Category Archives: wellness

How Much Is Stress Affecting You?

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I have an extremely stressful job. Every day at work for me revolves around the health and well being of the student athletes that I work with. During our busy times (which this year, was basically the entire year) this can mean 10-11 hour days during the week, and at least one weekend day spent at work. All of these long hours and high pressure situations lead to… you guessed it, stress overload.

funny-stress-poster

Late spring and summer though is our quiet time, and the past week has been gloriously calm and stress free. I was talking with one of my coworkers about it yesterday, remarking about the awesome amount of energy that I’ve had the past few days, and how strange it felt to still feel energized, even by the end of the day for the last several days. It’s especially strange, because the past several days have been spent catching up on greuling paperwork, which is incredibly frustrating for someone who is not used to sitting at a desk/computer all day every day. (Other ATs out there know exactly what I’m talking about… am I right?)

My point is this: Nothing drastic has changed over the past week or so. My diet is the same. My sleep patterns are the same. My workouts are the same. The only thing that has changed is my stress level. I’ve gone from high-stress all day every day, to seriously mindless paperwork. Stress free. And despite the fact that I’m wasting away at my computer for hours per day, my energy has skyrocketed. The only thing I can attribute this to is my lack of stress. And not only is my energy better, but I’ve been in a generally better mood, I haven’t had headaches, and my focus has improved.

Seriously, who knew stress was such a life-suck? I mean, I did, but I guess I haven’t thought about it lately. Check out this table I found from the Mayo Clinic. Looking down this list of stress effects, I could check off probably about 75% of them over the past several months. No bueno!

Common effects of stress …
… On your body … On your mood … On your behavior
  • Headache
  • Muscle tension or pain
  • Chest pain
  • Fatigue
  • Change in sex drive
  • Stomach upset
  • Sleep problems
  • Anxiety
  • Restlessness
  • Lack of motivation or focus
  • Irritability or anger
  • Sadness or depression
  • Overeating or undereating
  • Angry outbursts
  • Drug or alcohol abuse
  • Tobacco use
  • Social withdrawal

Source: American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America” report, 2010

I knew that I was overly stressed and I knew that I had gotten extremely, chronically tired this year, but I never stopped to think about why. I knew that I had become often cranky and irritable, and that my mental focus was starting to waver, but again, I never stopped to think that it was probably something I can control.  Of course I can’t control the fact that I have stress at work, as that is just the nature of the career path I’ve chosen. (And to be honest, what job doesn’t have stress?), but what I can control is the way that I deal with the stress in what little down time I do have.

stressed out cat

I can’t always depend on downtime like I have now to de-stress, because quite honestly there is only a very limited part of the year that I can relax like this. What I can do is try some techniques now so that I can keep doing them towards the end of this summer once things get a little crazy at work again.

One of my goals for this summer is to start meditating regularly, hoping that improving my meditation skills will help me during high-stress times. I’m not very well versed in this yet though, so stay tuned for another post about my adventures as a beginner-meditator!  I also recently read this great article from Dr. Mark Hyman about ways to decrease stress. He’s got some great thoughts and suggestions here, and if you are an easily stressed person I suggest you click on over and take a few minutes to read it!  Deep breathing and changing the way I think are two of his tips that I might have to work on as well, as I often let my thoughts and worries spiral out of control, only leading to more stress. Decreasing this horrible cycle is a goal of mine, and something I definitely need to work on if I want to keep from getting burnt-out, which is an all too common problem in the AT world.

Do you have a stressful job or work in a high-stress office? How do you cope with work stress? Do you find that stress affects you physically? Do you meditate, and how often?

Putting Lifting on Hold

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My title is kind of punny, although I didn’t intend it to be. You’ll find out why as you keep reading…

You see, on Sunday night, I was doing a test run of these mini pecan pies, to test them out for a dinner I’m going to in a couple weeks. As I was blending up the dates with my immersion blender, a horrible, horrible thing happened.

Some of you know where this is going. And don’t worry, there are no gross pictures attached to this post. I’m not that cruel.

