In our society stress, anxiety, and depression are common and often related issues that affect more than 50 percent of adults. While certain levels of stress are part of life and can even be a positive force that motivates you to react quickly during emergencies, too much stress, too often is not. Additionally, research shows that firefighters have triple the risk of stress disorders. During an immediate crisis, you need the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol to pump you up. However, that same response during non-emergency moments, such as being stuck in traffic, in a line at the bank, or while having dinner with your family can have detrimental effects on your health.

Often, stress in firefighters presents as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which occurs after repeated exposure to traumatic, dangerous, and potentially life-threatening events that come hand-in-hand with the work you do. Untreated, chronic stress or worry, anxiety, depression, and/or PTSD is shown to increase the risk of in heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes, cancer, strokes, obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insomnia, excessive fatigue, unwanted weight gain or weight loss, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), indigestion, abdominal pain, substance abuse, alcoholism, and mortality.

Learning strategies to manage chronic stress and other stress disorders can decrease your risk of these symptoms and improve happiness, relaxation, and overall better health. Unfortunately, studies that look at firefighters and stress issues, also indicate that many don’t seek treatment because of concerns about stigma.

It’s not a happy picture. Think about what can happen when you put a car under an extreme amount of stress—if you drive an automobile long distances for excessive periods of time, in extreme temperatures without stopping, getting gas, changing the oil, or following other standard maintenance practices your car will break down earlier than it would if you gave it some TLC. Not just your body needs rest and care, so does your mind, especially when it comes to stress. Under excessive tension, you can overheat, run out of “fuel,” or burn up your own “engine.” It’s exhausting.

Negative Effect of Stress

• Too much stress hurts your physical, emotional, and mental health.
• Firefighters have 3 times the risk of stress issues compared to the general public.
• You can lower your stress level by incorporating a social Mediterranean lifestyle.
• Your stress response is naturally higher in the first half of the day, and decreases at night.
• Healthy sleep, mindfulness, exercise, and diet can all help you to decrease stress.

How can I lower my stress level?

Thankfully, there are many simple strategies you can employ to reduce and treat stress and to bring your emotional health back into balance. Here’s how:

• Live a Mediterranean Lifestyle: Studies of the people who live a Mediterranean lifestyle show that these leisure activities and social interactions reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. The Mediterranean lifestyle can help. Why? Because it’s more than just a diet, it’s a way of life. These cultures prioritize and include a great deal of social interaction—most meals are shared with family and friends, people spend more time outdoors getting fresh air and sunshine, and they are more likely to leisurely walk or bike to the market or to attend to other errands.
• Understand Your Stress Clock: Certain glands in your body are responsible for producing and releasing the stress hormones that help you to be alert, and also to respond to stressful experiences. These glands follow a schedule of a sort that is influenced or “set” by light, sleep, activity, diet, and stressful events. In the past, humans slept at night when it was dark and were active during the daylight hours. Your stress clock is made to work according to this natural schedule, but that’s no longer how we live. Today’s modern world, especially for a firefighter, regularly and repeatedly requires you to manage an atypical exposure to light. You are often awake during naturally dark hours (shift work), and stressful situations during these night time hours is harder on your body. Why? Cortisol and adrenaline are both naturally more responsive and active during the earlier part of the day, and less so at night (when you might need them). You can’t rest and recover if your stress hormones are elevated, but you might need your stress response at night if a call comes over the line. You can combat this disruption to your stress response by taking steps to get restful sleep for seven to nine hours at night whenever you are not at work.
• Exercise: Doing any exercise for 30-minutes to an hour a day helps your body to better respond to and recover from stress without it hurting your mind or body.
• Be Mindful: Being mindful is the ability to be—mentally and physically—to be fully conscious and aware in the present moment. What are you thinking about right now? It’s likely that you’re reviewing a scenario of something that already happened, or you’re busy creating a mental to-do list for what needs to be done in the future. To some extent, this is perfectly natural. Our minds are made to evaluate and plan. It’s one of the reasons the human animal has survived for so long. However, if you spend all your time in the past or future, you leave no space to check in with the now, and this both elevates stress and leaves you unaware of your emotional balance. Awareness of the stress you are experiencing is the first step to letting it go. Some cultures are better at cultivating this state of now-ness than others by encouraging meditation, and mind-body exercises such as yoga or tai chi are a regular daily activity. All of these activities have been shown to lower stress and improve mood. Our culture could take some lessons from these. You can reduce stress by learning to meditate, practicing relaxation techniques, and including mind/body practices.
• Slow Down: “I’m too busy!” It’s the number one excuse that people give for not taking the time to get enough sleep, exercise, or to prepare healthy meals. On the flip side, prioritizing these activities gives you more time in your day because slumber, physical activity, and eating healthy lowers stress and increases energy while improving emotional balance and stability. On your days off incorporate a ritual of meditating or just breathing slowly and deeply—even 5 minutes can help you to reset your mindset and lower stress—then move on to prioritizing your sleep, exercise, and healthy eating.
• Get Outside Help: Sharing your worries or concerns with family and friends helps you to lower stress, but that’s not all you can do. We go and get a physical from our doctor once a year—your mental health is just as important. If you are suffering from one or all of these conditions, and it is affecting your daily life, do consider checking out some cognitive-behavioral therapy. It’s been shown to help address and reduce these symptoms.

