Are you completely frazzled?   Is the idea of adding anything more to your life overwhelming?  Already overwhelmed?  Many of us run on frazzled and it is not a good thing or a badge of honor to tell people how little sleep you get, how much travel you have to do, how many hours you are at the office.   If you are feeling stressed, there is often nothing you can do to remove some of the stressors.   It is hard to reduce work stress, debt, family obligations.   These are facts of life.  But that said, here are some things you can do to reduce the amount of stress that you have in your life.  And these things will keep you healthier and will also help to prevent the weight gain that is a part of a stressful lifestyle. First you must eliminate some of the

things that make it worse.

• Alcohol – Ditch booze from your diet. It is a depressant and while stress increases the desire to drink, alcohol will do more harm than good leaving you sluggish and depressed.
• Tobacco – Need I actually say it.  Tobacco HAS TO GO.  The “stress relief” is temporary, stop smoking!!
• Junk Food and Comfort Food. While these make you feel better very temporarily,  they make you FAT.

Now it is time to think of ways to DESTRESS, now that you have taken away those bad things that were doing nothing for you.   While a little bit of TV time (like an hour) might be relaxing, sitting in front of the TV or Internet for hours on end is not.

There are lots of different exercise techniques that help to relax you, the key is to finding the one that works for you.  If you are working out now, you may need to change it up a bit.  Breaking a sweat EVERY DAY significantly helps to not only lower your stress level but it also makes you feel like you are working toward a healthier you, taking away that helpless feeling that being overstressed can do to you.