The Big Red Truck

I have an announcement to make to all of my friends and family and even the strangers who have for whatever reason decided to follow this blog:

Yes, I know I'm stressed.

(picture that with a giant floodlight beaming down...)

I get it. I know. I'm working on it. It's become apparent to me that managing stress is a learned skill for some of us.

To me, it's almost like learning to ride a unicycle. I see people doing it every now and then and think wow, how did they learn how to do that, that looks kinda cool?

But I can never master it, no matter how hard I try or how easy other people make it look.

And sometimes, I think they look foolish even trying!

It's hard to ignore the signs in between the fact that my jaw nearly clamped shut on me yesterday out of nowhere due to the TMJ and (yeah, yeah I know some of you might not mind if my jaw clamped shut, ha, ha, I'm ignoring you...) the fact that I've made more appointments this week with people who have an 'ist' in their job title than I care to admit.

AcupuncturIST. TheraPIST. Oral Surgeon.IST? Close enough.

Where is my massagIST and my pedicurIST?

I had a friend today tell me the jaw issue was a big red flag.

Ha! I laughed.

I said that I am way past the red flag stage.

I'm way over into the being run over by a big red truck stage on some days.

Come on, red flags were so last year!

I just cannot figure out how working moms are supposed to 'manage' stress in between working full time and then some, kids, a spouse, and sleeping, LIFE IN GENERAL.

I decided to do some research. I have an MBA. What does the research say?

There are a million studies that show exercise helps with stress which I know that is true. As I mentioned the other day: do I exercise at 6 am or 10 pm? There isn't much time in between unless I can somehow do foot pushups while sitting in Houston traffic.

There are also many studies that show that getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night helps you manage weight and has long term health benefits.

I guess whomever did those studies was some male who couldn't add up the fact that it's hard to exercise AND get 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night, AND work, AND have babies or teach teenagers to drive?

I've decided to ignore both of those studies.

Instead I've chosen to follow this study, that I know a working mom somewhere has authored:

'Drinking at least 3 glasses of red wine a night makes you sleep 8 to 10 hours and walking back and forth to your neighbors to share the wine counts as exercise.'

There ya go! Exercise, sleep AND RED WINE, all in one night.

Now THAT'S a study!

I better go get my wine and head to bed. I need my beauty sleep and it's already past my bedtime which is making me stressed thinking about it. See, there I go again!

Just kidding. :)


(How's that face for stress relief?)

If you are a working mom (well, all moms work. I mean working like you've gotta report to someone other than your kids each day) I would love to hear your tips on managing stress. Who knows, other moms might learn a thing or two as well. And you might save me a ton of money in therapy and the IST people!