Sometimes the simplest way to define something is by stating what it is not. Food is fuel. The purpose of eating is to nourish our bodies and give them needed energy, both physically and mentally, to function each day. Using food as a way of altering, soothing, or suppressing feelings is not how your body was designed to use food. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that somewhere around, oh, ALL of us eat emotionally from time to time. Let’s face it, the majority of us do find pleasure in food, and there’s nothing wrong with this. Eating emotionally turns into the enemy when you use it as a regular coping strategy in your day-to-day life.

Why is this bad? Emotional or mind-less eating increases your risk of obesity and overweight, and with those two comes an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, chronic stress, stroked, and respiratory problems. So, if you eat to serve a purpose other than hunger, you can be reasonably confident that you are engaging in emotional eating. Both major and minor life events can trigger unconscious eating. Bored at work? Check. Going through a divorce? Check.

In fact, sometimes it is the mundane to-do lists that lead to the candy bars, not extreme emergencies. As you probably know, when you are responding to a high-intensity call you have no time to think about eating or being hungry. That’s because your brain and body have tapped into your fight/flight mode, which takes all your attention and leaves no room for noshing on the community donuts. But after it’s all over? Pass the hot wings and beer.

• When you eat without paying attention you are much more likely to eat more than your body requires and to eat when you are not truly hungry. Both increase your risk for overweight and obesity.
• Emotional or Stress eating leads to an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and more.
• It’s easy to incorporate strategies for more mindful eating including distraction-free eating, trigger awareness, feeling feelings, and knowing how to H.A.L.T.

The other downside to emotional eating is that when you eat in response to stress, sadness, or anger, you don’t usually crave a salad or steamed veggies. People tend to seek high-calorie, high-fat foods when stressed—and major bummer—our bodies store more of the food we eat as fat when we are stressed, compared to when we are relaxed.

How to eat mindfully: People who eat mindfully, but not emotionally or when distracted, are less likely to overeat. Mindful eating has also been linked to better health, less stress, and improved mood. How do you do it? Here are a few simple strategies.

