Moving, without all the stress

April 15, 2013 / ktbuchs87 / 1 Comment

It’s official, we have finally moved! I know I haven’t mentioned much on here about us having to move, mostly because we weren’t really looking to move. We found out in February from our landlord that she was not renewing our lease and that we had until May to find a new place. Needless to say we were a little shocked.

Living room, with gorgeous sunlight coming in off the balcony!

From that point it was a mad dash to try and find a new place in the area and within our price range. Because we were not expecting this, it was obviously a bit of a stressful situation. I’ve mentioned it before in the wedding post, I do not tend to handle stress very well. I pretty much turn into a huge mess and no one really wants to deal with me. Plus it messes with my health big time. My acne flares up, my digestion goes haywire, I become more susceptible to illnesses, and overall, I just feel awful.

Dining room!

Knowing this about myself, I was determined not to let that happen to me this time around. One of my health goals this year is to really work on how I manage stress, as well as how I react to stress. An unexpected move seemed like the perfect stressful situation to try and work through. I know that everyone goes through stressful times in their lives, so I thought that I would share with you some of the steps I took this time around to try and minimize/manage my stress. You can tailor these to your specific needs and hopefully they will help you out as much as they did for me!

Office/guest bedroom. Hi Adam!

Accept the stressful situation. Huh? Yes, I said accept. I am a person who loves to have control over every aspect of my life. Unfortunately, life does not care about that and will inevitably throw curve balls your way, causing you stress. It has taken me a very long time to learn and begin to accept the fact that there are just some times when I will not be able to control a problem. I had no control over the fact that my landlord was not going to renew my lease. Nor did I have control over the fact that I had less than three months to find a new home and move. Worrying or stressing over the situation was going to get me nowhere, so rather than let it bring me down I decided to just accept the fact that this was happening and move on from there. I am not saying you have to be happy about unplanned stress in your life, but there are times when all the worrying and fretting will amount to nothing. In fact, it will just add to your misery. So once that curve ball is thrown your way, take a deep breath, accept that this is happening and move forward. Which leads to my next point…

Make a plan. Once you accept that some stress is going to enter your life, create a plan to help and work through that stress. For me, creating a timeline showing how we would deal with the situation helps to lessen the stress. For this move, I made a timeline of when certain things needed to be completed. The time when we needed to find a new place, the time we needed to tell our landlord, the time when we needed to start packing, and the date we needed to move by. Having checkpoints for me to reference helped me feel more in control of the situation and it also helped to make sure we were getting things done in time. Having a basic outline of how you can tackle your dilemma will help you to feel more in control of your situation.

Our bedroom… don’t mind the laundry on the bed

Realize there will be hiccups. Even if you plan down to the very last detail, there will probably still be some unforeseen issues that will arise. Clearly there is no way to make sure everything goes 100% smoothly, 100% of the time. By knowing that beforehand, it can make it a little easier to deal with the little things that pop up. Don’t let those little things stress you more, handle them in the best way possible and keep moving towards your ultimate goal.

Laundry room/mucho storage! I love having a washer and dryer right in my home!

These tips are obviously of the broader type, meant to be utilized in most types of stressful situations. Here are some of the more specific things that I did to deal with this move and not freak out.

1. I asked for help. This is a huge thing for me because I generally have the attitude of I can do it all by myself. I have learned the hard way that I can NOT do it by myself, and I have a ton of people in my life who are more than willing to help me when I need. All I have to do is ask them. I asked both my parents and my in-laws for help with the move as well as my sister and to our surprise and delight, some of Adam’s friends offered to help us the day of our move. Everyone was ready and willing to help and never once made it feel like it was a huge inconvenience. I was overwhelmed with their gusto and both Adam and I were super appreciative.

2. I started packing early. Instead of trying to jam all the packing into just one day, I spread it out over a few weeks. This helped it to seem less overwhelming and made the process go fairly smoothly. Plus, with the way the timing worked out on our lease, we were able to move some things in stages, which REALLY made the actual moving day less stressful.