Stupidly, without even thinking, I reached into the blade area with my index finger to remove some of the built up date “gunk”… but forgot to unplug it first… and must have pushed the button by accident. Well, you can imagine what may have happened next, and I’ll spare you the gory details. (Side note: I know what ALL of you are thinking — “Why the hell would she stick her finger in near the blade without unplugging it” And believe me I’m asking the same question. I know it was stupid, and I’ve NEVER done that before. I know better. And I most definitely wont be doing it again!)

immersion blender

Luckily, Will was here to act quickly and take good care of me! Needless to say, we spent a few hours that evening in the ER, which was an experience in itself. When all was said and done, I still have my finger, but it’s all stitched up and the entire nail/nail bed had to be removed. I’m now left with a painful open wound, and a big, bulky dressing and splint on my finger for at least 2 weeks.

 (Get the pun in the title now? On hold? heh heh)

And I’ve been instructed by the hand specialist to not sweat for at least the next two weeks. 

I’m a sweater. I sweat a lot. I’m not one of those girls who can go to the gym with my hair down, full make up, and look like a princess after they’re done. (Who are those girls anyway?) It’s hard for me to do ANY type of workout without sweating, so I’m kind of in a bind here. Hell, it’s hard for me to get through a work day without sweating if we’re being totally honest.

(I also just want to add that I know it could be way worse. It’s just a finger, and it’s mostly intact so that’s lovely. It’s more of a pain in the arse at this point)

I’m going to keep this short because typing is a bitch right now.

Here’s the plan: I’m taking this week totally off from the gym…an unplanned deload week I guess. Seeing as just walking around raises my blood pressure enough to make the wound throb and weep (sorry I know thats gross), that will be the extent of my exercise this week. Next week I’ll try to add in some light, non-sweaty, probably bodyweight exercises and see how that goes.

Here’s where YOU all come in! I want you to leave ideas for me in the comments, because theres only so many air squats and light weighted lunges a girl like me can do. Also, I’ll be traveling for work next week (in South Carolina) so theres that.  Give me some creative things to do until I can get back in the weight room, or at least out at the stadium.  Nothing where I have to grip with both hands, and remember — No Sweat!!  We don’t want this finger to be stumpy forever, do we?

Ready Go!

Please share some injury stories of your own — especially those that involve kitchen appliances and/or other household items :)  

Resolutions Are For Suckers: Part 2

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I said it last year, and I’ll say it again: Resolutions are for suckers.

wordpuppy

Read here for my explanation of this statement.

But if you’re too lazy to click on that link and read the old post, here’s the gist of it: Resolutions are wishy washy bullshit that are easily broken. Goals have specific end points  and are easily measurable so that you know exactly where you stand. I don’t set resolutions anymore; I set challenging goals that I can keep track of, goals that will keep me on track for the bigger things I want in life. So heading into your new year, do yourself a favor and set some specific, measurable goals so that you will know exactly when you’ve reached them.

If you don’t know when you’ve reached your goals, what’s the point in setting them?

So without further ado, here are the things I would like to accomplish in 2013:

Deadlift/Squat/Bench: In 2013, I want to get stronger. I want to get my DL up to 200 lb, my back squat to 170 lb, and my bench to 100 lb.  I know I can do it! I think the most challenging one will be the back squat,  just based on my experience this year. But I have a lot of confidence that I can accomplish these because I also want to…

Have someone else do my programming: I know a decent amount about strength training and fitness (but I’m no expert). I know a lot about nutrition and sports medicine, so I should be able to just train myself, right? Wrong. Someone on the outside can often see weaknesses that you don’t see, can often pick out faulty movement patterns that you might not even be aware of.  There’s something holding me back on progressing my back squat (and I have a feeling it’s my poor hip mobility), but someone on the outside can probably do a better job at corrective programming, because they’re seeing me with a totally objective eye. I would LOVE to get assessed by Tony Gentilcore and get a program from him, so I’m thinking that will be something I splurge on in the near future. I read Tonys blog all the time, and with him being a local guy, how could I not want him to do my programming, or at the very least an assessment? We’ll see if he has room in his schedule for little ol’ me. ;)

Continue running strong with The Tribe: I’m sure by now we all know how much I hate endurance running (for myself). But if you remember a while back, I wrote a post about running stadiums on Wednesday mornings with a group called the November Project. Well, since I started going,  I have become absolutely addicted, and have become obsessed with improving my times each week. There’s just something intoxicating about the positive energy of the group that keeps me coming back for more. I know that it’s stalling my strength progress a little bit, but I love doing it so much that I think it’s worth the trade off, at least for now. My goal is to make it to every single Wednesday morning November Project run in 2013  (with exceptions for travel, work conflict, serious illness, or injury, of course) And NP, if you’re reading, you can consider that my #Verbal. 

