Any recommendations on how to manage stress?

[Carb8985]

Why not take a month off from all formal exercise entirely? It sounds to me like the stress you are dealing with is only made worse by focusing on diet and worrying about whether you are doing the right workouts. That kinda thing could make your head spin and only make you more stressed out, so why not just drop all workouts and continue to walk and stretch? I find when I'm not working out my appetite drops a lot, so you can really focus on cleaning up your diet, if that is an issue.

I've recently started doing yoga and I find it really helps me feel more relaxed. And I consider myself to be a very "busy," Type-A, "on the go" type person. Although some mornings it is hard for me to quiet my mind, it is those mornings that I am most reminded that I am the type of person who NEEDS the yoga. Yoga is not just for the "yogis" if that makes sense.

Oh, and if you are worried about cortisol, I would definitely not do workouts like Tonique, which are super intense, endurance-based workouts. I would suspect that those workouts would only elevate cortisol, but YMMV.

Hope you feel better soon.

[flamingoo]

Mess around with different forms of yoga so you can find "your yoga". I love kundalini and I love everything Buti and always will. When it comes to stress reduction and calming me down for some reason the only thing that I've discovered that helps is The Ultimate Yogi. I don't know why. When I look back and read my journal from those days- it really did help me with every day stress.

[Vintage VFer]

Originally Posted by mle777

Do you listen to podcasts? If you do, check out "The Life Coach School" podcast. Brooke's view point on so many things was really eye-opening. It made it so much easier for me to let go of some of the stress. I seriously cannot recommend it enough

I downloaded a few of these and listened to the first one last night.

Thanks for the recommendation!

[mle777]

Originally Posted by Vintage VFer

I downloaded a few of these and listened to the first one last night.

Thanks for the recommendation!

You're welcome! I really love her message

[momofcha]

I've done at least 10 minutes of KY a day the past couple of days - and I really liked it! I'm actually contemplating what I can do tomorrow. Hopefully this is a step to helping me!

Thanks for all the feedback!

[SuzieC]

Originally Posted by shammy902

I've done at least 10 minutes of KY a day the past couple of days - and I really liked it! I'm actually contemplating what I can do tomorrow. Hopefully this is a step to helping me!

Thanks for all the feedback!

So glad to hear this! For me, the breathing exercises really help.