 6 Weeks to a Healthier Lifestyle | |
| Handling Stress and Getting Enough Sleep | |
 | from Paige Waehner Diet and exercise are important for living a healthy life, but a couple of areas we need to work on are stress and sleep deprivation. Stress can contribute to a host of problems like depression, anxiety, ulcers and heart disease, just to name a few. Sleep deprivation, like stress, effects the body as well, weakening the immune system and causing memory loss, irritability, moodiness and even more stress. Handling stress and getting enough sleep are crucial for staying healthy, especially if you tend to eat, drink or smoke your stress away. This week, you'll learn how you handle stress and sleep deprivation and simple ways to do a better job with both. |
| How do You Handle Stress? | |
| You already know that chronic stress can cause many healthy problems, but did you know it can also make you fat? Research has shown that chronic stress can contribute to accumulating excess fat around the belly. When the hormone cortisol is released in response to stress, the body tends to store more fat around the abdominal area. Science has also found that people who are stressed out usually eat fattier diets and exercise less. Your first step in dealing with stress is to figure out your current behaviors. Do you tend to eat when you're stressed out? What about drinking? Using the following resources, you can figure out how you handle stress which is your starting point for taking better care of yourself.
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| Exercise Your Stress Away | |
| One of the simplest and most effective ways of dealing with stress is exercise. Studies have shown that exercise can help the body handle mental stress more productively, as well as decrease depression and anxiety while enhancing self-esteem. Cardio exercise is probably one of the best choices for dealing with stress. By getting your heart rate up, you can burn off some of that adrenaline that fuels feelings of anxiety and stress, leaving you feeling refreshed, relaxed and ready to tackle your problems. The best activities are the ones most accessible to you and the ones you enjoy.
The following resources provide more information about how exercise can help you relieve stress. | |
| More Stress Reduction Solutions | |
Exercise isn't the only way to reduce your stress. Having a variety of stress reduction techniques is the best way to learn to deal with chronic stress. It can be as simple is taking a few minutes to breathe deeply or taking a walk to clear your mind. Try some of these stress-relieving activities along with your exercise program:
Get Started Today Now that you've taken a look at how you deal with stress and learned ways to cope, make a list of what you can do right now to reduce the stress in your life. Some ideas might be:
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| Getting Enough Sleep | |
| Sleep deprivation is another problem that contributes to weight gain, high blood pressure, and compromised immune system. Do you get enough sleep? That's the first question you'll answer by taking the Sleep Deprivation Screening Quiz. Next, you can learn more about some of the common reasons we're sleep deprived, from sleep disorders like insomnia to stress and anxiety. Once you've learned more about your sleep patterns, you can then work on ways to make your sleep more restful and healing with the following resources: | |
| Baby Steps | |
| Creating a healthy lifestyle isn't easy. It takes time and perseverence, especially if you've spent most of your life following unhealthy habits. Patience and persistence are probably the most important characteristics you'll need when embarking on the road to a healthier life and you won't always be perfect. Learning how to take care of yourself is kind of like learning any other skill--the more you practice, the better you get. Take your failures in stride and do your best. | |
| Learn Something New Every Day | |
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