Moving Forward - Part 2

Hello - hope everyone's day is going well!  It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for Part 2 of my "Moving Forward" series - or plan - whatever you want to call it. Yesterday I kind of went through an overview of what my issues seem to be/have been for my weight loss.  Now it's time to put something in motion in order to move forward.   Stress was #1 on my list.  I have been stressed, people!  This new job keeps me very very busy.  I'm not complaining - I hated that my last job was like watching paint dry, so this job is like a breath of fresh air.  The overtime pay is nice, too.  But I'm still stressed.  Especially when I have requests from clients coming from a million different directions, 20 voicemails to respond to, and over 300 emails when coming back to work on Mondays.  Oh, my Monday Garfield cartoons have a whole new meaning now. Another huge stress factor in my life has been in the "romantic" relationship department.  This person is not my boyfriend anymore (as of a couple weeks ago) - so that's a start.  I don't want to get in to all the nitty gritty details, but let's just say, I know this is the number one reason I've put on weight the last year or so.  It not only has to do with the emotional and mental abuse, but there's a lot of "baggage" there.  It has been one thing after another.  One thing I will share so that you can kind of get the picture - immigration came to my apartment on Christmas eve morning to take him into detention (he is from Ecuador, and came here back in 2000).  Christmas eve morning.....can you imagine??  Long story short, his family was able to get the (very large) bond together to get him out, but now he is going through the actual deportation proceedings, which could take years.  So....yeah.  I guess you could say I've been one big ball of stress.  And that only hits on one of the "baggage" issues. So what am I going to do to minimize the stress in my life? It starts with getting rid of that toxic relationship.  The process was started.  However, it's been started many times in the past, and I always ended up going back.  I felt bad leaving him when he was going through all his issues.  But this time, I need to remain strong.  Yes, it's going to be lonely.  Yes, we're both going to feel hurt for a while.  But this is best for both of us.  I can't take the verbal abuse, or the stress, anymore.  It has to end if I ever want to have a good life. Work.....well, I'm not going to get another job.  Despite the stress, I love my job.  And the people here are awesome.  So that's out of the question.  So that leaves me with ways to deal with my stress. Here's the plan of attack.  There are different ways to manage stress.  There are physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual ways to manage it.  For the next month, I'll be focusing on two things within each category. Physical - Herbal stress relief (have some chamomile tea while taking a bath, at least 3 times/week), and at least one yoga class per week. Emotional - Visit the laugh factory web site daily each morning (before I open my emails at work), and go to the movie theater every week. Mental - Read a book (an actual book - not a self-help or weight loss book) for 30 minutes every night before bed, and blog daily - the good, the bad, and the ugly. Spiritual - Use guided meditation at least 5 minutes/day, begin going to church again (this is actually a more contemporary church near me - I'll explain in more detail later). As the weeks go on, I'll explain everything more in detail.  I just wanted to get all of that in writing. Tomorrow I'll be moving on to part 3 of my moving forward series.  I'll be talking about my consistency and self-esteem issues.   Have a great night!