Reduce Stress with Healthy Dietary Practices and Energy Building Styles of Exercise

During stressful times, it is important to:

Eat in a balanced way.

To gain most energy, one should eat within 30 minutes to an hour of rising. That first meal should be a high protein meal with healthy carbs that digest slowly as opposed to a high sugar meal with low protein and lots of caffeine.

Examples of this kind of meal is a bowl of lentils with a lean source of protein such as chicken, scrambled egg whites, and fresh vegetables.

Some of us live on energy bars and caffeine (sodas, coffee, energy drinks). Loading up on the simple carbs causes energy spikes and drops and makes it difficult to maintain healthy weight. While we might feel as if we are being healthy in avoiding sugar by guzzling diet sodas, these products not only overstimulate the adrenal glands with the high caffeine content, but also contain chemical sugar substitutes.

Yet, researchers are finding that chemical sugar substitutes can weaken the pancreas over time and set one up to develop pre-diabetes, and insulin resistance.

Timothy Ferris, in his book, "The Four Hour Body" advocates a no grain approach to carbs, substituting beans for the carbohydrate which can also be a rich source of fiber. He also advocates higher protein, which if one does not have kidney challenges, can be helpful in increasing energy.

By eliminating gluten found in the grains from the diet, some people report higher levels of energy. For those needing to lose weight, this slow carb way of eating can help weight loss occur more quickly. For those needing to maintain muscle weight, they achieve greater "cut" and definition with this style of eating.

Also, eating regularly is important to maintaining even levels of glucose in your blood stream so you do not experience drops and surges in energy.

Making sure one gets adequate nutrition and level of healthy calories (low fat, low simple carbs) is so important to having the energy to deal with life's stressors.

The bottom line is that if you skimp on eating properly, you will feel more overwhelmed and drained by experiences that you perceive as stressful.

Exercise Regularly with Energy Building Regimens

Yes, yoga and going to the gym or performing a cardio and training are helpful, but qi gong/taiji are the only exercisse that have a system of movements designed to not only destress the body but build internal energy.

Stress depletes not only our physical and emotional energy, but also the core energies.

Stress can dminish:

Jing qi, energy residing in the kidneys (which is why many people develop lower back pain when they are stressed or knee pain).
Ying qi (our nutritive energy that also is closely associated to our emotional states--thus as this layer of energy gets depleted by stress, we tend to feel more irritable and our cognitive abilities become taxed as well).
Wei qi (the outer layer of energy that is protective and relates to our immunity, which also can decline during stress).
The qi gong system has movements and breath work that specifically addresses rebuilding these energy layers as well as toning the body, increasing flexibility and strength, and calming the mind.

Whereas traditional yoga does not specifically address these layers of energy, although it can be beneficial in terms of toning the body and gaining strength and flexibility and a more mentally calm state.

Qi gong also targets specific organs that often get off balance during stress.

For example, when people are stressed, their liver energy becomes overactive, creating a tendency to have digestive upset, higher blood lipids, high blood pressure, headaches, and dizziness.

There are specific movements to help quell and rebalance the liver, detoxifying the liver as you move through the day.

To learn how to manage your energy such that you can smoothly sail through stressful moments in life, check out our weekly class at Westlake Well Being starting April 9th, Saturday from 2 pm to 3 pm

Register online on our workshop calendar.

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