3. I became best friends with my slow cooker. I was already on fairly good terms with my slow cooker before this move, but I really gave it a work out that whole weekend. Because I knew that I would not have the time (or quite frankly the energy) to make healthy dinners, I planned to have three slow cooker meals for that weekend. It was so simple to just throw the ingredients in in the morning and have a delicious meal at the end of a long day. It was so important for me to eat, and eat healthy, so that I could function properly. I also made sure to save some leftovers from the week before so that we could also have quick lunches ready.

Kitchen, and yes that is the crock pot cooking our dinner!

All these things helped to greatly reduce my stress levels this past weekend. Did I still freak out and have to calm down? Of course. Like I said before, this was my first real test of better handling a stressful situation. There were times I felt like crying and giving up, but rather than bottle that up and let it destroy me, I talked with Adam or my friends and family. They were able (and happy) to listen and offer advice and encouragement and it really made a difference. I experienced none of my usual health problems, and in fact have felt even better than I did before the move! You can work through a stressful situation and come out better on the other side. Just take some time to compose yourself, create a plan of attack, and call on the ones who love you to lend a helping hand!

I hope that these tips can help you guys out whenever life gives you some lemons and that you are able to better maintain a healthy life while dealing with adversity. I think that I am going to start writing more about what Adam and I do to eat healthy throughout the week. I think it will be helpful for those of you out there who might not be sure what to do to even start eating better and taking care of your health. Again, if you have any suggestions just let me know! I would love to hear from you! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and are ready to attack the week ahead with some energy!

On the move…. again

April 1, 2013 / ktbuchs87

I mentioned last week that Adam and I were gearing up for a move in a few weekends. Well that weekend is quickly approaching and we have been in full moving mode. We actually started the whole process this past Saturday, and next weekend we will finish everything up and be in our new home! It’s all very exciting and stressful.

My new kitchen!

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet. I just wanted to touch base with all of you and let you know what’s going on over here in my little world! I won’t be posting next weekend but I will come back the week after and let you know how I dealt with the stress of moving and how it affected my digestion. We all have to deal with different stress in our lives and if how I handle my stress can help give you some advice then I count that as a good thing!

Running always helps reduce my stress!

I hope you all had a restful weekend and a very Happy Easter! See you soon!

Happy Easter from my family to yours!

My Digestive Journey: Stress

March 25, 2013March 25, 2013 / ktbuchs87

If you were to ask anyone who knows me really well, they would tell you that I don’t handle stress very well. I tend to turn into a wreck, no longer a human, but one giant ball of stress. It’s not pretty and it is definitely not fun. All this stress has wrecked havoc on my gut in the past..

I come from a long line of worriers, and I tend to internalize that worry and stress. Whenever I start to worry about something, my gut goes haywire on me. While I was in college, I used to have to perform solo pieces on my French Horn in front of a panel of teachers. I do NOT enjoy playing by myself in front of an audience, as it pretty much terrifies me. But every semester I would have to begrudgingly stand in front of 5 professional musicians and try not to throw up while playing my instrument. Obviously this situation caused me great amounts of stress, and the weeks leading up to my performance I would think of nothing other than having to play my solo. This stress would in turn mess with all things digestive. I wouldn’t be able to eat, yet somehow would have to run to the bathroom all the time dealing with diarrhea. It would get so bad that literally I would have to go to the bathroom 2 minutes before my performance or risk having an even more embarrassing accident than playing a few wrong notes. The surprising thing though? The minute I was done with my piece and walked out of the room I would feel infinitely better. I could eat, I wasn’t racing to the nearest toilet, and my stomach wasn’t constantly swirling like a tornado.