And to give myself an even more specific goal on that front, I want to get my “full tour” (running all 37 columns of the stadium) down to under 37:00. (My best time right now is 40:58.)

IMG_0470

Dream Big: I’ll elaborate more on this in the very near future, but I’ll give you a little teaser now. A big dream of mine is to write a book, and I vow that the process will start this year, in 2013. I’m not saying I’m going to complete it this year, because that’s completely unrealistic. But the ideas are there, the dream and the will power are certainly there, and the only thing left is to just do it.

Talk to my family more: When life gets hectic, I tend to get sucked into a black hole of work, writing, and other things and I don’t always talk to those I love enough. I try to talk to my mother at least once per week, but there have been several times this year where it has slipped by to 2-3 weeks in the blink of an eye. In the wake of the recent Newtown tragedy and my own accident weeks before that, I have really started to think about how very important it is to talk to loved ones regularly, and let them know how important they are. I will call my mother at least once per week, and I will call my sister more often too. It’s easy to take family for granted, but really, without getting too morbid, you never know how much more time you have. Sometimes months can go by before talking to my sister, and that’s just not right. Let’s fix that NOW, while we still can.

Stop being such a pansy and start reaching out to some of the bigger strength and conditioning blogs that I read. Some of those people would make me seriously star struck if I met them (Hello, all of the Girls Gone Strong), but I’m not sure what it is that makes me think that I’m not their peer. Yes, I’m a newer blogger, but I’ve got a lot of good ideas and I need to stop telling myself that I can’t get to their level. I can get to their level, I just have to put a lot of hard work in, and start networking like crazy.  So I have set the goal of reaching out to at least one new blogger per month, via email, and start making some connections. Boom! Done.

These are my bigger goals for 2013. Hopefully I can remember to check back in every few months or so to monitor my progress, but I think I’ve given myself some challenging (but realistic) things to work towards. 2012 was a big year for me, and I must say I worked my butt off to make it that way. If I keep working hard, 2013 could shape up to be just as big, with just as many milestones. Only time (and hard work) will tell!

What about you? What are your biggest goals for 2013? Have you ever thought about writing a book? Do you generally meet your New Years goals or do you forget about them by February? 

Tweet Tweet! Be Better

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I’m BACK!

Who’s excited?

ohboy

This girl.

Where was I last week? Well, studying my bum off, that’s where I was. I took my CSCS exam on Saturday, so last week was my crunch week. At this point, all I can do is wait, and although I won’t know whether I passed or not for 6-8 weeks, I’m just glad it’s over. After studying nearly every single day for the past 2 months, I’m looking forward to having more time and energy to put into the blog and other parts of my life (like my social life, which all but disappeared over the last month or so due to studying). Let’s face it, I’m not the kind of person that can sit around and do nothing for long, so I’m sure I’ll find another way to take up my time soon, but for now I’m just going to relax and enjoy a little freedom.

Now I will have time to catch up on a bunch of reading I’ve wanted to do; I’ve been sitting on a book review for you guys for a while now because I just haven’t had time to pay enough attention to the book to do it justice. That will be coming soon, I promise!

I’ve also got some great sports-medicine related posts up my sleeve, so hopefully I can get some pics taken and get those up for you as well.

In the mean time, let’s talk about Twitter.

twitter

Tweet Tweet!

A long time ago, I wrote this post about being a better version of you. Most of you probably haven’t read it, because I’m pretty sure I had like 3.5 readers back then. Go ahead and read it, I’ll wait…

I think that although it was a quick and kind of silly post, it had a good message. There’s always something you can do to be better. Whether it has to do with fitness, motivation, nutrition, or your contribution to society, there is always a way to be better.

Along those same lines, if you follow me on Twitter (@stephdorsay), I frequently add #BeBetter to my tweets. This has nothing to do with being better than other people (although that’s fun too). It really just has to do with making myself better. What I would like to do is to spread the word. I want everyone to be better. I want people to think about how they can make themselves better every day. Call your mom and tell her you love her. Hold the door for one extra person. Get your ass to the gym even when it’s dark and cold outside, and the only place you want to be is cuddled up on your couch in your sweats.

