Adrenal Fatigue... no one talks about it, but it's what's making you (and me) sleepy

I am one of those people who gets stressed out easily. I have done a lot of work to try to minimize the stress in my life, minimize the amount of anxiety I put myself through, and increase the amount of time I spend taking care of myself.

But every once and a while I let the craziness of running a new business get the better of me and I end up running myself into the ground. It looks like... I get 8 hours of sleep a night, I wake up exhausted and it takes me a long time (and a little bit of caffeine) for me to feel awake. I have racing thoughts, and the constant feeling that I am not getting things done fast enough. I work from the time I wake up until shortly before I go to bed. I wish that I didn't have to sleep at all.

This is not sustainable for me... and it is where I am at right now. I have been aware of adrenal fatigue for a while now and I am pretty sure that this is the reason I constantly feel exhausted when I'm in high stress periods of my life. I have been reading Kris Carr lately (if you don't know about her she is an awesome cancer survivor who turned her life around and now promotes healthy living and eating) and I was just emailed one of her blog videos that I think eveyone would benefit from watching... because we all know most people are overworked, stressed out, and not taking care of themselves!

Happy Holiday Weekend!!!

I always find the end of summer to be bittersweet. Knowing the end of long, hot, sunny days is near always makes me a little sad even though I really do love fall too. Just knowing that in a few short months I'm going to be constantly freezing and pale as S-H-I-T doesn't really sit well with me. 

So this weekend (hopefully the weather will cooperate) I fully plan on sitting on the beach ALL day long for the next 3 days. Even though I feel I got plenty of beach time this summer, I am still maximizing this weekend.  

Here's to the last hoorah before everyone gets back into the swing of things on Tuesday!

Just Say NO

I have a hard time with this word. For some reason I have a hard time saying NO and therefore get myself into more commitments than I have time for. I have a really overwhelming way of thinking I can do everything (superwoman syndrome) and still take care of myself. 

Well, I'm trying to give it up, because I can't do everything. The latest incident happened yesterday. I made plans to go to this conference in NYC because it would be a good networking opportunity and it is an extension of the business coaching program I'm currently in. Awesome. What I didn't consider would be that I was exhausted from the week. 

First I planned to go up to my sister's in the city to stay overnight so that I could just wake up and go. Then I decided since it started so early I should just drive in Saturday morning (at 6:30 am) because there wouldn't be any traffic and I wouldn't spend as much time getting there as if I were to drive to the train, take the train, take a subway and walk to my sister's apartment. Then by the time it was time to go to sleep, I was like 'there is no way I can wake up at 6 am, drive there, and sit there for 5 hours, and drive back.'

So I didn't. Instead I had the best most relaxing Saturday EVER! It was rainy so I didn't feel any pressure to get out of bed. I woke up and read for 3 hours!!!! So amazing! Then my sister and I sat on my porch just talking and listening to the rain. Then we went for a run and out to lunch. Then I went home and got back into bed to read and ended up taking a 2 hour nap. 

I seriously needed that. Bad. Yesterday made me realize that I need my weekends. I need to not have any work commitments for 2 days out of the week unless it is absolutely necessary. Sometimes it will be, but most of the time it's stuff that I just don't need to do. 

So my goal is to just say no to working on the weekends! Who's with me?

Lazy Days of Summer

stormy day in paradise

I was just laying in bed (yes it's after noon) and LOVING the fact that the weather is crappy and I have absolutely no reason to get out of bed. I always wondered where the 'lazy days of summer' saying came from. Especially since my life during the summer is pure craziness. I swear as soon as May 1st hits and the sun goes down later and the nights are warm and breezy I go into lets-go-psycho-crazy-and-experience-everything-the-beach-has-to-offer mode. 

But this weekend has been just that. Lazy! Last night I traded in dancing for Chinese food, wine, and a book. I got 11 hours of sleep. AMAZING!!! It's that time in the summer where it's more than halfway over, I've had so many beach days, I've done everything I wanted to do, and now I can relax. Ahhhhhhh!

Going to continue laying in bed for a while. Enjoy your Sunday!

What to do at a BBQ

As someone who always ends up in conversations with people about the food we eat, I fully understand not being a burden at a party. Most people haven't wrapped their mind around all the damage that the standard American diet causes. But as someone who cares about what I eat, it can be challenging going to someone else's house and finding something that I feel comfortable eating. Let me preface this by saying, sometimes I really don't give a S-H-I-T (usually if I am starving) and I will eat anything that's there. I hardly ever eat much meat during the week, so when I am out at a party I am sometimes more inclined to eat it. But most of the time I am at least a little picky.