Stress manifests itself in different ways for different people. Not everyone may experience my intestinal fireworks whenever they encounter a difficult or worrisome situation, but there is a significant link between stress and your digestive system. There are actually a ton of nerve endings in your digestive system, and when your brain experiences a stressful situation it will release hormones that directly affect your digestion. It even starts as soon as you eat, with stress decreasing your saliva production and causing food to not be properly digested right from the moment you chew. Stress doesn’t mess around. Many of the ways you can see stress affect the digestive system is through indigestion, ulcers, and even heartburn. Not really all that fun.

So are our digestive systems at the mercy of stress and our brain? You don’t have to let it. There are things that you can do to eliminate or reduce your stress and that can help alleviate stressful situations. For all you professional worriers like me, these habits can take some time to incorporate. I still have a hard time dealing with stress (just ask my wonderfully patient husband) but I keep trying to practice and get better!

Talk it out. One of the worst things that you can do is internalize your stress and bottle it all up inside. That will just eat you up and spit you out. Having someone you can talk to about your stress and worry will help you get all that bad energy out into the open and off your chest. Also, now you have someone who can help you work through that stress and ease your worries. Even if you don’t have someone you can talk to, writing in a journal works as well. I always felt like I would be a burden to my friends and family if I bothered them with my troubles, but I have found that they are always willing to listen and help. Those that love you don’t want to see you suffer, so talk!

Find an activity that will get you away from your stress. Even if it is for a few minutes, do something that will take your mind away from your stress. When I would be practicing for my performance, sometimes I would just have to stop for a few minutes and walk around the music building or read the school newspaper just to give myself a break. If you are constantly dwelling in your stressful situation, you will eventually break. Take a walk, drink some tea, do yoga, play a video game, ANYTHING just to give your body and brain some relief.

Eat healthy foods. This is the toughest advice for me to follow, but probably some of the best. When stressed, I tend to barely eat. This is not good at all. Your body needs fuel to function and it really needs fuel whenever you are stressed so that it can deal with that stress. It may seem like common sense, but along with eating regularly, eat HEALTHY. You do not need to be eating 20 oreos, even though that may comfort you. Junk food will produce junk results and you don’t need that when you’re stressed. How many times have you been worried about something, and in order to try and feel better, you eat your favorite comfort food? How many times has that food made you feel better for the 10 minutes you are eating and then you feel awful after you are done? You don’t need the added stress of bad food, as junk food will allow your digestive system to function properly. At a time when you need your gut working as best as possible, don’t feed it garbage. Stick to foods like oranges and broccoli and other foods that have vitamins and minerals that will boost your body and alleviate your stress. Your gut will thank you!

Take a deep breath. Breathe deep and realize that this stress will not last forever. You can and will get through it and you will be stronger for having done so. Try not to dwell on the immediate stress but think to the future and the outcome. Think about how great you will feel once you have worked past this problem and come out on the other side!

Like I said before, I still struggle with dealing with stress properly. In fact, yesterday Adam and I started to pack for our upcoming move (long story short: we did not plan on moving, we were told that our lease was not going to be renewed and thus had to find a new place to live. Woooo….). I started to feel overwhelmed by everything that had to be done in a few short weeks and I started to shut down. Luckily, I (with a lot of help from Adam) was able to vocalize that stress and work through it. While I am still a little stressed about the whole situation (I seriously hate moving), I am not experiencing any of my usual symptoms. That alone is reason to be happy, because seriously who wants to have to pack and have the trots? Not me! When you start to feel stressed, take a step back, breathe deep, and know that you are tougher than any problem out there and can handle this!

Hello everyone!!

November 14, 2012November 14, 2012 / ktbuchs87

My two week hiatus has come to an end and I am ready to jump back into blogging headfirst. I had an amazing wedding this past weekend and still find it hard to believe that I am a wife now!! After our wedding, we spent the weekend in Chicago because our actual honeymoon isn’t until January. So we have something else to look forward to!

