Episode 73 – Worry and Stress

In this week’s episode I want to check in with you and I ask – how you are all doing during lockdown 3.0?

Feeling stressed or anxious? Are you worrying? Let’s talk about how this can affect your health and wellbeing, I’ll share some tips to help you manage a little better and help you remove some of your stress.

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It is not an easy time

This current situation that we have found ourselves in for nearly a year has become the current normal for us all. Rather than waiting for it to end, we need to have coping mechanisms and strategies in place to help us through it, especially for those of us that feel stressed or anxious. Once it is all over, we can re-assess, regroup and make changes based on the new normal, but let’s focus on the now.

How stress affects us

We are uniquely able as human beings to create our own stress by worrying. This activates our sympathetic nervous system. You may have heard of this as your fight, flight or freeze mechanism. It is designed to help us react to situations very quickly, such as running for a bus, catching a falling dish, or running away from a threat. A great book that explains this very well is “Why zebras don’t get ulcers“. It describes how animals face threat, but what they don’t do is worry about where the next stress is coming from.

Affects of stress and worry

Stress is natural and occurs in us all throughout the day. As long as we are not in an extended state of stress or worry thats fine, but many of us are worry and feeling stressed for long periods of time.

This is some of the many ways that chronic, long term stress can affect you:

Tiredness and fatigue, particularly a mid afternoon slump.
It can cause insomnia. Are you lying awake worrying about the things that you have on your mind, rather than getting a good nights sleep?
It may cause increased anxiety and a decreased ability to handle stress. This is because you are so tired and are so stressed that one tiny thing can make you want to explode.
It can make you crave sugary snacks. This is due to your hormones being out of balance.
It can affect your immune system and gut health. During episode 46, I talk about this in more detail.
It can cause ageing by shortening your telomere and cause oxidative damage – this shows inside and out.

In summary, your body will not be doing what it should. I cannot tell you to stop worrying, however, I want to help you remove some of your stress.

What can you do to change this?

Now that you know how stress, worry and anxiety are affecting you, it is now time to do something about it. Here are my top 5 tips:

Get some fresh air – it may be cold but wrap up warm and go outside. Maybe change your daily routine to free up some time to go out. It is really important, it releases endorphins and gets your blood pumping.
Bedtime routine – you may not be tired but it is important to get into a routine. Maybe have a nice bath and relax. Do not watch TV until late, do not look at your phone, get into bed and relax. In the morning, get up when your alarm goes off and start your day. You could have an early morning walk or do some light exercise. If you stay in bed, you will make your quality of sleep a lot worse.
Daily Routine – just by preparing your meals, planning what you will eat and sticking to a schedule will help you to eat the right things at the right times. Also, include exercise in your routine, you can include the children too!
Reduce inflammatory food – stress and anxiety can cause inflammation in the body but foods can be inflammatory too, especially processed food. Please check out episode 70 for more information about intolerances and sensitivity to foods. Gluten and sugar are the main inflammatory foods. Sugar can be hidden within your foods so check the ingredients on packaging, they can also be called sucrose, glucose or cane sugar. To help you I’ve created a free recipe guide for 5 days that exclude the key inflammatory ingredients.
Eat more fruit and vegetables – especially anti oxidant foods and foods that are high in vitamin C. If you are not sure which food is best, just add plenty of colour to your plate and you will be covered!

I really hope that this episode has helped you to see how and why we are affected by stress. In addition to my tips, I have also created a 5 day evening meal plan for 2 people that is sugar, dairy and gluten free. This would be perfect for anyone to help them kick start eating healthier but especially for anyone who things they have a wheat intolerance or are coeliacs. The meal plan is gluten free, but also excludes dairy and sugar as they can also cause inflammation.