How to Get an Energy Makeover!

What is up with this lack of energy us women find ourselves facing?

Amy is a 24 year old young woman who is just starting her career and has been working long hours. She has informed me that she cannot function in the morning without her coffee. Her morning routine always involves a visit to Starbucks before she heads into work.

As a nurse, I have found many of my coworkers relying on coffee to make it though our long shifts.
Courtney is another young woman who works a normal 9-5 job that struggles with enough energy to make it through the day. She is great waking up in the morning and is full of energy until lunch when the afternoon sluggish feeling takes over.

Lynette is a young mother of 2 girls under the age of 3 years old. She finds herself struggling with enough energy to make it through the day chasing after and entertaining her young girls at home while her husband is at work.

• Do you find yourself relating to one of these situations?
• Do you find yourself having trouble getting up in the morning without coffee?
• Do you find yourself in that mid-afternoon drag?
• Are you dragging yourself through the day just to do it all over again the next day?

You are not alone! Lack of energy is one of the most reported issues among both moms and working professional women.

What is going on with our energy levels?

It does not matter what woman you talk to, it seems we are all feeling we can use more energy to get us through the day. Although we as women are blessed with the ability to multitask better than our male counterparts, it can become the source of our demise.

We are busy. We work all day to come home and cook dinner, take care of the kids, etc. Even if you do not have a family, you are still keeping a very full schedule. It is hard to make time in the day to recharge.

We are planning, planning, and doing more planning. Whether you have a family or are single, there are many things you must schedule and plan for. All of this can take up space in that wonderful brain of yours and create the stress that drains our overall energy levels.

So, what can we do to still get everything we need to get done, DONE without going crazy?

Make sure you get awesome nutrition.

This means you focus 90% of your daily calories on fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains. To boost your energy, boost the nutritional content of your food. Make sure your diet focuses on getting more nutrients every day. There are no excuses to partaking in a less than stellar diet. Your life depends on as many nutrients as you can get! So, increase nutrient content of your food and lower the calories you take in during the day allowing your body to repair itself and boost your energy levels.

Stick with your workouts.

When you work out on a regular basis, you stimulate an increase in your neurotransmitter response which naturally boosts your energy. The general thinking would be that using the energy to work out, you have less energy to get you through the day. However, the opposite happens. Your workouts boost your brain power and your energy levels which means working out is more of energy boost than even coffee!

Turn off that TV and Facebook.

This is one that I struggle with; just ask my husband! When you spend more time on the tv or computer, it acts like a drain on your brain which makes you feel even more sluggish without the desire to engage in some exercise. So, spend less time on these activities and boost the health of your brain by spending time socializing, reading, or taking up some new hobbies. Enhance your brain; do not drain your brain!

Get outside Today.

The best way to get an energy boost is to get outside every day. Take in that fresh air and sunshine. There are thousands of studies that show the importance of vitamin D on your overall health and protecting your body against diseases. Just being outside is a great way to relax, refresh, and rejuvenate which will give you a great natural energy boost.

Stop worrying.

This is something that we women do very well. We worry A LOT! Whether we are always worrying about finances, friends, work, family, or the house, we always have something to worry about. You know what good worry does? NOTHING! It just takes up brain space and drains your energy. Lower your stress level by worrying about the things you really can’t do anything about and clear some room in that head of yours for more important thoughts.

Do you think these 5 tips will help you boost your energy level? What is your biggest energy drain you face? Let me know by leaving me a comment below!

15 Ways to De-Stress your Nest for a Happy, Healthy Home

Creating a comfortable and inviting home can have a large impact in your overall health. If you do create this environment, you can encourage healthier behaviors. You may be surprised how easy it is for you to focus on matters that are important to your health and your family when your home is uncluttered and appealing.

Your home is where is all comes together!

Now ladies, don’t misinterpret what I am trying to say here. I am not saying that your home must be clean, orderly, and look like it came out of a designer magazine. The key to a healthy home environment centers on making your home a place you can relax, rejuvenate, and recharge so you can better deal with the world around you.

Take a look around your home and ask yourself how you feel when you are in that space. Does it make you feel stressed or does it help you feel comfortable and relax? Your home does not have to be perfect. It just must be a place that feels inviting and warm to you!

When your home feels warm and inviting to you, you can spend your time focusing on your health. A healthy home can help encourage and promote healthy behaviors in other areas of your life.

Here is a list of my top 15 favorite small changes you can make to your home today to make it a haven for you and your family and promote health and de-stressing for your whole family.