Now, let’s get onto the reason you are reading this blog. As much as I would love to relive every single detail of our wedding and write pages and pages about it, I suspect that you would get VERY bored fairly quickly. That being said, I do want to talk about some things I learned health/nutrition wise these past few weeks. Hopefully my experiences can help you to avoid some of the problems I ran into.

Stress is BRUTAL. I know that I am stating the obvious here, but man did stress kick my butt the past few weeks. I knew that stress was not a good thing and that it should be avoided, but what I didn’t realize was how much it can really wreak havoc on a person’s body. I told Adam that is was a good thing we finally got married because I was sure that I would not survive another week of planning the wedding. I was shocked to see the toll that stress put on my body. I couldn’t sleep through the night, I had no energy during the day, my workouts felt 20 times harder than they should be, and I felt cranky most of the time. But even more than all of that was how my appetite was affected.

I have never really had a problem with eating food before. I like food. I usually have the problem of eating too much and having to control my appetite. So I was very surprised when I suddenly did not want to eat at all or would just miss meals because I would be too busy with something else. I have never had the problem of having to force myself to eat some type of food. Maybe this is all old news to you, but I was a little out of my element. I had been eating so well for such a long time that I did not even think that that would somehow disappear. It was rough and I admit that I didn’t always choose what would be healthiest for me. Fortunately the whole experience did help teach me, so it wasn’t a total loss.

First of all, never think that because something has never happened to you that it never will, especially when it comes to your body and your health. You just never know how you will respond to a certain situation or how your body will react to something you put it through. I think that was a little part of my problem with this whole loss of appetite. I wasn’t prepared for it and so along with the stress of the wedding I had the shock of something else that had never happened to me. My body just didn’t know how to handle all of that. I know it is impossible to be able to prepare yourself for every single type of reaction that you could have to a given event, but you can be prepared that anything, even something that has never happened to you before, could happen. If you’re even a little prepared for that, your body won’t be totally shocked.

Second, food is important. Duh, you all know this. But it is especially important during times of high stress and it is crucial to eat well. Junk food will make all of your problems worse. You’re already going through enough, why add bad food on top of that? You have to eat regularly too. I cringe thinking about the amount of times that I missed a meal because I was just too focused on something else or the thought of food just didn’t appeal to me. I am thankful for the times that someone made me eat or I forced myself to put something in my stomach. While it might sound cruel to force yourself to eat, in my case it was the only way to get that fuel in my body. If you know that you are going to be going through a stressful time soon, take some time to prepare meals/snacks for yourself. This might sound time consuming but trust me, when that stress hits you and you think about all you have to do, you will be glad that you thought to prepare food. It will just be one less thing that you have to think about.

Lastly, we all need some type of support holding us up during tough times. Again, I know that I am stating the obvious on this one, but you can NOT do it all alone. Trust me. I tried and sadly that just made all of my problems worse. I didn’t want to burden anyone with the million problems/thoughts that were running through my head 24/7. I knew the chaos they had brought into my life, why would I want to give that to people I care about? Finally, though, I knew that I could just not take it anymore. I knew I needed help or I would literally just fall apart. To my surprise, people stepped up and helped me when I asked. I shouldn’t be shocked because my friends and family are amazing, but I was blown away by how much they wanted to help me. Once I had other people behind me, helping me, some of my stress and problems were alleviated I kick myself for not asking for help sooner, and possibly avoiding the train wreck of a person that I had become.

This post makes it seem like planning a wedding is along the lines of pure torture. But it isn’t, I just didn’t know what to expect and I let the stress get the better of me. On the bad side of things, I really let my stress dictate my life and I didn’t like that at all. I felt out of control, sad, and just plain old tired. On the good side, I learned how to not let this happen again and I can maybe give some helpful advice to others so they can avoid it entirely.

Everything turned out fabulous and by the end of the whole ordeal I was married to the man I am in love with. That was the most important thing and I get to spend the rest of my life as his Mrs.! Pretty great reward if I do say so myself! Have a great day and I will see you all on Friday!