My clients are busy women – they work hard, run their own businesses, take care of their family, travel, cook, clean, go to school, volunteer, write, create, take on huge amounts of responsibility and rarely have quiet time for themselves. They are stressed to the max!

The frustrating thing is that many women still find time to exercise on a regular basis and even revamp their diets so that they’re eating better than ever before – and they STILL can’t lose weight.

Here’s the thing: it’s not the amount of exercise (or maybe it IS), or the diet that’s the main problem.

It’s the amount of stress women feel on a daily basis that keeps the weight on.

The amount of constant, low-level stress humans experience on a daily basis is unnatural and new. By “new” I mean recent in human history. Never before have we been bombarded with stimuli like texts, voice mail, cell phones, emails, streaming video, 24-hour news channels, reality television, radio, schedules, alarm clocks, deadlines, and advertising. Up until a few generations ago, we didn’t even have electric lights! We got up with the sun and went to bed with the sun. Ponder that for a moment.

When I work with busy, stressed-out women who constantly focus on how they can’t lose weight, I often put them on a media diet:
- turn off the tv after 6pm
- no tv in the bedroom EVER
- go computer free on the weekends

Besides lowering the amount of tiny stressors like texts and email alerts, learning how to incorporate daily, even hourly, stress relievers will help the body and mind calm down and stop producing the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. These two lovelies set the body up to hold on to fat in anticipation of fight or flight – which was useful when we were living in mud huts and gathering our food in the wild.

My favorite ways to relax during the day are:
- look up a relaxtion meditation video on Youtube
- drink a glass of water every hour
- walk around outside for 5 minutes every 2-3 hours
- stretch in the sunlight or while looking out a window every 2-3 hours
- ride my bike while doing my errands (yes, my 3 year old comes too: I have a bike trailer that can fit one kid and 3-4 bags of groceries)

Bi-weekly or monthly stress reduction techniques include:
- massage
- food rub and pedicure
- sitting in the steam room at my YMCA

Take time out for relaxation on a regular basis for easier weight management. In coming newsletters and blog posts, I’ll be writing more about adrenal fatigue, stress and ways to relax into weight loss.

Are you ready for total body transformation and weight loss?

Join me for my upcoming 4 Week Detox Tele-Course starting April 26th!

Here’s to your health!

Alexandra

One client, I’ll call her MJ, decided to finally take the family dog on their day-long road trip south to visit the in-laws for Christmas this year. In the past, she had been asked by her husband’s family to leave her pet with friends or in a kennel. This year was different: she asked to bring the dog and keep him in the garage. Little did she know that bringing her favorite pet would dramatically improve her health over the holidays.

Rather than playing into the yearly repeated drama of emotional eating over Christmas (her in-laws are stress inducing to say the least!), MJ used her dog as an excuse to exit the house often for long, relaxing walks. Leaving behind the emotional turmoil, MJ not only got more exercise this Christmas, she didn’t feel the need to push down her sorrows and anger with food and alcohol. Instead of sticking around for the constant family upsets, MJ just removed herself from other people’s dramas and focused on what she loved – sharing quiet walks with her kids, husband and dog.

Thanks Spot!

This is just one of the many free, healthful methods you can use and integrate in your future holiday and travel plans to avoid the common pitfalls of “vacation eating” and emotional bingeing.

(Finally willing to get a pet? Be sure to rescue a friend rather than buying one from a pet farm! Rescue a dog here: http://www.petfinder.com/index.html )

Be well,

Alexandra

1. Buy a small spray pump bottle at your local pharmacy or drug store (cost: about $1)

2. Buy a combination of essential oils: grapefruit seed extract, geranium, Young Living Theives,thyme, oregano oil, cinnamon, lavender, etc.

3. Combine 20-30 drops of each oil (I used grapefruit seed and geranium in one, Theives in another) and fill the rest of the bottle with water.

4. Stick a bottle in your purse, diaper bag, stroller, car, etc. Spray 2-4 times on one hand and rub together to disinfect. 

5. Refill when empty.

As you know, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends. Writing furiously with my book deadline looming, riding my bike with my 2.5 year old son on the back to the Co-op to buy high-quality, low-price organic food, cooking fresh food daily, working with clients, re-organizing my business and NOT TAKING TIME FOR SELF-CARE have all added up to a summer cold.

Full-time women, those of us who are “on” 24/7 for work and/or family,  just don’t make ourselves a priority. We see the needs of others so easily, but put our own needs at the bottom of the list. Something I counsel my clients about regularly is how important it is to take care of yourself with pampering, stress-reduction techniques, natural body care and emotional soothing. 

So, this week, I am committed to ordering at least one item from my self-care menu every day to get myself and my energy back on track:

- yoga

- meditation

- sugar-scrub in the steam room at the Y

- meeting up for iced tea with friends in the park

- reading a magazine in my hammock

- going to bed early

- dancing to at least 1 song in my house every day

- saying NO to one time-commitment this week 

Choose a rewarding, healing activity every day this week – it can take 5 minutes to walk through the aisles of the library or 30 minutes to watch a funny episode of the Family Guy on www.hulu.com – and it’s free. Print out your own self-care menu and add a few additional ideas on there – crafting, gardening, reading, boxing, singing, writing poetry. Whatever works! 

Here’s to your health,

Alexandra