Stress Management For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9

Eating, Exercising, and Getting Your Zzzs

In This Chapter

Understanding how what you eat can affect your level of stress

Exercising to reduce your stress

Getting a good night’s sleep

Remember when you were a young child and you got cranky when you were hungry or tired? Those were not your finest moments. Just ask your parents. Your ability to cope with frustration and disappointment was all but nonexistent.

Now that you’ve grown up, your stresses may be different, but your physical state still plays a major role in determining how stressed you become. What you eat, when you eat, your level of overall fitness, and the quality of your sleep all affect your ability to cope with stress.

This chapter shows you how you can develop a more stress-effective lifestyle — through diet, exercise, and sleep — which can, in turn, strengthen your body’s ability to cope with potential stress and help you resist its negative effects. Simply put: Your body is a temple. Treat it nicely.

Stress-Effective Eating

If you’re like most people, I suspect that your dietary habits are less than perfect. Your eating is probably a hit-and-miss affair — inconsistent, rushed, and tailored to meet your ...