Stress!
What is stress?
Stress is any change in your normal routine or health. Stress occurs when bad things happen, as well happy things. Getting a raise or promotion is stress, just as getting fired from your job is stress.
Speculative changes cause just as much stress as veritable changes. Pensiveness or anguish about whether you will get that new job is stress the same as being offered a new position is stress.
In today’s society, there is a lot of pressure on women to be good mothers, have successful careers outside of the home, be perfect wives and take care of household chores. According to the Cleveland Clinic, 70 percent of married women with children work outside of the home. With the decline in the economy, it’s even more critical that many families have two sources of income to survive. Overwhelming stress can cause serious, long term health problems.
Did you know…
• 43% of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress
• 75-90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints
• Stress costs American industry more than $300 billion annually
A few of the side effects of stress:
1. Mood swings
2. Intensified PMS symptoms
3. Chronic head aches
4. Decreased sex drive
5. Sleeplessness
6. Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
7. Weight gain
8. Memory disturbances
9. High blood pressure
10. Depression
11. Difficulty getting pregnant
How can you relieve stress?
1. Exercise!
Exercise is an effective way to reduce stress. Due to the positive effect exercise has on endorphin production, getting enough makes you happier and therefore relieves stress.
2. Yoga
Yoga teaches relaxation techniques and proper breathing while strengthening your body and mind. It will teach you how to eliminate stress from your life quickly and easily.
3. Stretching
Stretching may seem like a dull and ineffective way to exercise but it has many stress relieving benefits. Stretching requires slow movements that lengthen and strengthen your body. They give you time to relax and allow the breath to flow through your entire body giving a stress relief.
4. Meditation
Meditation affects the body in exactly the opposite ways that stress does, restoring the body to a calm state, helping the body to repair itself, and preventing new damage due to the physical effects of stress.
5. Journaling
Journaling allows people to clarify their thoughts and feelings, thereby gaining valuable self-knowledge. It’s also a good problem-solving tool; oftentimes, one can hash out a problem and come up with solutions more easily on paper.
6. Laughter
Laughter reduces the level of stress hormones like cortisol, epinephrine (adrenaline), dopamine and growth hormone. It also increases the level of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins, and neurotransmitters. Laughter increases the number of antibody-producing cells and enhances the effectiveness of T cells. All this means a stronger immune system, as well as fewer physical effects of stress.
7. Sex
A study looked at women’s heart rate and cortisol levels as a measure of stress response, and found that women exhibited less of a stress response after ‘positive physical contact’ with a partner. Emotional support alone didn’t have the same effect.
8. Take a nap
Research shows that you can make yourself more alert reduce stress and improve cognitive functioning with a nap. Mid-day sleep, or a ‘power nap’, means more patience, less stress, better reaction time, increased learning, more efficiency and better health.
9. Draw
Just the act of having a hobby can make you feel more balanced in your lifestyle. Sometimes with all of life’s responsibilities, we forget that we need and deserve ‘down time’ and self care. Taking even a few minutes on a regular basis to devote to a hobby can give you more of what you need in this area. And, with drawing, you have the additional benefit of being left with something beautiful (or at least interesting) to show for it!
10. Get a dog (or cat)
Research shows that, unless you’re someone who really dislikes animals or is absolutely too busy to care for one properly, pets can provide excellent social support, stress relief and other health benefits—perhaps more than people! For those who love animals, it’s virtually impossible to stay in a bad mood when a pair of loving puppy eyes meets yours, or when a super-soft cat rubs up against your hand.
New Zumba Class Time!
Starting September 11, we will be offering a Zumba class on Saturdays at 8am, taught by Natalia Buschur!
We hope you’re ready to ditch the workout & join the party!
Q102 Promo: If I Felt Skinny…
Win a 12-week workout program with Q102’s Jenn from Keep It Tight Fitness!
What would you do if you felt skinny?
That’s the question Q102’s Jenn is asking her listeners. Would you wear those skinny jeans that have been hanging in the back of your closet collecting dust? Would you start dating again? Would you go skydiving? Would you strut around in your bikini?
E-mail Jenn your answer at jenn@wkrq.com starting Monday, August 16, through Friday, August 27, to tell her, “If I felt skinny, I would…” and fill in the blanks.
Jenn will select five people to join her to work out at Keep It Tight Fitness, where each participant will receive free workouts with Jenn. Workouts start the day after after labor day on Tuesday, September 7, and continue for 12 weeks… At the end of the 12-week program, Jenn will help fulfill each participant’s goal!
Tight Talk Tuesday: Improve Your Wellness
Which aspect of your wellness could you improve on:
We envy the friends who’ve got it all together – they have a consistent workout routine, they pack a healthy lunch, eat a healthy dinner and call it a night after only a glass or two of red wine. Cheers to them! But for some women, it’s one or the other. You kick your booty in the gym a few days a week, but when it comes to making dinner, you do what’s easy for you & your busy family, but isn’t always the best for your butt. Or you do eat a fairly balanced diet yet you can never find time to make yourself a priority and hit the gym. And we won’t make you call yourself out, but there are some women who have trouble committing to making healthy changes in their diet or routine and know they’re never going to get results until they make a difference in their lifestyle.
You may have heard us say it before, but diet is 80% of the equation. Here is the equation: W=CC-CB. Your weight (W) = calories consumed (CC) – calories burned (CB).
If you eat more calories than you burn then you gain weight or if you eat fewer calories than you burn then you lose weight. In order to lose one pound of fat per week, you need to eat about 500 calories less than your typical diet. Since 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound of fat, if you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you’d lose approximately 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). Remember, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound.
By attending a high-calorie (~500) burning class like Bikini Bootcamp at KITF, you can stay on track with the CB portion of your equation. We also offer nutritional guidance to help you build meal plans and hold yourself accountable by tracking your daily intake and progress with a fit food journal. We’re here to help you meet your goals and become the best you that you can be. Let’s do this together and score an A+ for your fitness equation!
Need help getting started? Here’s a plan to get your gears going for both diet & exercise in just 2 days. The kicker: you gotta keep it up to reap the results! Click here.
MEET THE OWNER
Melissa Matson, Creator/Owner, of Keep It Tight Fitness, located in Cincinnati, OH, instills passion into every aspect of her life. Melissa has built a strong foundation in the principles of both fitness and nutrition.
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