Active Tuesday

Cardiac Rehab today included an educational session on stress relief techniques. Some suggestions are:

Avoid quick fixes: fortunately, drugs, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine are not a problem for me. Sometimes, I fall off the wagon with sugary sweets, but I try to keep them to a minimum.

Eat healthy foods: we are much better at choosing fresh fruit and veggies, and eating less fat and salt, though we could pay more attention to adding whole grains to our diet.

Exercise: I get lots of it.

Make time for things you enjoy: we do listen to music, as suggested, and spend time with our pet, and I read for pleasure at least 30 minutes a day. We also make time for scrapbooking, blogging, gardening, water aerobics, dancing, and entertainment outings, etc. So I think we have this one pretty well covered.

Spend time with friends and family: absolutely! Family is first.

Get plenty of rest: well...there are times when I have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, but this seems to be a problem for lots of folks. This was the one stress relief tip most discussed by the group today. But even young people fall prey to sleep problems. The registerd nurse, for instance, who has a 16-year-old daughter, said she didn't get much sleep last night, because of worrying about her daughter being out with the car.

Learn to relax: a pamphlet provided to the group outlined relaxation techniques, deep breathing exercises, and muscle tightening and relaxing exercises. I'll probably try some of those.

The rest of the day included a shopping trip, and two evening meetings...visual arts committee at 5 p.m., and community theater board at 7:30. So I can say that though the day was fairly busy, it wasn't particularly stressful.