• Ditch distractions. Avoid multitasking while you eat. That means getting away from your laptop, turning off the television, and even waiting until a stressful meeting ends (you know, the ones that come with a box of donuts). Pay attention to what you are about to eat. Remember to use the myCircadianClock app to take a picture of anything you eat or drink. Just this simple act will help you to be conscious of what you’re eating.
• Sit down. And not in your car. Munching while you cook dinner or make the kids’ lunches for tomorrow is a great recipe for overeating. It’s easy to unconsciously graze without noting when you have had enough to eat and this can cause eating too many calories overall. Sitting down at a table away from screens (smartphones included) allows you to feel the subtle shift between being stated over being stuffed. Plus, it takes around 20 minutes for an empty stomach to register food, so eat slowly as well.
• Be Social. The Mediterranean diet includes a social lifestyle. That means enjoying at least one meal a day with other people. Having a chance to discuss your day or your plans for the day is a great way to relieve stress, and less stress means less overeating. Just be sure to save emotionally triggering conversations for after dinner.
• Know Your Triggers. Many cultures and families express love and caring with food and eating. The first step to breaking a bad habit is to know the cues that cause it in the first place. Once you can pinpoint the fact that you always overeat at the In-Laws, you can make other arrangements. Maybe suggest a walk instead of a dinner. Or volunteer to be the dishwasher or server for an evening. Keep your hands busy doing non-food activities.
• Incorporate Non-Food Pleasures. Mindful eating is not a diet. It is the intention of eating with awareness. With that in mind, make sure that you incorporate non-food activities you enjoy. As children, we all naturally know that we need to play, but we lose this instinct as adults. It is just as important. This harkens to the “be social” tip above and takes it a step further. Can you remember the last time you laughed with another person? Create a “play date” at least once a week with a friend or friends to do something unnecessary and fun. Play catch. Walk the dog. Go see a standup comedian.
• Feel Your Feelings. Don’t feed your feelings. There is a difference between feeling emotionally down or “empty” and being truly hungry. This is a subtle signal, and one that many of us have lost because we’ve been taught to eat at set times of the day, or all day, rather than listen to hungry signals that our bodies give off when they need food. The good news is that you can turn the sound back up on these alarm clocks by simply tuning in to hunger and fullness. Before you put a morsel in your mouth, pause and ask yourself how you are feeling. If the answer is anything other than calm or serene, take it a step further and check in with your hunger. When is the last time you ate? How did you sleep last night? Are you just coming off of a stressful event? Are you nearing the end of a mundane day of paperwork? Know your triggers. Awareness is usually the first step in breaking the pattern of emotional eating.
• Love Yourself. I know, hippy-dippy, but it is true that when we are feeling down about ourselves, we are much more likely to reach for unhealthy food or to eat when we are not hungry. Remember H.A.L.T. which stands for hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. In recovery groups, this is a popular acronym that you can use to spot check your level of emotional balance. If you are feeling an extreme of any of these, try to address it (or at the very least, acknowledge it)-don’t feed it.
• Don’t Get Too Hangry. After all that, last but not least is that you don’t want to let yourself starve. Just like the H.A.L.T. acronym above alludes to, getting into any extreme one of these situations can make you “hangry.” And you and your partner, and those who love you, do not want you to be Hangry.

You can’t live without your liver and if you don’t keep it healthy you put yourself at an increased risk for liver diseases that can affect your entire body and life with symptoms that include abdominal pain and swelling, swelling of the legs and ankles, itchy skin, chronic fatigue, nausea, diarrhea, and the tendency to bruise easily. More severe symptoms include excessive sleepiness, mental confusion, coma, and death. Thankfully, your liver can repair and regenerate itself, and there are many lifestyle strategies you can incorporate to improve liver health. At around three pounds, the liver is the second largest organ inside your body (your skin is number one).

• When you continuously and excessively drink alcohol or overeat, fat builds up in your liver, called Alcoholic fatty liver disease and Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NALFD)
• It’s estimated that as many as 25 percent of American adults have some degree of fatty liver disease.
• You can protect and repair your liver with a healthy diet, portion control, exercise, and limited or no alcohol.

What does the liver do?

This football-sized organ sits in the upper right portion of your abdomen and is responsible for many essential functions in your body. These include:

• Removing toxins from the blood.
• Helping to digest and filter foods, beverages, vitamins, minerals, and medications.
• Storing fuel in the form of sugar (glycogen) and fat.
• Producing bile needed for digestion.
• Assisting with blood clotting.

While liver disease can have many causes, it usually starts as inflammation of the liver that can be caused by poor diet, toxins, chemicals, viruses, bacterial infections, and parasites. All forms of inflammation will disrupt and limit normal liver function. Usually, people associate liver disease with excessive alcohol consumption, but the most significant risk for liver disease today may be the epidemic of diabetes and obesity. When you continuously and excessively drink alcohol or overeat, fat builds up in your liver, called Alcoholic fatty liver disease and Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NALFD) respectively. It’s estimated that as many as 25 percent of American adults have some degree of fatty liver disease. Those who are obese or diabetic are 70 to 90 percent likely to suffer from the condition, which occurs when your liver accumulates too many fat cells and causes inflammation. Untreated, both types of fatty liver disease can lead to fibrosis, cirrhosis, or liver cancer.

Your Liver and Digestion: One critical liver function is with the digestive system. When blood comes to the liver from your digestive organs, it carries the nutrients, medications, and toxic substances you have consumed. In the liver, substances are processed, saved, transformed, cleansed, removed, and/or absorbed. Once your liver has discerned what needs to go where, it either returns the materials to your blood or the liver will release the waste to your intestines to be eliminated. Each macronutrient is handled differently:

• Fats: Your body needs bile (a brown, green digestive liquid that’s produced by your liver) to break down and absorb the fats you eat.
• Carbs: Eating carbs signals the hormone insulin, which ushers sugar into your cells. Your liver stores excess sugar that is not used by cells as glycogen. Excess sugar will be made into fat that is then stored in other cells of your body.
• Proteins: Your liver changes amino acids into energy your body can use, or it transforms them into carbs or fats. Ammonia is a harmful byproduct of amino acids. A healthy liver converts ammonia into urea, which is then released as waste in your urine.
• Vitamins and Minerals: Your liver stores vitamins and minerals and releases them into your blood when your body needs them.

