Groggy, tired, unfocused… If these words describe you on a regular basis, try these fight fatigue tips from Studio 5 and MountainStar Healthcare.
Mom of four, Shaunee Adams, takes the fight fatigue challenge and reports her results.
Quantity and Quality of Sleep
Dr. Matt Schellenberg of South Jordan Family Medicine suggests 7 hours of quality sleep. Key word here is “quality”. One way to ensure good quality sleep is with a routine. Go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning, as many days in the week as you can. Try to minimize the breaks in this routine (a.k.a. sleeping in late on weekends). The doctor also talked about sleep hygiene. Good sleep hygiene means your room is dark when you go to bed, and no T.V. or reading in bed. You need to train your brain that the bed is for sleeping.
Scheduled Personal Time
Mom’s need their personal time away from it all, a break from kids. This can be spent reading, grocery shopping, going out with girlfriends. Personal time needs to be scheduled. Plan for a couple hours at a time, 2-3 times per week.
Exercise
Dr. Schellenberg’s magic number is 150 minutes of exercise per week, or 30 minutes five times a week. Most of this needs to be cardio, and vacuuming does not count (his words). It’s important to exercise in a way you love. If you love yoga, do yoga. Love running, join a running group. Exercise also needs to be scheduled ahead of time. Exercise time can also double as “personal time”.
Healthy Diet
Dr. Schellenberg likes to suggest his patients look into a Mediterranean diet. Lots of fish and poultry. Also consciously incorporate more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Keep lots on hand for snacks.
Organize your Day
A common theme throughout Dr. Schellenberg’s advice is routine, routine, routine. Try to schedule your days and set up good habits. Your body will thank you by ensuring it has energy to keep up.
South Jordan Family Medicine is part of MountainStar Healthcare. MountainStar Healthcare is not bigger; just better. They are large enough to provide sophisticated procedures and leading-edge technologies, and small enough to preserve the human compassion in healing, one patient at a time. Their hospitals and outpatient centers deliver high-quality, cost-effective patient care – when and where it’s needed.
MountainStar Healthcare is the Utah-based headquarters of the HCA Mountain Division. It was established in January 2006 to centralize operations and management for six hospitals in Utah and two hospitals in Idaho. In 2008, the division expanded to include Alaska Regional Hospital. For more information, visit www.mountainstarhealth.com.
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