1. Create your relaxation zone. Make one place in your home a comfortable place you can escape to in order to relax. This can be a simple chair and lamp in the corner of your bedroom that makes you feel comfortable and stress free.
2. De-clutter your home room by room. When you have less clutter around the home, you are able to think more clearly and feel more comfortable and relaxed. Take it one room at a time and clear the extra clutter.
3. Bring fresh flowers inside to help brighten the mood and atmosphere. There is nothing more relaxing than dealing with nature and beautiful flowers.
4. Create an organization station for papers. Do you find a counter in your kitchen seems to be the catch all for papers? Create and area or a wall station where you can organize everything and take away the stress from seeing a mess of papers in the kitchen.
5. Hang a large family calendar next to the organization station so that you can easily keep track of your family’s activities. This creates less stress in home trying to remember what exactly you had going on tonight.
6. Set out big bowls of fruit and vegetables in your kitchen for décor. This creates a great smell in your home and promotes healthy eating from the whole family.
7. Make sure you have plenty of natural light coming into your home. Get rid of heavy and dark drapes. Natural light will lift your mood and promote relaxation.
8. Turn off the TV and facebook. Start working on a hobby of yours.
9. Choose natural paint colors for a more relaxing atmosphere. Bold colors can promote stress.
10. Laugh often.
11. Get social. Go out and have fun with friends. Research has shown that people who spend more time being social are happier and have less stress.
12. Create a family game night. In our world today, families are so busy they hardly even get to eat together any more. Mark off one day on your calendar and label it family game night. Spend time together as a family playing board games or whatever games are interesting to you. This will help your family be happier and closer overall.
13. In addition to game night, make sure your family sits down and eats together as a  family, old fashioned style. This will help build stronger family relationships and give the parents and kids time to
    talk about what is going on in their world and what they may be struggling with.
14. Put the computer in the office and limit time spent mindlessly on it. It is more important for your comfortable, inviting, and healthy home that you spend less time on the computer and more time as a family or working on hobbies you enjoy.
15. Last but not least, make your bathroom into an oasis. There is not better place to relax than in the bathroom. Make it inviting and a great place for you to de-stress.

By focusing on creating a home that is comfortable and inviting, you are setting it up to promote healthy behaviors and create a happy and healthy family.

Do you have some healthy home tips you would like to add? Leave me a comment below and let me know: what is your favorite way to create a comfortable home?

The Top 7 Easiest Ways to De-Stress your Home

Our lives are busy. We rush around day in and day out. From full-time jobs to raising kids to all those extra activities going on, it is no wonder we are so stressed out! It seems there are always things that need to get done, bills that need to be paid, and those extra responsibilities at work that must get completed by the deadline.

What else is causing stress in your life?

Did you know stress can negatively impact your health? It can lower your immune system which can set you up for catching more colds and the flu. Chronic stress can even increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, headaches, migraines, high blood pressure, ulcers, alcohol dependency, and depression.

It is so important that we make sure to take time to relax and rejuvenate to maintain an optimal level of health.

I don’t know about you guys but I love HGTV! There are so many great ideas on there about awesome rooms for our homes that promote relaxation and healthy living. But, it wasn’t until recently that I realized how important having a home that allows you to get away from your hectic lives is! So, this post is a little different from my usual health posts but I love talking about homes as much as health so Im combining the best of both worlds today!

Today I was looking around my home and thinking how the home can be just as stressful as a job. So, I decided to put together a short list of a few things that can help you de-stress your home and create a place where you can relax.

The 7 Easy Ways to De-Stress your Home

1. Use calming colors throughout your home. Calming colors such as blue, green, and beige can offer a more calming effect on your life. According to psychologists, when bright and intense colors are present throughout your home, it can change your mood pretty quickly to such a mood as anger and can actually quicken your pulse and raise your blood pressure.
2. De-clutter your home. When you have tons of “stuff” all of the place, even if the room is “clean”, it can actually create more stress in your life. Make your most common living spaces free of extra clutter and save the extra little things for other rooms in your home.
3. Add lots of houseplants to your living space. Houseplants are great ways to bring the outdoors in. By using more of nature colors and by incorporating more of the outdoors, you are creating a naturally calming atmosphere. There is just something about nature that is calming. Don’t you agree?
4. Create your happy and relaxing zone in your house. Whether you designate a chair in the corner, or a lounge outside, make sure you have your place you can go to relax at home. This way when things get hectic you have your escape to rejuvenate!
5. Make your bed every day. I didn’t realize how this can actually make you feel great just by simply spending the extra 3 minutes a day making your bed. When things look put together especially in your bedroom, you don’t have to worry about it and can more effectively deal with everything else going on in your life.
6. Create a “catch all” place in your home. Designate a place in your home, whether in the kitchen, entryway, office, or wherever that you put a cubby or holder that can catch all the mail, your kids homework, or all those extra papers. This will help keep the rest of the house cleaner and allow your family to be more organized and on top of things that need to be taken care of.
7. Clean your sink before you go to bed at night. I know this sounds funny, but it really makes a difference. My husband’s aunt actually told me this one and it really works! As the woman of the house, the kitchen can easily be put on the back burner for all the time we spend in there cooking, cleaning dishes, etc and create a source of stress for us. There are so many other things to worry about that cleaning the sink with Windex at night makes sure the sink is clean and shines. You can then go to bed relaxed and be ready to start the day again in the morning.

