Transform Your Stress Into Instant Energy
By Marilyn Joyce, Ph.D., R.D.
Healthy Living Editor
Whether physical, emotional or psychological, prolonged stress can completely disrupt one’s health, presenting initially as disrupted sleep patterns, poor nutritional intake, and/or improper/inadequate digestion of foods, leading eventually to a major illness, e.g. IBS, cancer, cardiovascular disease, perhaps even a deadly heart attack!
First let me explain how I came up with this whole concept of transforming stress into energy. To begin with, I’m a workaholic, over-achiever, ageless (meaning I’m in my midlife, by old definitions of aging) woman who’s a caregiver, solopreneur, coach, author and consultant, in the world of health professionals. And yes, it’s true, as a health professional I should know better, but heck I’m just like you, completely human with all of those darned human tendencies. I, like many of my patients and clients, used to find myself trying to be everything to everyone, including work, family and friend commitments! I just didn’t know how to say no to anyone. So my days would often start before the crack of dawn, and end well into the middle of the night. Whew…
I found myself becoming more and more fatigued. That sickening sense of overwhelm often dominated every waking minute of my life. Instead of enjoying and loving my life, I dreaded the start of each new day. I was often so tired I could barely crawl out of bed in the morning, and then I would be dragging myself through the day, running solely on adrenaline. And coffee! All day long! I’d promise myself that I’d eat a healthy dinner and drink lots of water – but the day would end, and I was way too tired to prepare anything, far less eat it!
Of course then, as over tired I was, I simply couldn’t get to sleep at night. Partly due to the coffee – and majorly due to my overactive mind worrying about all of the unfinished tasks and projects that still had to be done, and the fast approaching deadlines on way too many of those projects. I felt like such a complete and utter failure in my self-care efforts! Can you relate to any of this? I bet you can…
The stress was killing me. And my excuse for not stopping to take care of myself was that I just didn’t have the time. There was too much to do and someone had to do it. Heavy duty work commitments, teenage kids and all of their hormonal changes to deal with, family tugging at me on weekends, housekeeping and everything that goes with maintaining a home, and on and on and on. And then the day of reckoning came.
I was diagnosed with the big “C”! That’s right—cancer! I was only 35 years old, and about to begin the worst ride of my life over the next 5 years, actually facing death at my lowest point. But you don’t have to go through this kind of nightmare.
In my own journey back to optimal health more than 20 years ago, I have developed five keys for easily transforming the inevitable stress that most of us deal with, on a daily basis, into unlimited sustainable energy. And this is the energy we must have to fully and joyfully live the life of our dreams. Many of these keys or strategies can easily be done in 5-minute segments throughout your day, and they can be done by anyone, anywhere, anytime. No excuses accepted. Just do them!
So, What The Heck Is Stress Anyway?
You have to know what it is before you can take steps to reduce or eliminate it – or better still, to transform it into something useful and beneficial: energy!
1) It is not simply tension or emotional distress. Stress is actually any condition or situation that places undue strain on the body.
2) It can be physical, such as a physical illness, or a physical injury. Physical stress is generally episodic.
3) It can be psychological resulting from fear, anger, frustration, and even happiness. Emotional stress is part of everyday living.
4) Unbearable stress to one person may be the very life force to another. The experience is very individual and unique to each person.
What Causes Stress: Those Darned Stressors?
 Arguments with your children
Arguments with your spouse/parents
Job loss
Change in jobs
Wrong job
Divorce
Birth of a child
Loss of a loved one
Loss of your home
Unstable home
Lack of control of your environment
Poverty
Financial distress
Social isolation
Personal injury or illness
Traffic jams and crowded stores
Irregular sleep habits, especially insomnia
Rich food and sedentary lifestyle / Bad diet
Obesity
Poisons / Caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and/or drug use
Withdrawal from an addiction
Unrealistic goals and expectations
Etc, etc etc…
10 Major Acute Symptoms Of Stress!
| Headaches | Sense of hopelessness |
| Neck and shoulder tightness / pain | Feeling preoccupied |
| Overeating | Forgetfulness |
| Loss of appetite | Depression |
| Indigestion | Constant irritability |
What Are The Long-Term Effects Of Stress?
| Bone loss | Eventually: Eating Disorders |
| Increased blood pressure | Hypertension |
| Increased blood sugar | Insomnia |
| Increased fat around the abdomen | Tension/Migraine Headaches |
| Increased levels of potent steroids such as cortisol | Ulcers
Ultimately: Cancer, Diabetes, Fatal Heart Attack, Degenerative Illness |
| Increased serum cholesterol levels | |
| Weaker muscles | |
| Suppressed immune system leading to disease | |
3 Primary Ways Diet Affects Stress Management
1) Fast energy is required to replenish the body’s energy reserves, from both natural
sugars and carbohydrates, such as whole grains, and abundant fresh vegetables and fruits.
