Is Physical Stress Just Working Out?
Let me paint you a picture:
Going to bed late to see the end of that suspenseful show
Waking up in the night to go to the bathroom or get husband off the couch
Going back to bed only to be woken up by your alarm clock a few hours later
Doing squats as you brush your teeth
Hurrying over to your home gym for a 30 minute yoga sweat
Rushing around getting ready for work
Throwing a couple of loads of laundry in the washer
Sweeping the kitchen floor real quick
Putting on your high heels for a 10 hour day on your feet
Pacing behind your desk (in your heels) for the phone meeting on your break
Doing 20 pushups every time you use the bathroom
Getting home, moving the laundry load to the dryer, cleaning the downstairs toilet, and bringing towels up to the linen closet
Running outside for 5 minutes as your workout warmup
Sweating through your 45 minute weight session
Showering and making dinner before husband comes home
Taking a leisurely 30 minute walk with your husband before dinner (but it's summer and its 85 degrees)
Cleaning up from dinner
….and repeat….
Does this sound ridiculous? It should. It was me. All of these bullet points were different types of physical stress on my body. If you look at my day, there were so many other bullet points beyond my excessive exercise. When I looked to decrease my physical stress in order to get my period back, there were a lot of things I could adjust lifestyle wise before I even touched my exercise! The same way you probably do.
Why did I do so much? I had some deep rooted beliefs:
Thin girls get farther in life.
My worth is determined by how productive I can be.
So did I want to get as skinny as possible? Yes. But when I let go of body image, I still struggled to decrease my physical stress because of my second belief.
Tips to help you decrease your physical stress:
Consider ALL the activity your body is doing INCLUDING calories burned through NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). For example, it still took a lot of energy to bring the towels upstairs to the linen closet! Walking around in my heels all day was an extra toll as a teacher who averaged 10,000 steps!
Are you working out every single day? Do you have “active” recovery days? Especially as you’re recovering your period, you should be doing REAL rest days (sometimes as many as 3 or 4 each week).
How many steps do you actually get in a day? What kind of shoes and clothing are you wearing while you’re doing this?
Are your workouts fueled with enough food before and after? How intense are your warmups?
Sleep is king. Add in a few more hours if you can. Remember that caffeine gives your body a physical response of speeding up your heart rate. If you’re consistently supplementing tea or coffee to make up for your lack of sleep, you need more sleep.
Consider taking a relaxing bath with Epsom salts instead of another standing shower.