I wasn't always this calm, cool, and collected about not beating myself up about eating 100% healthy all the time. I would work myself into a mental knot about whether I should eat the chemical filled, preservative laden, over processed, but really good something-or-other. Then I would eat it and feel guilty afterwards. Meanwhile, I'm at a party, but not really enjoying myself because I know I'm literally eating garbage.

This is what you do. Bring something you can eat. Not only will you look like a courteous guest, but you will be able to load your plate with whatever you brought and pick at the other things.

The things that I am picky about are:

• conventional meat especially chicken (conventional chicken ABSOLUTELY disgusts me and if you knew how it was raised you would be grossed out too)
• conventional dairy and eggs (same as above)
• anything that comes out of a bag, box, looks florescent in color, originates as a powder, you get the drift

Most importantly, if there is absolutely nothing "healthy" where you are, pick the least bad things, and eat them anyway, and don't beat yourself up about it. You can make up for it tomorrow. I try to follow the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time I eat super healthy, and 20% of the time I am more relaxed about what I am eating so I can go out, have fun, and not drag a cooler of food with me everywhere I go.

Have fun this weekend!

I'M TAKING A BREAK

For the past week or so it has been a struggle to eek out my daily posts. I've been pulling whatever I could out of my ass just so that I didn't leave you all hanging. I'm assuming I'm just in a writing rut right now and I will find my flow once again. So I've decided to take a small break from writing. I need to get my head out of all the seriousness that I've been working on. Don't be alarmed if you don't hear from me until next week.

I'm signing off and going to spend some quality time with myself, my family, and my friends. Everyone should take a mental break every now and again. It's no good to be so serious all the time. Get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Until next week...

GOAL: Live to 110 years of age

Cutest centenarian ever!
(Source) 

I just finished a book called The Blue Zone that talks about the four areas around the globe where there are the highest percentage of centenarians (people who live to 100 years of age). The four areas are Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; the Nicoya Pininsula, Costa Rica; and the Seventh Day Adventists in Loma Linda, Southern California. This book interviewed many centenarians and their families over the course of several years to figure out what were the characteristics that set them up for a long, healthy life.

I am interested in this because of a couple of reasons. Just recently I realized that I want to live to be a centenarian. I wondered how does one do that? Also, even if I don't end up living that long, I want to have the best possible quality of life for as long as I can.

This book touches on both of those topics.

In a nutshell, here are the principles that people in these Blue Zones lived by:

• Surround yourself with family and friends. Almost all of the centenarians interviewed lived with their children and grandchildren and also had a consistent social obligations from playing cards with friends, to morning group exercises, to going to church. Each area had different customs, but all of the four areas were consistent in that they all put a great deal of emphasis on being with other people everyday. 
• Don't let stress get the better of you. Maybe it comes with age, maybe these people were born with a stress-free attitude, or maybe it is part of their cultures. One thing is for sure, the centenarians had a very care-free way about them. They also had downtime, either everyday or every week. It was built into their lives. Costa Ricans would rest everyday in the late afternoon. The Seventh Day Adventists would have a day of rest every weekend. No work, no homework, just family and fun activities.
• Be active every day. The stories of the centenarians in this book tells of them chopping wood into their late 90's, riding bicycles, walking for miles everyday, gardening into their 100's, sitting on the floor cross legged and getting up and down with ease and grace. (How many elderly people do you know that can do that?) 
• Eat unprocessed foods. All of the four cultures ate completely differently. But they ate real food, food that was culturally theirs. They didn't eat fast food. They made just about everything. The centenarians in Costa Rica ate eggs, coffee, tropical fruits, corn and beans. In Okinawa they ate fish, rice, seaweeds, sweet potatoes, and vegetables. In Sardinia, the people ate a diet of whole grain breads, beans, garden vegetables, fruits, and goat's milk. The individual foods were different, but the principles were the same- whole foods cooked at home.
• Spend time in the sun. When the sun touches our skin it starts a chain reaction in our body that ends up producing Vitamin D. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin but a hormone that controls the absorption of all other vitamins and minerals as well as the function of our immune system. These centenarians all lived in temperate to tropical climates that allowed them to get outdoors and get Vitamin D for a large majority of the year. Since they were accustomed to working outdoors (farming, shepherding, relaxing) their entire lives, they were inadvertently making plenty of Vitamin D. 