By incorporating these 7 Simple Steps into your daily lives, you might be surprised how many little things in your home are creating more stress that YOU DO NOT NEED! All it takes is maybe an extra 5 minutes a day to have a home that can help you relax, rejuvenate, and get AWAY from stress causing agents.

What more can you accomplish in your life without the stress and health conditions that go along with too much stress? Try it out!

Let me know what you think about the above strategies and how you can de-stress your life by leaving a comment for me below! Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this post with your friends!

How to De-Stress from your Crazy Busy Life in 7 Simple Steps!

I recently had a client come to me in tears about how stressed out she was. Her husband recently got transferred across country so they moved with their 3 kids.

They bought a house, she started a new job, the kids started in their new schools this fall, and they were still paying the mortgage on their home back east. She was extremely stressed out between helping her family adjust to the move, all the boxes to unpack, meals to cook, having to meet new friends, and starting in on her full-time job.

She was truly exhausted and didn’t know who to turn to in order to get the support and encouragement to get things done that needed to be done. She was ready to give up and fall back into her quiet shell just going through the motions.

Not all of us have recently moved or understand the stress this woman faced at this season in her life, but we all have the on-going stresses of life. We may have a family, work, school, etc that seem to pull us in all different directions.

Our kids could have tons of extra-curricular activities that seem to never end and pull us from one to another without time to take a breath. Some may even have the stress of starting a home-based business in addition all the other stress that life brings for us.

What has helped you deal with the different stresses in life effectively? What could you have helped this woman with in order to help her de-stress?

Today I have for all of us crazy people who think we can do it all for everyone on a daily basis, a list of the top 7 tips I have learned that help people de-stress and gain control of their hectic lives.

1. Be positive. Your life is stressful, but learn to think on the bright side of things. It will help give you the motivation and little extra push to get things done that need to be accomplished in your life. You can do it!
2. Get organized. How in the world will you feel like you are actually getting anything done when you don’t know what needs to be done? Get a calendar, a mail organizer, bill organizer, and keep track of your life! No more running around like a chicken without the head! Know what needs to get done and get it done!
3. Prioritize. So you have a list that could stretch from California to Texas; go through and prioritize the list so you can focus on what is most important to complete right now. This will allow you not to waste precious time right now on something that you don’t have to worry about until next week. Work on what needs to be done now.
4. Learn to say no. You aren’t superman or superwoman! You can not do it all. As a wife of a soon-to-be pastor, I should listen to this one the most! What do you need to do, what do you want to do, and what can you say no to?
5. Love your job. Go into work with a clear head and the positive motivation of what you love about your job. You have to have something you love about it even if it is just getting paid and having benefits. If you are truly not satisfied, find something else. I found my passion and success in the home-based business industry. Where is yours?
6. Take time for yourself. You can’t keep go-go-going without time to at least take a break and relax. If you do not take time for yourself, you are not as valuable to others. By taking this break, you will be refreshed and ready to handle those around you.
7. De-clutter your life. When you have tons of clutter both at home and in your calendar, you will feel so “all over the place”. This goes with being clean and organized in all aspects of your life so you can better deal with what is thrown at you! Without clutter, there is less to think and worry about! How simple can you get in your life?

With these 7 steps, we can better take control of our lives and revitalize ourselves so we can be more productive and present for those around us who rely on us.

Take a moment know to really think about what small change you can make in your life right now to help it run more smoothly or less stressful? Is there someone you know who could use a little support and encouragement to take a little time for themselves? Leave me a comment below!

For me it is all about taking a moment to relax, take a deep breath, and picturing how peaceful listening to the ocean is (hence the picture above which is a de-stressor for me)!

Don’t forget to share the love by sharing this post with your friends. Who is struggling right now and could use a few words that can make all t he difference in their lives?