My Battle With Stress

My struggles with stress started back in 2019...

I had just moved away from my small hometown and was living in a new city on my own for the first time. At the same time, I had met this amazing woman in New York, and we started a long-distance relationship.

So after just having moved, I was now spending half my time flying across the country to visit her.

I first noticed something was off when I started experiencing regular digestive issues. Bloating, pain, inability to use the bathroom…all things I had never really experienced before. I attributed it to my inconsistent schedule and busy lifestyle. It eventually normalized and I didn’t really give it a second thought at that point.

Fast forward to February 2020. My lease was coming to an end, and I was preparing to move in with my girlfriend in Denver while she finished school. I started noticing my sleep was getting more and more inconsistent.

For years, I had slept like a rock. From lights out to alarm, I slept like I was dead. But in early 2020 as I prepared for the move, while still traveling back and forth to Denver, I noticed my sleep started getting more and more broken.

I’d wake up more often, toss and turn, and not feel as rested during the day.

Again, I attributed it to my inconsistent schedule and busy lifestyle.

On March 7th I finally arrived in Denver with all my stuff for good. And we all know what happened later that week…

2020 took stress to a whole new level. Not only because of our limitations of the pandemic, but now my girlfriend was doing school from home every day, so the both of us were stuck in our 1,000-square-foot apartment - her in Zoom classes on the couch while I was at the dining room table trying to figure out how to successfully operate a business during a global pandemic.

Needless to say, there was a level of stress that I had never had to deal with in life before. And how did I deal with it?

I didn’t. Truthfully, I thought I was above it. I thought: “I’m healthy, I take care of myself, I have the support of HRT…I’m good.”

But I was not, in fact, good.

My sleep started getting worse - I would lay awake for hours on end during the night. I’d struggle to make it through the day without caffeine. When gyms finally reopened, an easy training session would knock me on my ass for days. My physique started getting soft as I lost muscle mass, while adding body fat easier and easier.

Worst of all, I started suffering from anxiety and depression - things I hadn't struggled with in years.

Towards the end of 2020, I got some bloodwork done - which I had stupidly been neglecting most of the year because of Covid and saw that things were worse than I thought.

My thyroid levels were way out of balance, and my testosterone levels were way lower than they should have been for someone on hormone replacement therapy.

This was really my wake-up call that, despite all the things I did “right,” I wasn’t invincible to the effects of stress. And I was at the point where it wasn’t just starting to affect my physique, but my overall health as well.

In January 2021, I sought out the help of a functional health coach. And for the last year and a half, he and I have been working together to unravel all of the stress issues I’ve been suffering from, and get my health back in a good spot.

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Why I am sharing this??

Because I don’t want anyone to let stress take control of their lives the way I did.

We all suffer from stress on a regular basis. We accept it as part of our lives. Which it is. We’re never going to be able to completely eliminate stress.

But from my own experience, and having worked with nearly 1,000 clients at this point in my career, I can confidently say that nothing will have a bigger negative impact on your body, your health, and your life, than unmanaged stress.

And I can also confidently say that stress is the one thing people tend to neglect or ignore more than anything.

Everyone concerns themselves with diet and exercise. But while those things are very important, you can be doing everything right in those areas and still watch your health and fitness suffer if you can’t effectively manage stress.

Chronic stress affects everything we do, from our ability to recover from exercise, to how we sleep, to our body's ability to regulate hormones that are critical for optimal health.?

Continue to be unmanaged, chronic stress will also lead to sickness and disease.

If you let stress grow unchecked, it will stop progress in its tracks and your health will suffer. There’s no debate on this.

This is why I’m sharing my story - to help bring awareness to this misunderstood aspect of our health.

It’s also why in our Executive Life Coaching program, we don’t just focus on helping our clients optimize their diet and exercise. We go much, much deeper than that.

To achieve permanent results you need to address all areas of your health and fitness; not just one or two. And stress management is a part of that.

Because as I found out firsthand, you can be doing everything right in those areas, and still be struggling to live a healthy, high-quality life.?

If you struggle to manage stress in your day-to-day life, I want you to know, you’re not alone. And that no matter how stressed you may feel, it doesn’t need to dictate your life or your health.?

Have you ever felt like stress was controlling your life? Is it still? What are some things you have done to take back control?