Take That Summer Vacation: 5 Musts for Avoiding Burnout
Talk to experts who specialize in burnout and they'll describe it as a slow burn. It's not immediate.
By not addressing what they're feeling and not taking steps in the moment to de-stress, over time, planners will find themselves in a spiral. Into depression, a cycle of self-medicating or overeating, or worse.
Here are 5 proactive strategies for avoiding burnout:
1. Know the Signs
It's important to be able to identify warning signs early on. Stress manifests itself in various forms — from chronic exhaustion to nagging anxiety to difficulty concentrating.
Recognizing when your behaviors start to change because of stress is the first step, said Rebecca Schwartz, Ph.D, an associate professor at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra-Northwell. Learn more from her in 8 Ways to Avoid Burnout.
2. Create Boundaries
Setting boundaries is important in any profession, but even more so for meeting planners. Long hours and big stretches of time away from home can take their toll, and it's up to each individual to create healthy boundaries.
When you're not traveling for a program, resist the urge to do any work outside of regular hours. Use all your vacation, and don't skip lunch.
Learn to say no. If you're short-staffed and your company won't give you resources, don't do three people's jobs, or you will find yourself doing them permanently.
Find more advice at Setting Boundaries: 10 Strategies for Planners.
3. Be Proactive
One of the biggest sources of stress is last-minute changes. That final week heading into a meeting can challenge even the most seasoned planner.
The first line of defense is the contract. Use language that highlights any late changes that may significantly affect cost and the ability to adhere to the selected event date. Make sure that everyone understands that changes have implications, and can jeopardize the event schedule. Check out this article for contract strategies to avoid last-minute changes.
It's also essential to arrive on site fully prepared. Office supplies, first aid, electronic supplies — getting caught without an essential item can create undue stress. Creating your own 'black box' will help.
4. Practice Self-Care
Taking care of your health, especially when you're on the road, is essential for avoiding burnout. With so much riding on the success of an event, many planners find themselves sacrificing their personal health routines, including diet and exercise, because there just aren't enough hours in the day.
A lack of sleep is another common challenge, and can end up causing brain fog and making you feel sluggish. What's worse, sleep deprivation can also cause hormonal imbalances that can spike your appetite.
It might not even be possible to get a good night's sleep every night when you're on site at a meeting, and that's where fitness hacks come in. Don't miss these 7 Fitness Hacks for Event Travel.
If you do a lot of long-haul travel, that's even more challenging. Time zone changes can tempt you to give into the one-two punch of alcohol and coffee — the two biggest contributors to jet lag. It's a recipe for burnout.
We asked fellow travelers and flight attendants for advice on how to survive long-haul travel here.
5. Eat Right
The key to eating well on the road is to plan ahead, and many planners bring healthy snacks with them — but it's not always possible. There's nothing like having just a few minutes between flights and trying to seek out something healthy to eat in between the pizza, hot dogs, and jumbo bags of chips and candy. You'll find containers of celery and carrots with hummus, or yogurt, but that doesn't equal a healthy meal.
The good news is that healthy food does exist at airports, and you can research where to go in advance so you don't miss out if time is limited. These tips on where to go to find healthy airport food can help.
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Hundreds of articles in nine key categories: Accessibility & Inclusion | Budgeting & Cost Savings | Careers & Personal Development | Contracts & Duty of Care | Event Technology | Ideas & Inspiration | Logistics & Operations | Marketing & Promotions | On The Road
For more suggestions for managing job stress and avoiding burnout, check out Skift Meetings Toolkit, our new how-to hub, with hundreds of information-packed articles about meeting planning.
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Yahoo
a minute ago
- Yahoo
I tried a water aerobics class for older people. At 39, I was surprised by how well I fit in.
