Caregivers in Allen, TX – Reducing Family Caregiver Stress is Essential to a Long-Term Caregiving Arrangement
Stress makes you feel fatigued and uses up extra vitamins and minerals in your body, leaving you depleted. This depletion of essential nutrients adds to the fatigue. It can seem like an endless cycle. Of course, you need to find ways to reduce caregiver stress. It starts with analyzing your situation and seeing what you can do to change it. Here are some pointers:
- Get some help to reduce your load. Don’t let senior care stress wear you out! Ask family and friends. Every little thing someone does can take some of the weight off your shoulders. Maybe your cousin is too busy to help with grandma but how about her taking a load of dirty laundry one day a week and bringing it back clean and folded? Hire home care a few times a week to guarantee your loved one will be cared for and supported, while you gain valuable time back.
- Get regular exercise and set aside some time for yourself.
- Eat highly nutritious food and stay away from junk food with empty calories.
Here are 10 great foods for you to eat to help bust stress from your body:
- Bananas and avocados. Both are loaded with potassium which helps keep your blood pressure down.
- Tea. Use honey for sweetener because sugar is empty calories and can add to the already high levels of stress hormones in your body. Choose any kind of tea – black, green, white, herbal. Tea is very alkalizing for the body and contains great phytonutrients.
- Swiss chard is rich in magnesium and helps balance the cortisol levels in your body.
- Salmon and other fatty fish delivers necessary omega-3 fats which your body really needs right now. It will help you feel calm and satisfied.
- Whole wheat foods deliver important fiber and are filling, also providing a good energy boost.
- Carrots – munch on this sweet and juicy healthy food. Also included are celery and all other fresh veggies. The extra crunch helps you work away some stress as well. It’s okay to dip them in healthy sauce such as cucumber-mint tzatziki sauce.
- Milk is a great source of vitamins B and D as well as calcium and protein. Calcium is a natural muscle tension reliever. Warm some milk and drink it right before bed for a much more restful sleep.
- Yogurt is much healthier than ice cream. If you like it really cold, try freezing it. It’s okay to add fruit but hold back on the sugar. A drop of honey is okay.
- Nuts – when stress leaves you feeling run down, you are more susceptible to sickness. Use nuts such as almonds, walnuts and pistachios to boost your immune system with their zinc and other vitamins.
- Chocolate! Most people will be happy to hear dark chocolate can help lower stress hormone levels. Make sure to watch your portions and not over-do it, especially because most chocolate also contains sugar.