How can I improve the health of my liver?

• Eat Healthy: You can protect and repair your liver with a healthy diet. Follow the Mediterranean way of eating and living, which includes plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, olive oil, nuts and seeds, fish, and whole grains. Avoid trans fats, overly processed, and high sugar foods.
• Limit Alcohol: If you drink alcohol, drink it in moderation (one drink a day for women, two for men).
• Follow Medication Directions: Take medication as prescribed and talk to your doctor about herbal remedies (some can damage your liver). Taking too much prescription or nonprescription drugs overloads the liver. Don’t mix medicines with alcohol.
• Get Moving: Include exercise, which can help you lose weight and reduce fat in your liver. If you want suggestions for putting together an entire training regimen you can find some great ideas at the Seattle Fire Department website, at FireFit Program, at 555 Fitness, or for some extra motivation consider joining a challenge designed for firefighters.

• Exercise boosts immunity: With each bout of exercise, studies show that you’ll improve the antipathogen (disease-fighting) activity in your tissues, you’ll reduce inflammation, and enhance your overall immunity.
Protection while you rest: Studies show that after exercise, the cells inside our muscle produce increased amounts of immunity-protecting molecules.
• Sitting equals sickness: The most sedentary people have the highest risk of getting sick with colds and flu and are also at a much higher risk of suffering from many chronic diseases. Multiple studies show that when adults regularly workout, they cut their chances of getting sick.
• When exercise hurts immunity: The general rule is that if you have symptoms that are primarily above the neck—stuffed or runny nose, sneezing, sore throat—exercise is okay. However, if you have body-wide symptoms, then rest is best.
• Exercise after an illness: Make sure that you no longer have a fever. Easy does it, listen to your body, and start back gradually.

As with many things having to do with your health, “balance” is the word when it comes to using physical activity to boost your immunity. In many respects, actively moving is both good for what ails you, or what would like to ail you—big and small. Studies show that those who exercise regularly are at a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer, improved mental health, sleep, stronger bones and muscles, and a longer life than those who live sedentary lives. When it comes to other infections and viruses such as colds and flu of all sorts, physical activity also seems to help your body’s disease-fighting system and recovery process.
Your body is constantly being bombarded by pathogens. Comprised of a complex network of cells, organs, and chemicals, your immune system (if healthy) can recognize and destroy threats that would otherwise make you sick. This is a never-ending job for our immune systems. You can help or hurt your body’s disease-fighting, health-protecting system by your choices and habits with diet, sleep, daily stressors, and emotions. When it comes to physical activity, the correct amount of exercise enhances your body’s ability to fight infections and to heal you after injury or illness. And while you probably know that too little activity isn’t good, you may not know that neither is too much. Knowing the difference is essential.
Pushing yourself to keep up with an intense regimen of fitness while you are fighting the flu, strep throat, or bronchitis, for example—probably won’t help, and it could hurt. When your immune system is busy fighting bacterial or viral infections, rest might be best. It’s important to listen to your body. If you feel up to it, a gentle walk might be okay, but if you have a fever, body aches, a flaming throat, or trouble breathing, then exercising could put you out of commission for longer than staying in bed. Let’s examine how exercise works to protect and enhance your immune response:

Protect with Regular and Frequent Exercise: Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s—you name it, and chances are that fitness lowers your risk compared to being sedentary. Overall, being active reduces the risk of all chronic disease and lessens your chances of getting sick or being injured. Regular exercise also helps to enhance your immune system in many indirect pathways. Improvements in muscle strength, bone health, motor coordination, gut function, sleep, and mood all help to support and build a healthy immunity. With each bout of exercise, studies show that you’ll improve the antipathogen (disease-fighting) activity in your tissues, you’ll reduce inflammation, and enhance overall immunity. Aim to get 30 to 45 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise most days of the week. Add to that two bouts of strength training and some flexibility sessions, and you’ll be good to go.

