Stress

I am amazed at the way stress affects your body. I am allergic to salicylites. That is basically aspirin, but it occurs naturally in alot of foods as well. I can usually tolerate small amounts in my diet, but as I have found recently, not if I am stressed!

Last week was tough - I found a new job, made the decision to resign and had to face my boss after 6.5 years of employment with a great company. It actually went really well, but that doesn't mean I didn't stress about it first! There was also the issue of my personal trainer who has been cancelling on me alot, and has really not been himself – I needed to deal with that as well.

A couple of days last week I woke up with swollen eyes, puffy face and itchy. I looked terrible! I took Zyrtec and a few hours later I looked relatively normal, but could still feel a slight reaction in my body. It took me a while to work out what it was, because I had avoided all foods that usually give me problems. What I discovered is that the exfoliator I use on my face contains salicytic acid. It is something I have been using for months, but without the stress in my life it hadn't bothered me.

So I am back to being careful about everything I eat and put on my skin. It just makes losing weight a bit harder - particularly when eating out. It is found in high levels in tomato, green capsicum, broccoli, the skin of many fruits, almonds, peanuts and alot of spices. Food becomes very bland. I am also on a mission to find a new exfoliator that doesn't have salicytic acid!

As for the personal trainer situation, it has been coming for a while. To cut a long story short, the end result is that I need to train with someone else. I need to train when it is convenient for me, and I can't have sessions cancelled - that defeats the purpose of booking them in so I have to go! I can't decide who to train with, so I am going to see two trainers. I'll do running with one, and weights and boxing with another. I get the best of both worlds then because they specialise in different things. I'm really excited about it. I have 2 more weeks left with Nathan, and then I'll be starting all over again with my new trainers.