Stress

So it seems I'm something of a stress junkie. I think of myself as "thriving" under a certain degree of stress, and my threshold for "too much" stress might be absurdly high. I came to this conclusion when my Reproductive Endocrinologist suggested we not hold the 6-year-old's birthday party so close to transfer day in our upcoming IVF cycle. I wouldn't have thought of that as stressful, so now she's got me rethinking my whole attitude towards stress. Especially since the only candidate cause for my preterm labour 6 years ago is stress - that level of stress. She also suggested that the stress I was under last fall leading into my IVF cycle could have been a factor in my poor quality eggs. Now that stress I recognized as stress. That stress was extreme. That stress made me want to vomit and run away at the same time. For months on end. If I was at home when it happened, I'd go for a run, literally trying to run away from it. It wasn't just stress, I called it full-on panic attacks. So if that is my threshold, I need to rethink my general stress levels.

I thought I was leading a much lower-stress life this winter. Sure it's insanely cold. But my commute time is cut drastically (big stressor), I'm eating well and going to the gym regularly, but I did put in two very long weeks at the end of January, and just now experienced another stressor of the panic attack variety (work stress - pressure to make a commitment I'm trying to postpone). So it's time to make a commitment to my stress-control.

1. Relaxing evenings of watching videos and knitting.
2. Eating bananas - maybe not every day, but aim for it (they tend to run out by mid-week). Bananas are great! I can't say enough good things about bananas. Some people swear by an apple a day, I swear by a banana a day. Although the apple will keep you regular.
3. Get a good night's sleep. I wasn't sleeping well in January, but thanks to chamomile tea, Febreeze, adjusting the temperature in my room, and Benadryl, I'm sleeping much better. I should probably discuss the Benadryl with my doctor.
3. Stick with the gym - daily if possible, but 5 days a week should be good.

And on that note, fuelled by my banana, I really need to sneak off to the gym. My current stressor needs to be run off, and I've been hiding in my office for an hour now but I really need to just sneak out, hopefully unseen by the person whose email triggered this current panic attack grade stress episode.