The After-Exercise Immunity Benefits: Studies show that after exercise, the cells inside our muscles produce several molecules that protect immune responses in the body. One of them is interleukin-15 (IL-15), which improves bone health and sleep, and also helps your immune cells respond to microbial invaders and parasites. Another benefit to those who exercise is the increased production of irisin, a molecule linked to reduced obesity and sleep apnea, both markers of weakened immunity. Finally, regular exercise increases the level of the enzyme heme, an essential iron-containing molecule that carries oxygen to all our tissues. Heme activates immune cells to destroy disease in the body.

The More You Sit—The Sicker You’ll Get: It’s true. The most sedentary people are at the highest risk of getting sick with colds and flu and have a higher risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, arthritis, even Alzheimer’s, and more. The good news? You can reap benefits by starting with as little as 10 to 15 minutes of easy walking. Even light activities such as gardening, walking, and housework lower inflammatory markers in the body that are associated with illness and disease.

Exercising Lowers Colds and Flu Risk: The trick with exercise is to do it before you get sick. Multiple studies show that when adults regularly workout, they cut their chances of getting sick. Plus, when exercisers do get sick, the illness tends to be milder and recovery faster than non-exercisers. There is evidence that regular activity strengthens the antibodies that fight colds and flu. Even if you aren’t currently following a regular exercise routine, getting active right now (as long as you aren’t already sick) can lower your chances of illness, chronic disease, and will strengthen your immunity.

The Rare Case of Too Much Exercise: An overuse injury can happen by taking on too much or too intense of an exercise too quickly, or by not taking a rest when your body tells you it needs one. Your muscles, ligaments, and tendons can all get strained or torn in these cases. While your body often sends signals in the form of pain, you’ve got to be “listening” carefully to pick up the difference between a pain that indicates normal muscle soreness from a good workout, and pain that signifies overuse. Know the symptoms of too much exercise. Harmless achiness after a workout usually presents as stiffness, soreness, fatigue, or even burning. More severe injuries tend to present as pain that is stabbing, sharp, or deep in an area that doesn’t usually hurt. Symptoms of overuse don’t always mean that you need to stop all activity but do take care and possibly switch to a less intense form of exercise for a few days.

How do I know when I am too sick to exercise? With a mild illness such as a cold, you may benefit from moderate to easy exercise. There is some evidence that it may help to flush bacteria out of the lungs and airways. The general rule is that if you have symptoms that are primarily above the neck—stuffed or runny nose, sneezing, sore throat—exercise is okay. However, if you have body-wide symptoms such as fever, aches, chest congestion, stomach distress, diarrhea—then it is best to rest. Some studies show that the immune system is depressed during intense physical exertion, so no marathon training with a fever. If you still insist on exercising, modify your intensity or duration. Walk for 15 to 30 minutes instead of running for an hour.

How do I get back to exercising after being sick? You are feeling better. So, how do you get back to your exercise schedule? Make sure that you no longer have a fever. Easy does it, listen to your body, and start back gradually. If you have been fever-free for a full 24 hours and feel better, give it a try. Go for an easy walk. Take longer than you usually would to warm up, and if you begin to feel sick or overly fatigued, cut your session short. Ditto for overuse injuries.