2) Extra protein, i.e. tofu, tempeh, soymilk, textured vegetable protein, low-fat yogurt (soy or dairy), non-fat cottage cheese, and combinations of grains & legumes, will prevent muscle wasting.
3) Prolonged stress often leads to diminished appetite, resulting in greater muscle loss, increased needs for Vitamins D, C & A, thiamin, riboflavin and other B Vitamins, and increased needs for essential minerals, i.e. magnesium, calcium, zinc, copper, selenium
10 Top Energizing Foods
Can’t keep your eyes open? It happens every day at the same time!! Or, you have an important meeting and the only thing you can think of is “crashing?” Or worse! You are on your way home from work and your eyes keep closing due to a deep sense of exhaustion? Next time you feel yourself in a slump, here is a simple proven solution. Turn to brain-boosting high protein, low-fat foods. As little as 2 - 5 ounces will do it. Within two hours of consumption you will experience the full impact of this intake. The following foods will do the job:
| Almond butter | Low-fat veggie burger patty |
| Beans, peas, lentils | Non-fat plain yogurt |
| Fish, fresh or canned in water | Peanut butter, fresh ground |
| Hummus & vegetable sticks | Tempeh |
| Low-fat cottage cheese | Tofu |
10 Top Calming Foods
You are totally strung-out! Your whole body is tight with tension, and you can’t see straight, far-less focus. But focus you must!! What are you to do? Well the following, low-fat, high carbohydrate foods will trigger the release of chemicals from the brain that have the potential to soothe your stretched and strained nerves. Ingest these foods just 15 to 30 minutes prior to the time that you need to feel their effects.
| Bagels, sprouted Oatmeal, steelcut |
| Brown rice | Pasta, wholegrain |
| Buckwheat | Quinoa |
| Corn Rice | cakes |
| Couscous | Yams |
5 Top Lifestyle Stress Transformers!
1) Get enough sleep: at least 6 - 8 hours per night.
2) Eat right! As close to the original form of the food as possible! The 80-20 principle: 80-90% healthy; 10-20% fun foods, not the opposite!
3) Drink plenty of water, 6 -8 glasses, every day.
4) Get enough exercise and vary the forms: aerobic, stretching, weight resistance.
5) Each night before bed, think of, or even better, write down, 5 things from the day that you are grateful for. Keep a daily gratitude journal.
5 Top Attitude Stress Transformers!
1) Use power phrases versus pain phrases. Monitor the words you use daily.
Remember that words carry power, e.g. I can, I am able.
| Pain | Power |
| I can’t | I won’t |
| I should | I could |
| That’s a problem | That’s an opportunity |
| Life’s a struggle | Life’s an adventure |
| If only......... | Next time......... |
| What can I do? | I know I do the job |
| I hope | I know |
2) Take 100% responsibility for what you are feeling. Don’t blame others.
3) Tell the truth to yourself and others about yourself. Stay in integrity.
4) Fully participate in life with enthusiasm. Act! Don’t react!
5) Tell everyone in your life that you love them, every chance you get.
10 INSTANT Stress Busters
Call someone on the phone.
Email someone you just met.
Journal -- Write about your feelings.
Rent a hilarious comedy movie, and laugh until you cry.
Take a walk around the block (or the field, or the park).
Laugh heartily for no reason -- even if you feel much more like crying.
Write all of your “shoulds” on a piece of paper, crumple it up & burn it.
Write a dream or wish list, including people you would most like to meet.
Relax in a long warm bath, with a glass of wine, soft music, candles and incense.
Listen to music – any kind that lifts your spirits and makes you dance – or relax.
Now get out there and transform all of your stress into the energy you need so that you can fully enjoy your life, your work, and the people in your life. Then watch your productivity soar, experience more joyful connection and meaning in all of your relationships, and revel in an unparalleled sense of fulfillment in every area of your life.
Dr. Marilyn Joyce, The Vitality Doctor™, is the author of the best selling books, “5 Minutes to Health” and “I Can’t Believe Its Tofu!” as well as her more recently released book, “INSTANT E.N.E.R.G.Y.™: The 5 Keys to Unlimited Energy & Vitality.” Check out: www.marilynjoyce.com and sign up for her Special Reports. And visit Dr Joyce’s blog for up-to-the-minute information on transforming stress into energy and her free 15-week ecourse: www.TransformStressNow.com. Also visit www.DrJoyce4JuicePlus.com or call 800-352-3443. |
