Are You Listening to Your Body?

Your days are filled with people who want to talk to you - your spouse or significant other, kids, co-workers, bosses, friends...the list goes on and on. Yet, as you make time to listen to all of them (or try to), you may not be listening to a very important voice: your own.

And your voice may be trying to give you an important message from your body.

Slow down. You can't help everyone else if you are not helping yourself first.

As a busy woman executive, you likely have many sources of potential stress in your life. That makes it even more important that you listen to your body to avoid unhealthy habits which can make you even more stressed and less patient. Try these simple tips to keep up your healthy habits (or establish some new ones).

• Stress can make you want to reach for the nearest snack whether it is healthy or not. Before putting money in the vending machine or grabbing candy from your co-workers desk, ask yourself if you are really hungry. To test your answer, wait for fifteen minutes and then reevaluate your hunger.
• Drink a glass of water. Water will fill you up for a few minutes allowing you to calm your stressful situation. Plus, it gives you something to do with your hands and mouth besides eating that candy in the first tip!
• Eat slowly. When you are stressed, working on a last-minute request your desk before dashing off to your next meeting, you are more likely to eat fast. You barely get a chance to taste the food. If you don’t taste it then your brain won’t register that you are full and you are more likely to pay for it later in the day with low energy, heartburn or other unpleasant side effects.
• Take a walk. Work off the stress with a walk around your office or around the neighborhood. Walking will release those endorphins we were talking about. It improves your mood and helps with stress while helping you to avoid eating unhealthy food. If you can grab some upbeat or relaxing music or a friend, that will make it even more enjoyable.

Doing even just one of these things each time you feel your stress level rise can help you feel better in the moment and later in the day. Not only will your health be better over the long term but you will also feel more in control of your days.