Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff

You’ve probably heard this old saying before: Rule #1 – Don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule #2 – Its all small stuff. There’s certainly some truth to this, but there are times when the ‘stuff’ is far from small. A fine example is the recent passing of Sweet Roast’s father. He was ill and had been recovering from a heart attack. Although the family was prepared for the worse, the reality was hard on everyone and produced a lot of stress. My dictionary defines stress as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances” which I think pretty much described what was happening. The stress caused Sweet Roast to say and do things to me she would not ordinarily – and given the circumstances, I didn’t take any of it personally. But her stress did transfer to me and I could see where it was going. I knew that if I let the stress control me, I’d start to eat poorly and possibly take a vacation from the program I had been following so far on my quest for better fitness. So I took action. I started paying more attention to my food intake and bypassed the convenience foods (and resisted skipping meals when I wasn’t hungry) and tried to eat meals similar to what I had been. And although I now had possession of the car, I chose to drive it to work in the morning and drive it home after work opting to walk home for lunch. The lunchtime walk also allowed me some time to clear my head, which assisted me in beating the stress I was feeling. I also found this approach helped me sleep a little better so I could be productive during the day – which sometimes turned into twelve to fourteen hour days. These tricks didn’t fight all the stress, but equipped me with the tools I needed to better deal with it which is exactly what I was hoping would be the end result.

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