Compliment people, smile at people, compliment yourself, make time for yourself, learn something new, help someone else learn something new, start a savings account, floss your teeth (but please don’t floss someone else’s teeth. That’s weird.), do 10 pushups, sign up for a class, learn to meditate, foam roll every day, dance a little more, hug it out….

hugitout2

I could go on all. day. long. 

My point is, there are a million ways to make yourself better. So do it! And then tweet about it. And add the hashtag #BeBetter to those tweets. Let’s start something here, people! Let’s inspire more people to be better, and make ourselves better along the way.

What can YOU do to be a better you? What’s holding you back?

#BeBetter 

Eating My Way Through NYC

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Since I know some of you love looking at food pictures, I’ll indulge you a little bit today.

And when I say indulge, boy do I mean it.

As many of you know, I was in NYC with Will this past weekend visiting friends and enjoying life. Every time we go to NYC, I end up eating so much incredible food, and this trip was no different. I truly think that about 80% of my time in that city is spent eating. I just can’t help myself.

Unfortunately, there were certain times throughout the weekend where I either didn’t remember to take pictures, or just felt plain weird taking pictures of my food, so what I’m left with is just a portion of what was consumed. I also have to note that with these pictures and last week’s banana post, it seems likely that many of you probably think I exclusively eat desserts.

But as much as I would love a world full of just desserts, it’s not true. It just tends to be what I take pictures of, for no particular reason. Plus, it’s way  more fun to write about cupcakes than kale, don’t you think? (Although I do love me some kale).

And with that, I’ll shut up and get on with it! And since this is a post full of eats, I’ll link up to What I Ate Wednesday, hosted by Jenn over at Peas and Crayons. Enjoy!

It’s really unfortunate that I didn’t get a picture of my brunch on Saturday morning, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I will tell you though, it was a “Farmers Frittata”, with eggs, bacon, asparagus and potatoes, and it was simply divine.

That afternoon while walking around, Will and I stopped by the amazing cupcake joint, Baked By Melissa, for some of their delicious bite sized treats.

Pictured here are Mint Chocolate Chip, PB &J, Cookie Dough, and Peanut Butter Cup. OH. MY. GOD. I ate 2, but honestly could have polished off a dozen of these bad boys no problem. 

Later that afternoon, we stopped by the famous Russ And Daughters for a snack, since we wouldn’t be eating again until a late dinner.


If you’ve never had a R&D Bagel before, you’re missing out. I’m not even a huge bagel lover but these are amazing. This is Will’s, complete with Lox, but I just ate a few bites of the bagel/cream cheese to hold me over. 

Later that night, we had a dinner that was to die for. Truffle pizza and pumpkin filled Tortelli pasta, both of which I unfortunately did not photograph. I did remember to get dessert though!

Vanilla Gelato with Espresso poured on top. I can’t even tell you how good this was! 

Sunday morning, we headed over to the famous Clinton St. Bakery for brunch. This place has gotten so popular that we had to wake up early to wait in line to put our names on the list… and still had to wait 2 hours for a table! It’s worth it though, for these little slices of heaven:

These pancakes are without a doubt, the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my life. I’m not sure what they put in them, but they’re addictive! Will and I split the pancakes and the Spanish Scramble, complete with fresh tomatoes, spinach and chorizo. 

That afternoon before we got on our bus, we also stopped for one more mini meal. We went to a little tiny Venezuelan place called Caracas that we had been to before. If you’ve never tried Arepas before, I suggest you get on that. And if you’re going to try them, head to Caracas because this place does it best!

Look at all that goodness, including plantains. YUM! Definitely hit the spot. 

And with that, we were off. But let’s not forget all of the coffee I consumed over the weekend as well!  Here are a couple of my favorites:

Even at nice coffee shops, I almost always have to get my cappuccino in a to go cup, because it takes me so long to drink them. Although there’s nothing like a nice, ceramic coffee mug, sometimes you’ve just gotta get moving! 

And there you have it. Like I said, there were other things eaten over the weekend, meals that I really wish I had taken pictures of! But this is better than nothing.

Have you been to NYC? What are your favorite places to eat when you go there? Do you tend to go to little hole-in-the-wall places like Caracas or the more famous restaurants when you travel?