Fitness News of the Month

Stress Management

Stress. It Starts in Your Head - and Spreads
Paul Meldrum, Older Adult Specialist

You are late for an important meeting. There is an accident 2 kilometres ahead on the 401 and you just got cut off by another driver.

Same traffic situation except: you aren’t late, in fact you’re heading to a party for which you are way too early, and you are listening to the latest CD put out by your favorite music group.

In these two scenarios, it is likely that your emotional response will be very different even though the immediate physical environment is exactly the same.

The emotions when late will trigger a Stress Response, while your reaction as you welcome yet another delay could well be similar to a Relaxation Response.

The Stress Response is an automatic body-chemistry reaction to perceived danger. It is rooted in our needs (in bygone days) to fight or flee when faced with a physical menace. Our early predecessors whose bodies reacted immediately, survived, thus becoming our ancestors. Those who weren’t so quick died off. Our bodies are hard-wired with a Stress Response.

The Relaxation Response is the name we have given the body’s balancing mechanism. It is the body’s natural action after a Stress Response. When the perceived danger is over, the Relaxation Response kicks in. It is about sitting down, relaxing, breathing deeply, and calming down. It is how the body negates and counters the chemicals released during the crisis.

In ancient times the system worked nicely with this neat balance of stress and relaxation: point – counterpoint. In our industrialized, cybernetic age: not so much!

Today we don’t have time to sit down and do deep breathing after every negative emotional response we have during the day. The number of perceived crises we experience daily creates a frequent release of highly potent body chemicals without a balancing antidote. The result is the multitude of stress-related medical conditions cited by study after study. Some estimate that more than 50% of diagnosed ailments of middle-aged North Americans are connected to stress.

There are some proven ways of reducing the effects of stress:

• Identification: Since the whole process starts with your reaction to various situations, you may lose some stressors just by identifying them and realizing they aren’t important enough to spend your time and emotion on. it is a way of regaining perspective.
  
  
• Reframing is a technique whereby you look at stressful situations that reoccur regularly and look for ways to reinterpret them positively. E.g. A mother, was stressed by having to drive her kids to school early every day. She realized that the drive was an opportunity to really communicate with them about their lives. Within weeks she was looking forward to her daily gabfests with the children. Ironically, another of her stressors had been the lack of communication time with her family.
  
  
• Relaxation Response: Calming techniques that include diaphragmatic breathing and peaceful mental imagery are excellent tools to decrease the effects and even the number of stress responses one experiences. They can be learned through yoga, mental imaging classes, and various “calming” programs on CDs.
  
  
• Body Modification: The old adage, “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind”, holds true. If you have good muscle tone; a reasonable body fat %; if you fuel your body with the right balance and amount of nutrients: then, you are able to handle and disperse the effects of stress significantly better than one who doesn’t.

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Stress Solutions
Mike Zimmerman

Anti-Stress Strategies

• Look at your loves.
  There's tremendous pressure in our society to both settle down and succeed. The result: tension. Making a tough choice today can relieve a pile of pressure.
  
  
• Get in good.
  Day to day, there's nothing more stressful than being part of a team that doesn't accept you. Find your place to make yourself happy - not always pleasing others by forgetting yourself.
  
  
• Don't waste downtime.
  Being alone is an opportunity to prepare for the crazy times. When you are on a plane, running, doing groceries; this is a terrific way to kill tomorrow's stress, for most stress is anticipatory Ask yourself: Do I know what's required? Have I scouted for pitfalls? Do prep work and you'll be drooling for 9 a.m., not dreading it.
  
  
• Exercises
  There is a common misconception among people who run; they often think that their workouts can be limited to running. This is unfortunate since strength training helps to build lean muscle mass and it can actually help your running. The perfect leg strengthening exercise for running is the walking lunge.
  
  
  
  Walking lunges emphasize the propulsion phase of running, aka forward motion. Isn't that what running is all about, moving your body forward through space? Not only that, but aside from strengthening (and toning) your glutes, walking lunges can help increase your stride length, which ultimately will help increase your speed, and who doesn't want to run faster?
  
  If you run, I highly encourage you to add some walking lunges to your fitness routine. I would start with two sets of 10 lunges per leg. You can add hand weights to increase the work. Or to challenge your sense of balance, try holding a physio ball over your head while taking your lunges for a walk.
  
  If you need to review this wonderful exercise, check out Back to Basics: Walking Forward Lunge.

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Great recipe

Spaghetti Alla Puttanesca
serves 6

• 5 anchovy fillets, chopped
• 2 tablespoons organic extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 28 ounces can whole peeled tomatoes, chopped (with juice)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound organic spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)
• 2 tablespoons capers, rinsed
• 10 organic kalamata olives, diced

Sauté anchovies in olive oil over low heat until dissolved. Add garlic (don't brown). Raise heat to medium and add tomatoes and salt. When sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until oil and tomatoes separate, about 20–40 minutes.

Start cooking pasta while sauce is cooking. When pasta is half-cooked, add oregano, capers and olives to sauce. When pasta is cooked al dente, drain and toss with sauce.

Nutrition Info
Per serving (294g-wt.): 310 calories (90 from fat), 11g total fat, 2g saturated fat, 20g protein, 30g total carbohydrate (3g dietary fiber, 4g sugar), 45mg cholesterol, 620mg sodium.


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