Let’s talk stress. We’re all prone to a little bit of stress in our every day but I gotta say between traveling the last few weeks while keeping up with my blogging schedule & recipe development, then launching my own business on top of that, my schedule has been a little overloaded and I ain’t gonna lie, I’ve been stressed AF!
Cortisol Stimulates “Fight or Flight”: The Body’s Stress Response. It’s responsible for controlling blood sugar levels, regulating metabolism & inflammation, and assists with memory formulation. It has a controlling effect on salt and water balance in the body and also helps control blood pressure.
So you can understand how being constantly stressed (which elevates cortisol levels) can take a huge toll on the body, and boy do I notice it! Between increased inflammation, feeling super puffy in the mornings, inability to sleep, feeling so dehydrated despite how much water I drink, increased appetite and being more susceptible to bloat I’ve been feeling it ALL this past month. I’m so excited to be partnering Natural with Vitality to share with my top 5 ways to reduce that pressure when things start to get a little cray cray.
1. Lower impact workouts.
I love a good sweat sesh but I do need to be mindful of how many high intensity workouts I do throughout the week and tune in to what my body is telling me at the time. High intensity cardio increases the heart rate, thus increasing cortisol. Sure there are going to be days where I wanna do an intense spin class, but I’ll switch it up the next day and do something lower impact like Pilates or a morning walk to ensure I’m not stressing my body out back to back.
2. Natural Vitality CALM Magnesium Drink
Magnesium was a mineral I hugely overlooked up until the last year or so. It’s needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in the body! Including maintaining nerve and muscle function which we basically need to function.
The past 2 weeks I’ve been implementing 1 scoop of Natural Vitality CALM Lemon Raspberry powder in a big glass of water to my daily regime and I swear it calms me right dooooowwn.
3. Find a self care practice
I find it hard to sit down and meditate for 30 minutes especially when there’s more work to be done than hours in the day HOWEVER finding just a few moments of calm, even 5 minutes of breath work, a quick yoga flow or going for a 10 minute walk outside really helps lower my stress levels and I’ve actually found it improves my productivity!
On days when I’m really under the crunch, I’ll burn some palo santo and put on classical music when I work, I find it really helps keep me cool, calm and in the zone.
4. Reduce caffeine intake
To put it simply. Coffee stimulates the adrenals to release more cortisol.
I know it can be so tempting to go straight to coffee to ‘power through’ a long to do list but it’s not the smart choice. If I want long and lasting energy throughout the day, without increased cortisol, (or blood sugar spikes that are caused by coffee) I’ll reach for a Matcha instead.
5. Plan out my day
When I have a full schedule it is imperative I plan out every hour of my day so I’m proactive rather than reactive. Something as little as not communicating with my husband about our schedules can throw an entire day off whack (we share e car) and when you have LA traffic to deal with you’ll understand just how stressful that can be when you have 25 minutes to drive from Weho to Downtown on a Friday.
Comments