The Survey

The Health and Wellness Committee put out a survey to find out what interests and concerns our staff have in order to address these issues.  Today the first few surveys started to trickle in.  From what I can tell so far, issues of most interest are nutrition, diet/losing weight and life-work balance.
In our busy times, this is probably one of the biggest issues we all face.  We're busy at work, rush home, look after the kids' homework, quickly throw together a supper, look after aging parents and by the time everything is taken care of, we collapse into bed without having a single moment to ourselves.  And yet physical and emotional wellbeing are tied together more than we realize.  If we burn out, everything else will start to suffer, be it at work, in too little time for the family or worse, not looking after ourselves.  But what can honestly be done about this when a day only has 24 hours and there simply isn't a moment to spare at the end of the day?  And let's face it, most of us don't get enough sleep as it is.  This constant pressure and stress will eventually lead to burn out if we don't slam on the brakes and take stock of our obligations and priorities. 
For those of us who love to travel or at one point have been on a plane before, will remember that the flight attendants run us through an emergency checklist, or on more modern planes a movie is shown instead.  And something struck me the last time I was on a flight to Vienna:  It was the statement, that if cabin pressure drops, we need to put our own oxygen mask on before helping anybody else. 
The realization came that this holds true in life as well.  First we need to look after ourselves before we can look after others.  I believe this is an absolute must.  This of course is easier said than done but crucial.  We need to re-think our priorities and carve out a few minutes for ourselves each day.  And there are ways, if we start to delegate some of our responsibilites to others, be it by asking our spouse to take over 1 or 2 tasks, asking the kids to help with a few chores - provided they are old enough of course.  But it always amazes me how helpful kids can be when asked for help.  Most kids feel valued and important when they can help out, even if it's only to set the table.  Even very young children can manage that.  And sometimes we need to learn to say "No" even when it goes against our instinct.  You might feel guilty at first, but the benefits quickly outweigh the guilt trip, trust me!
Whatever minutes you manage to carve from your day, you then need to re-invest in yourself.  You can even tell your family you need to recharge your batteries and spend 10 minutes by yourself and do something that you enjoy;  this could be having a bath with candlelight and soft music instead of having a quick shower, a few minutes to read your book or browse through a magazine, a short meditation, and so on.  The important thing is that you have some time to yourself.  Go for a haircut, a manicure, take Yoga classes, go for a short walk around the block, whatever it might be that you find relaxes you and makes you feel good about yourself.  After a very short time you will notice that you are more relaxed and better able to handle life's stressful situations.  You need to find some balance between the demands made of you or expected of you and the need to look after yourself.
Stress is bad for your health in many ways.  First there is the psychological stress, and second there are a myriad of physical consequences.  More often than not, we treat ourselves with sweets or TV dinners or worse fast food because we can't face standing in front of a stove and preparing a healthy meal.  This in turn causes most women to gain weight. 
Fast food and TV dinners, or dinners from a can or a box have a scary amount of saturated fats and hidden calories.  And the result for most women is that they gain weight.  Over a long period of time the weight gain can sneak up on us when all the while we feel that we aren't even eating all that much!  But it is not the amount of food we eat, it's the quality of food and which kinds of food we eat.  Just because it says on the package "low fat" or "light" does in no way mean that it's good for you.
One tip: if the ingredients read like the instructions on how to build a chemical bomb - trust me, it's not good for you!!!
So what to do?
Tomorrow I will go into more details on how to prepare healthier meals.