everywomanover29

Food, Mood and Women's Health – Be your healthiest, look and feel great!

Main navigation

Archives for June 2013

Overcome your fear of public speaking

By 23 Comments

trudy-on-stage

Whether you believe the statistic that more people fear public speaking than they do death (41% vs 19%) or the 2011 Gallup poll that has fear of public speaking at 41% and fear of snakes at 50%, that is still a large number of fearful people when it comes to speaking on stage!

I love to do presentations and am never fearful when I get on stage and speak in front of audiences but it wasn’t always like this. I used to have to really force myself and push through the fear, I felt terribly uncomfortable and almost breathless. I also used to hate networking events and mingling. Then I discovered that I have pyroluria (see the pyroluria questionnaire here), a genetic condition that leads to anxiety, inner tension and feeling uncomfortable in crowds. By adding a few key nutrients – zinc, vitamin B6 and evening primrose oil – my pyroluric symptoms are completely in check, hence my calm in the face of speaking in public. I speak nationally about The Antianxiety Food Solution and always joke that I am Ms Antianxiety! I also have a new-found love of networking and meeting people!

Sontine is a client of mine who made diet changes, lifestyle changes like walking and added the key nutrients like zinc and vitamin B6 (and a few others) and found she too had no more fear of public speaking – and she actually started to really enjoy it! She also started to sleep well and had good energy. She was skeptical that this was possible for her but curiosity got the better of her and she’s so pleased with the results.

Here is Sontine’s story in her own words:

The first time I heard Trudy telling her personal story about anxiety and nutrition, I thought ‘that’s a really unique situation’. I believed it worked for her but that it was ‘just one in a million…it’s not going to work for most people and it’s not going to work for me’

After working with Trudy for 3 months I’ve had amazing changes:

  • From exhausted to normal healthy energy
  • Anxiety has decreased
  • Mood and blood sugar has stabilized
  • Sleeping better
  • Completely lost my fear of public speaking which has plagued me my whole life! I was so terrified I avoided it as much as possible. Now I am not nervous and I enjoy it! It’s been amazing for me!

Sontine is also a busy mom with a busy job – like many of us are – but she made time to go for an evening walk with her young daughter and husband [we recorded this in December last year, hence the reference to Christmas lights] and says that such a small thing makes all the difference in how she feels. We know how beneficial exercise is for both mood and sleep

PS. I also added GABA, removed caffeine and removed gluten from my diet. Each person is unique and you will have to find your own unique nutritional approach.

So how are you when it comes to public speaking?  And what do you do to stay calm?

If you’re fearful could pyroluria also be your problem? 

Do you perhaps have clients who hate and fear public speaking?

YOU’RE WELCOME TO INCLUDE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE AS LONG AS YOU INCLUDE THIS COMPLETE BLURB WITH IT:

Trudy Scott (CN), Certified Nutritionist is the founder of www.everywomanover29.com, a thriving nutrition practice with a focus on food, mood and women’s health. Trudy educates women about the amazing healing powers of food and nutrients and helps them find natural solutions for anxiety and other mood problems. Trudy’s goal for all her clients (and all women): “You can be your healthiest, look your best and feel on-top-of-the-world emotionally!”

Smile and laugh to de-stress, calm down and boost your mood

By 15 Comments

 laughter

My biggest stress-relief and mood-boosting tip is to smile and laugh! It is one of the many things I encourage my clients to do! And I personally love a good comedy and opportunity to smile and laugh! I almost feel like I need my “fix” of laughter by the end of the day. It really relaxes me, boosts my mood and helps me sleep better.

I was further inspired to make a commitment to laugh each day when I read all the research supporting the many and varied health benefits. Many days I’ll just take a break and engage in spontaneous laughter for no reason at all – just the act of laughing leaves me feeling SO good. I do food-mood presentations around the country and typically end my talks with a laugher session with the audience! It’s a great hit and they leave my talk feeling great!

A 2012 research paper in Physiological Science actually showed that if you smile, you feel less stressed. Also in a 1999 study, “Personality traits such as warmth, calmness, extroversion, and low anxiety were closely related to an attractive smile.”

Laughter falls into a similar category as smiling and is wonderful for improving mood and reducing anxiety and stress and pain. This 2012 paper. showed that laughter “is associated with feelings of wellbeing” and improved mood, likely related to “the release of endorphins.” The release of endorphins also reduced pain levels.

Recent research also shows that the “combination of a laughter and exercise program might have physiological and psychological health benefits for the elderly”. Laughter may also “be an effective strategy to motivate the elderly to participate in physical activity.”

Laughter is actually good for the heart as indicated by the title of a 2009 paper: “The effect of mirthful laughter on the human cardiovascular system.”

Here are some things to make you chuckle: a fun post I did awhile ago about a wonderfully funny and romantic blog called The Musings of a Romantic Comedy Girl and a video of a laughing baby. Enjoy!

And of course, the added bonus: if you eat foods that raise serotonin (like grass-fed read meat and wild fish like salmon), you’ll be happier and more inclined to smile too – and feel even less anxious and less stressed. Tryptophan or 5-HTP will help boost your serotonin levels and are wonderful if you do have low serotonin. You can check for low serotonin levels using this Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution. 

YOU’RE WELCOME TO INCLUDE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE AS LONG AS YOU INCLUDE THIS COMPLETE BLURB WITH IT:

Trudy Scott (CN), Certified Nutritionist is the founder of www.everywomanover29.com, a thriving nutrition practice with a focus on food, mood and women’s health. Trudy educates women about the amazing healing powers of food and nutrients and helps them find natural solutions for anxiety and other mood problems. Trudy’s goal for all her clients (and all women): “You can be your healthiest, look your best and feel on-top-of-the-world emotionally!”