kind. Consciously engaging in acts of kindness releases endorphins making us feel happy, full of energy, and optimistic. In turn, these feelings create a sense of well-being that helps us to be calmer and focus in stressful situations.
• Take a walk. Research has shown that as little as 20-30 minutes of walking can have similar effects as taking a mild-tranquilizer. Much like kindness, walking creates an endorphins-happiness-well-being-calmness effect.
• Turn off your computer. Researchers from the University of California had study participants wear a heart monitor as they worked on their computers. One group of participants used their computers as they normally would and the other group was to abstain from using their email. The group that did not check their email had a lower heart rate, reported a great sense of relief at not needing to check their email, were more physically active during the work day, and were also more social.
• Read. Just six minutes of quiet reading can reduce your stress by 68% by slowing down you heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles and heart.