As I’ve learned from my recent trips to Mr. Nice Doctor, it’s likely that many of my symptoms are either related to or drastically enhanced by the stress in my life. Insomnia and nightmares, feeling fatigued and worn out, lacking energy, having receding gums, gaining weight, feeling anxious, breathing shallow and having difficulty concentrating and remembering things could all be directly related to stress. Stress is sneaky because its symptoms are very similar to a number of diseases, illnesses and disorders – stress can masquerade as other things. And it is very difficult to maintain a balanced lifestyle when stress is affecting your body and mind to that extent.

Since I’m taking my nutrition diploma program, I have the luxury of being able to refer to my course texts for information on what to do with the stress in my life! Mr. Nice Doctor had three recommendations for me, which were:

1) Change careers,

2) Reduce workload, and

3) Take a holiday of at least two weeks.

The first one is something I have no desire to do at this time. The second and third are simply not feasible at this time. So I looked to Phyllis A. Balch, author of the 883-page tome Prescription for Nutritional Healing and Prescription for Dietary Wellness, for advice on simple ways that I can manage the stress in my life. As I suspected, she was a wealth of excellent information!

Fingers crossed the boyfriend and I will get to go on vacation to NYC (!!!) before 2011 is over.

Here is what I have been doing to reduce the stress in my life (which have helped quite a bit), without going to such drastic measures that Mr. Nice Doctor recommended:

– Reduce caffeine. I don’t have much caffeine as a general rule (I’ve never liked the taste of coffee so I never drink it), but I do enjoy chai green tea (caffeinated!), and I’ve been having more Coke Zero lately over the past few months than I’d like to admit. I only like Coke Zero with popcorn, so I’ve cut it entirely out of my diet because it’s just all around not good stuff. In any way. I’m also now only having my favourite chai green tea on days when I’m working in an office (rather than from home); other days, I’ll drink decaf white, green or rooibos tea, or herbal tea (all of which I really enjoy).

– Increase leafy greens and raw foods. It’s a good thing I have my food diary blog, because until I looked back at past entries, I hadn’t realized just how few leafy greens I’d been eating in recent times! So now I’m making a point of having at least one meal a day as a primarily green meal – with the meal itself consisting mainly of salad, stir-fried or steamed vegetables, a green shake, etc. – in addition to other vegetables “sprinkled” throughout the day (eg. some celery with PB2 at breakfast, sugar snap peas for a snack, another green shake for dessert and so on). I’m also thinking back to my original plan for this summer, which was to eat 80% raw foods and which I’ve done a horrible job of, and… I’m going for it again. At least one raw meal and one raw snack every day, to gradually increase until I’m eating mostly raw foods. Which I’ll no doubt completely change up once it gets cold outside 😉 At any rate, Balch highly recommends incorporating raw foods into one’s diet, especially when it comes to stress, so I think this is an opportune time to do this. She says to aim for a 50 – 75 % raw food diet.

– Exercise more. I have the luxury of working from home almost every day of the week. I have time for plentiful amounts of exercise. I have no interest in doing crazy amounts of vigorous exercise, but I am determined to do at least two hours of exercise every day, in the form of walking, swimming, yoga, strength training, or even gym classes and running if I feel up to it. It’s been so hot out lately that for a while I was consistently getting closer to 1 or 1.5 hours of exercise in each day, but I’m really striving for a solid two hours, which I hope to increase to three as my minimum. Exercise is an excellent form of therapy and a great way to take a break from working midway through the day, so I think this is a great one for me to really take advantage of.

– Take supplements. I’m the Girl Who Hates Supplements, yet here I am condoning them. What gives? Well, I’ve given it a lot of thought over the past few months especially, and I’m really understanding that today’s food just doesn’t contain the nutrients it used to, what with all the toxins in our environment. Even organic foods aren’t as nutrient-rich as they were fifty years ago. Besides all that, when you’re stressed, your immune system and your body’s ability to absorb nutrients take a real beating. In that case, a multivitamin or supplements such as Co-enzyme Q10 and calcium/magnesium might really help.

– Yoga, deep breathing and fasting. This is really just being kind to the body. Yoga stretches feel so good if you’ve been hunched over. Deep breathing can instantly relax your whole being. And fasting helps to get rid of toxins from the body, release fat-stored chemicals (such as pesticides) and cleanse the blood.

– Take one day off each week and keep the home stress-free. I’m taking every Saturday off completely to just spend with the boyfriend, relax and get away from work. It’s no two-week vacation, but I think that Mr. Nice Doctor would approve. Working from home is also fantastic in that I can tidy the house when I take a break from work, so I feel calm and collected at home. Seriously, since I started working from home, I start to feel ancy when dishes have been in the sink for more than a couple hours without being washed. Now that I’m at home all the time I just don’t see any need for there to be a mess when there’s a) just one of me and b) it’s only 700-square feet. Or maybe I’m just getting even more neurotic as time goes on. Ha.

How do you reduce stress in your life?