This book really struck a cord with me. It's so SIMPLE!!!  How did we stray so far from what seems to create a happy and healthy life? I feel like I have been getting back to basics as of late. I feel the need more so now than ever to be happy and healthy. I have been thinking recently that health is about much more than the food you eat. It's the whole picture. 

"People talk about curing cancer and heart disease, and of course it is an important and worthy goal that can happen soon enough. But there are simple things everyone could be doing right now that would save so much money and suffering- like drinking enough water everyday, exercise, and eating healthy food. But hey, " Wareham said, suddenly catching himself in is fervor, "everybody has his own idea about these things- it's their lives, after all. You can tell somebody what to do, but it's up to them whether they do it. But you can tell them how good you feel."

~quote from The Blue Zone 

Falling in the Rain & Rolling Around in the Grass

Funny story. So Friday night we all went out for one of my bestie's birthdays at this really fun bar/club close by. I made the point of telling everyone to wear flip flops because they have an outside area with gravel (picture a camp ground with boccie ball and picnic tables). Long story short I fell in the gravel a few weeks ago because I was wearing crazy insane heels. So, I gave everyone fair warning.

After hours of dancing (in my flip flops) and drinking prosecco (yes I drink champagne when I go out) we were about to leave. The only problem was that the gusty wind turned into gusty wind + monsoon like conditions. Picture a hurricane minus the dangerous flying debris.

BEFORE

On the count of three we all sprinted to the car. I took a graceful leap off the curb to try to hop over the river puddle that was not draining into the over-flooded sewer. Well, have you ever miscalculated how deep something is? Haha, I did. I thought the puddle was about a foot shallower than it really was which sent me palms first, fully submerged under water. (OMG I can't even type I'm laughing so hard). I stood up and looked down at myself in complete shock that in 15 seconds I went from being doused with raindrops to looking like I jumped in a pool. Makeup running down my face, perfect hair turned stringy mess. COMPLETELY SOPPING WET!

AFTER

(PS...I'm almost 30 years old. When does ridiculous S-H-I-T like this stop happening?)

And the kicker was that my flipflops came off and were floating down the street. AWESOME! So apparently flip flops do not protect you from falling when you are falling into water. Take note of this.

So not only did I get wet, but so did everyone else with me as we were all paralyzed with laughter while they were trying to collect me and my things. I wish we got it on video so you all could've seen it. PRICELESS!

Anywho, when we got back to the house I got the great idea that since we were already soaked we might as well go play in the rain. And by play I mean roll around in the grass like we were 6 years old. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT. 

When was the last time you played in the rain? Or took off your shoes and sat in the grass. If you are a beginner I would work up to rolling around. You might go into shock.

Anyway, it was so refreshing (not to mention fun) acting like I was a child again. Maybe that's why people drink? So they can feel okay about letting loose. If you watch kids play, and then watch adults drink, sometimes it's pretty similar.

The moral of this story...feed your inner child and have fun. There is no point in eating healthy if you aren't having fun at the same time. Assignment: take off your shoes, go outside, lay in the grass, then start rolling around (rain optional). 

Girls, girls, girls!

Girls weekends are a must every once and a while. Good for the soul. We just cook, drink wine, hang out, go out for breakfast, drink coffee, and talk, talk, talk. Michelle and little Lauren come down in the winter every year and it's so nice. I feel a connection to my creative roots when I am with them.

I don't really know if there is any scientific evidence that would say that having good girlfriends is healthy for you, but I wouldn't doubt it. Or good man friends if you are manly. Either way, I personally think that having people in your life that understand you and inspire you is important for your health.

On a different note, today would have been Nani's 76th birthday. It is hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since she passed away. So much has changed for me since then and it is because of her. I miss her when I think of her. But despite the fact that I wish she was here, if she wasn't maybe I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now. I love the path I am on and finally feel like I am doing something I love and something I really believe in. It's funny how things work out.

Happy Birthday Nani!

Taking time to...

RELAX! I have been so exhausted for the past week. I haven't been able to catch up on my sleep, I've been working like crazy to finish work for the Christmas tree business, and I am anxious to start working on our new business. All of this makes for a stressed-out Jessie.

So, in spite of all of the millions of little things I have to do, I am taking the next two days off and doing nothing. Well, by nothing I mean laying in bed and reading or laying on the couch and watching television (something I rarely ever do). I've been reading The China Study by T.Colin Campbell now for a ridiculous amount of time because I read at night before bed and I usually only get about 10 pages in before I can't keep my eyes open. I am so close to finishing! So that is what I am going to do.

Ta ta for now kiddies! I'm getting back into bed...