HEALTHY
Create a habit with a plan that will make “healthy” automatic.
Track your progress by hand, on your smartphone, or online to see better results.
It’s easy to say, but not always easy to do. If you feel like you’ve been following all the “rules” of healthy living but aren’t seeing the results you’d hoped for—the scale isn’t moving, your six-pack still looks like a loaf of bread, or your blood pressure hasn’t dropped—it’s time for a review of your health habits. Maybe you started off strong, but lately, not so much. This is normal. Diets and fitness plans usually 1
start off with you feeling revved up and full of motivation, but life can get in the way. Taking a vacation, family events, holidays, busy work schedules, and no time to prep and cook. In any case, the first thing to do is to stop and take an inventory. Grab a pen and notebook to take stock of where you are now, and to write out a plan for how you’ll proceed. Writing everything out will help you pinpoint where you’ve been off track, where you are doing great, and it gives you a place to acknowledge what could be improved, revamped, or revved up.
As you take stock, some sticking points might be obvious, such as overdoing it at a buffet or holiday dinner, snacking while you make dinner, or skipping one too many workouts. On the other hand, you may very well have been doing everything right—eating healthy, exercising, sleeping, and have a balanced mood—but aren’t seeing results. In this case, a little more digging can help. A detailed self-evaluation and self-reflection can help to lead you to some new angles, strategies, and actions to get you moving toward your goals again.
To that end, here is a guide to reviewing the four pillars of health and strategies to remind, enlighten, and illuminate how you can once more get moving toward being healthier and happier.
Eating: There are countless methods, books, websites, and magazines that tout “the best” way to eat, and many do work—for a short time. However, a Mediterranean diet seems to be one of the healthiest and easiest to follow long term. Before you begin, do a review of what you have been eating and drinking.
First, write down exactly what you remember eating and drinking yesterday. Here be as detailed as possible.
Then do a brief review of how and what you ate or drank over the previous week. This part doesn’t have to be as detailed but do take note of the big offenders—the calorie-filled, sugary and alcoholic drinks; processed or fast foods, huge portions, and refined flours and sugars. These are often the perpetrators of plateaus.
Examine your portions. Many people make the mistake of thinking that if they are eating healthy foods, it means that they don’t have to pay attention to amounts. Not true. All meals come with calories, and calories do count, even healthy ones. Make sure that you are eating appropriate amounts for your age, gender, weight, and activity level.
Now, examine a sample Mediterranean meal plan or a diet that works for you and write out what you will eat and drink today, or if you are writing this in the evening, then plan for tomorrow. Take it one day at a time, but aim to avoid processed foods and stick with real whole foods, lots of veggies and fruits, lean proteins, and healthy fats—all portion-sized for you.
Exercise: The basic guidelines for exercise state that you should be getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise each week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week. Here, you’ll want to review the following.
How many minutes of exercise did you get last week? Was it moderate or vigorous? Here, you are striving to participate in continuous physical activity that gets your heart beating faster and you breathing harder. If you are averaging a decent amount of aerobic exercise, it might be time to increase your time. For example, if you are walking for 30 minutes a day, most days of the week, increase to 40 minutes or add some bursts of very fast walking intermittently during your workout. Alternatively, add some variety. If you primarily walk, try swimming or cycling. If you are underperforming, start wherever you are. A 10-minute walk around the block is a great begin
ning. You can gradually add on until you are up to the recommended minutes.
Are you doing any strength training? As we age, it is especially important to preserve and build muscle. This helps you maintain a healthy weight and improves other health markers. Consider incorporating two days a week of strength training. The Mayo Clinic’s website offers numerous strength-building how-to videos for all levels of fitness.
How about flexibility? How many times did you stretch out your muscles last week? It’s a good idea to do a few stretches when you wake up and after a workout. Stretching is also a great way to relax before bed.
Sleep: You need seven to nine hours of sleep during each 24-hour day. Period. Sleep protects your mental and physical health. Lack of sleep causes an increase in heart disease, obesity, stroke, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. Write down:
How many hours you slept last night. How many hours you averaged over the last week.
If you are having trouble hitting your quota, check your sleep hygiene. There are several simple strategies you can create to help you better. Where are you getting snagged? Make sure your
bedroom is quiet, dark, and screen-free. Cut out caffeine after 1 pm and alcohol before bedtime.
Choose and write down a bedtime and a wake time you will follow for the next three nights (hint, choose a duration of seven to nine hours).
Emotional Health: How you feel can influence your thoughts, and your thoughts and feelings tend to direct your actions and behavior. Thankfully, we humans can steer our thinking toward a more positive outlook, but it does take effort. Complaining, gossiping, being critical, feeling helpless, feeling less than, or more than others, feeling stressed, anxious, fatigued, or depressed. The fix?
Start by making a commitment to text a friend or family member each morning three things for which you are grateful. Finding things to be thankful for (food in the fridge; a bed to sleep on; a beating heart, etc.) improves mood, reduces anxiety, and decreases depression. Do this each day.
Check your social life. It’s vital to have people to talk to about how daily life is going, and it’s even more important to remember to call and see how others are doing. Make a commitment to call (not text) one friend each day.
If you are feeling down, overly anxious, or depressed, get help. You can find a certified psychol ogist at the American Psychological Association. Also, thanks to our modern technology, you can now find and work with therapists online, just be sure to do your homework.
Now that you’ve reviewed the four pillars to stellar health, you are ready to get back to work and start seeing results. The final step is to have a system to track your progress. You can do this with plain old paper and pen in a notebook. Just write down when and what you eat, how you feel, what you are grateful for, and what your exercise was for that day. It will keep you accountable. If you’d rather keep track on your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, there are plenty of to help you track your food, fitness, sleep, and emotional health. Any way you choose to do it, logging your daily happenings will keep you accountable to your health.