For the past month, I’ve been in the process of moving from Los Angeles to Idaho.

 

I’ve been fortunate to have movers, POD drivers, and a car shipping company all show up and do a fantastic job.

 

I haven’t felt overly stressed by the process, other than it feels like I own way too much stuff.

 

Can you relate?

 

Hot tip: If you own designer shoes, bags, or clothes, I highly recommend consigning them through The RealReal.

 

I’ve made almost $1,000.

 

My link above will give you $150.

 

What felt hard was saying goodbye:

 

To the city where I was born and raised.

 

The only home I’ve known other than attending college in Santa Barbara.

 

To friends I’ve known for over 20 years.

 

To the pilates clients I’ve known for over 14 years who are family.

 

I also found myself grieving a city I no longer recognize, which is filled with trash, encampments, homeless, mentally ill, and drug addicted people.

 

I no longer felt safe and, over time, had become a prisoner in my own home.

 

From the moment I stepped out my door, I always had in the back of my mind who or what I might encounter in my building lobby, parking garage, or my neighborhood.

 

I had two catalytic converters stolen in one year from my locked garage.

 

The pilates studio in Santa Monica was vandalized by someone who sprayed an entire fire extinguisher on all the pricey equipment.

 

My building was frequently broken into.

 

Drug deals and prostitution went on in my alley.

 

Mentally ill people would trespass in our parking garage and threaten residents, and the police would do nothing.

 

I no longer walked to my gym that was less than a mile away because I’d been followed too many times.

 

Over time, I felt more and more unsafe.

 

My motivation for leaving LA was to be closer to my brother and his family, now that both of my parents have passed away.

 

I want to cultivate a deeper relationship with my nephews and nieces, as well as my brother and sister-in-law.

 

I want to have access to nature and feel safe walking outside.

 

I want more community.

 

LA can feel isolating.

 

I want a calmer environment.

 

I lived on the ambulance route to UCLA hospital.

 

I was living in chronic noise from gardeners to Amazon trucks to sirens, helicopters, homeless people, and car traffic.

 

Most days, it felt like a constant chorus of noise playing in the background.

 

What happens when you live in a body that feels chronically unsafe and overstimulated is that it’s very hard to lose weight.

 

In LA, I went to the gym four days a week and lifted heavy weights.

 

I ate well-balanced meals.

 

I walked on the treadmill.

 

I drank enough water.

 

My weight never budged.

 

Since mid-August until last week, I lived out of two suitcases in three places.

 

I’m a homebody, so living this way isn’t my first choice.

 

In LA, I stayed with a dear friend, then at my brother’s house, and then with a dear friend here in Idaho.

 

I decided before I left LA to do a ton of meal prep so that I could at least stay consistent with my food while I was living in transition.

 

I made a ton of meatballs and froze them.  

 

I made my morning smoothie, portioned it out, and froze it.

 

I bought premade chicken sausages and froze them.

 

I bought frozen veggies that I could easily steam or roast.

 

This may seem daunting for most people.

 

The reality is, it’s easy, it kept me on track, and I packed it all in a cooler bag and didn’t have any issues.

 

I haven’t lifted weights since early August.

 

I’ve walked more outside than I have in years in LA.

 

I’m averaging between 8,000 and 10,000 steps per day.

 

I’m spending time with friends and family.

 

More so than I was in LA.

 

I feel supported and safe.

 

From the time I landed at my brother’s house, I haven’t heard a siren, an Amazon truck backing up, fights between homeless people, or police helicopters over the loudspeaker telling me to shelter in place.

 

I haven’t had all the aggravation of city life - traffic, figuring out where to park, rude and inconsiderate people, and watching homeless people steal at Target and the grocery store.

 

It dawned on me how I was living in constant, unrelenting stimulation that was wearing me down and keeping me on edge.

 

I was filling out a health form yesterday that asked for my weight.

 

As you know, I don’t spend time weighing myself.

 

I had to weigh myself before leaving LA to weigh a suitcase.

 

I was at my heaviest.

 

I dug out my scale from the bottom of a moving box.

 

I’ve lost 8 pounds in a month.

 

How have I done this?

 

I’ve lowered my stress levels considerably.

 

I consider myself to be resilient and also able to keep calm.

 

When you live with constant low-grade stressors all around you all day long, it has a huge impact on your overall health, including your ability to lose weight.

 

I encourage you to do an audit of the stressors in your life.

 

Think of stress as a bucket.

 

Where is yours overflowing that you may not be aware of because it's become so normalized in your life?

 

• Blood sugar swings - skipping meals, eating lots of refined processed carbohydrates, and too much caffeine.
  
• Poor sleep - not getting enough sleep, scrolling and consuming media before bed.
  
• Digestive issues - bloating, constipation, poor nutrient absorption keep your gut and immune system on high alert. Your gut and your brain are in direct communication via the vagus nerve.
  
• Over-exercising - HIIT classes and boot camps when your body is already depleted.
  
• Being sedentary and indoors - we are meant to be in relationship with the sun, and we are meant to be in motion.  As they say, sitting is the new smoking.
  
• Environmental toxins - we live in a chemical soup of plastics, fragrances, cleaning products, and mold that overloads your detox pathways.
  
• Noise pollution - clearly, this is huge for me.  Constant stimulation from TV, social media, traffic, and environmental pollution can keep your nervous system living on edge.
  
• Lack of social connection - social isolation, which seems epidemic in our society, is a stress on the body.
  
• Clutter - I made a lot of trips to donation.  I was floored at the amount of stuff people are donating.  We’re buying an incredible amount of cheap items on Amazon that appear barely used, only to end up at Goodwill.
  
• Relationships - what you allow is what will continue.  Do you have relationships, whether romantic, familial, or friends, that are unhealthy?  Are you people-pleasing, over-giving, or being a helicopter parent? This can be highly detrimental to your nervous system.  On the flip side, do you have a community that you feel part of and that supports you?
• Social media and news - given the horrific events of the past week, it's important to really limit what you're consuming. We are not meant to watch the stabbing and killing of innocent people. Social media and the news are echo chambers that are meant to keep you afraid and outraged. Unplug from it for your own mental health.

I’d love to know what you come up with in your stress audit.