What stresses you out?

Many of us have stresses in our life that cause us to eat poorly, miss our workouts and not get enough sleep.  We all know the benefits of keeping these aspects of our life consistent in order to stay ready to take on the challenges of the day.  Few things can throw a schedule out of whack more than changing careers, moving or starting a relationship.

In the last 2 months I have done all 3.  So let me help you through these tough times by sharing the mistakes and triumphs I had during a crazy period of change in my life.

For those that are interested, I recently moved to Denver, CO, from Palm Springs, CA, started a new career at Zen Planner after running a small hotel for the past 5 years and started a relationship with my girlfriend, Jen, who was already in Colorado.  So it has been quite a roller coaster ride, but I am really happy and excited about the opportunities ahead.

Lessons to take from my experience:

1. Exercise is really important! We all know this, but when you are getting ready to move or pushing hard to meet a deadline at work, etc., this seems to fall through the cracks.

• If you move to a new city, don’t worry about picking the right gym, CrossFit box, yoga studio or martial arts studio.  Just go, get a workout in and check them out.  You will find the right one by trying them.  I did and I love my new gym, but I wouldn’t have picked it unless I had tried 10 other gyms first.
• Get some sort of a work out even if it is just some pushups, sit-ups and a quick jog around the block.  When I was traveling last year in Israel, we had a tight schedule and no gym equipment. I was able to do a bunch of workouts using just body weight exercises in 10-15 minutes.  Don’t make an excuse not to work out just because you don’t have a formal gym set up.
• I even convinced some of the other people on my trip to work out with me.  Having a workout partner keeps you honest when you are feeling like just skipping that workout.

2.  Eating right will make everything else in your life better. I took a break from eating right before and after I moved. Not only did I not feel as good because I wasn’t giving my body the fuel it needed, but I also lost strength, endurance, and was just sluggish in general. It made getting to the gym or on my bike that much harder.

• If you are on a business trip or in a new city, ask the concierge, a friend, or just look up online where a grocery store is.  When you get into town, go pick up some healthy food.  If the only option is greasy takeout, you are going to eat greasy take out.  If you have the option to eat healthy, you most likely will.
• If you eat out, it is ok to splurge occasionally, but know that if you eat that double chocolate cake tonight you will be feeling the effects tomorrow.  Make sure it is worth it.
• If you know you have a busy period ahead, try to do prep in advance.  I spend 1 day a week doing prep for the next week.  I limit this to 2 hours, but I am usually able to cook breakfasts and lunches for the week and get something easy to make for dinner prepped.  This saves me countless hours and stress during the week.  If you have not tried this before, make a commitment to try it for just 2 weeks and see how it goes.  I recently forced myself to try it and was amazed at how easy it made a difficult week seem.

3.  Sleep is essential to living life to the fullest.  Most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep a night to function at their full potential.  I know most of us tend to want to push through, finish a project or get just one more thing done in our day.  But what happens the next day?

• When you are tired you can’t work at your full capacity. Getting that last thing done tonight might take you an hour, but if you waited and did it tomorrow you might be much more efficient and get it done in half the time.  Realize when you are not being efficient and get some rest.

All three of these aspects of our lives, exercise, sleep and eating right are intertwined.  When you lose 1, you tend to lose the others as well. When you have additional stress in your life, that is the time to fight against losing one or more of these important aspects.  It can be hard to prioritize putting these at the top of your long list, but it will pay off.

Here's to a happy, healthy and productive life.  Thanks for reading!

- Jake Cohen, Customer Advocate