I was looking for a less intense form of exercise and joined a swim class for older adults. I was surprised by how well I fit in with the other attendees; they were social butterflies. I enjoy taking the class and have been going for a few years now. When I signed up for a water aerobics class for older adults, I felt embarrassed — I was about 30 years younger than everyone else. I'd recently moved in with my parents because I became disabled with long COVID. I wasn't able to take care of myself in the same ways or exercise at the same intensity I was used to anymore, and I started to look for new ways of moving. When you have chronic fatigue, it can be difficult to get movement in every day, but my doctors have told me it's still vital to try. The key is finding something that doesn't push beyond your threshold but also keeps you as active as possible. I go walking in spring and fall. However, in Southern Illinois, where I live, temperatures and weather conditions in summer and winter are too extreme for me to walk outside. But there's a gym with a pool down the street, and I love being in the water, so I decided to look at their classes. I was the youngest person in the class by a few decades I was surprised to see the variety of pool courses offered. However, many of them looked too vigorous. The only ones that appeared to be within the scope of my abilities were for older adults. Still, I put aside my self-consciousness about being 39 and considering this particular class, and looked at the time slots. This was the next hurdle — most were morning classes, as older people are often early birds. Another symptom of my illness is insomnia, and I don't wake up until after most of them take place. However, there was one beacon of light — a one-hour class starting at 5 pm that met three days a week. I decided to shed my pride and sign up. My first time in the water, it took no time to realize I was in the "social butterfly" class — I would fit right in. Not only did everyone in the class immediately introduce themselves, but they also asked me why I was there. When I explained my disability, they showed genuine support. Once class started, it became apparent that they all knew each other extremely well. It turned out most of them had been taking this same class together for years and were a tight-knit group. Whenever new people joined, they welcomed us with open arms. Apparently, they also liked this time slot because they weren't "morning people" either. I felt right at home. I fit right in with the group As time went on, I was even more convinced of their party animal ways — they often spent the majority of the class socializing, while occasionally following the teacher. Now, that's not to say they're not active, because they definitely are. However, whether or not they are doing the actual exercises we are being shown is another subject entirely. By the end of the hour, I was also introduced to this particular class's special activity — they always insist the last 15 minutes are set aside to play with a beach ball. I joined the game and they cheered each other on, trash-talked in jest, and even got a little competitive. With my age, I'm able to dive for the ball and do some tricks that others can't. When I used these skills, they cheered loudly and excitedly. In fact, one man commented on "what a strong arm" I have. Over time, I even made a close friend Any discomfort I'd felt about joining an exercise class for older adults as a middle-aged woman quickly dissipated. And the surprises kept coming — the next class, I made a special friend. A woman approached me to chat while we were supposed to be exercising. She'd recently moved to the area and had only been attending for a few months. As we got to know each other, we figured out that we'd both come from big cities to this small area, we shared a liberal mindset in a largely conservative area, and we both loved trying out new restaurants. Knowing she was about my mom's age, and that my mom also wanted a friend who shared this affiliation, I suggested the three of us go out to dinner. Now, we regularly go to the movie theater, go out to dinner, and attend local events related to our shared interests. In fact, sometimes she and my mom even go out without me! In the meantime, I've been going to these classes for the past three winters and loving every minute. I didn't have "become disabled, move home with my parents, join a water aerobics class frequented by retirees, and make new friends from a different generation" on my Bingo card for this stage of my life. However, it has not only been good for my health, but also for my soul. Read the original article on Business Insider Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
First they took a GLP-1. Then they got the 'meat ick.'
It's hard to meet your protein goals when you suddenly can't stand a bite of chicken or steak. Merris Taylor has never loved a fatty ribeye or New York Strip steak. She prefers leaner cuts. But that preference morphed into a downright disgust after Taylor started taking Zepbound, a powerful GLP-1 weight loss medication. 'If I get a weird piece of meat in my mouth — whether it has a weird texture or fat in it — I'm like, 'oh, no,'' the dietitian tells Yahoo. 'That just turns your stomach,' she adds. This sudden loss of appetite for meat is not uncommon among people taking GLP-1s. They call it the 'meat ick.' If you're not on a weight loss medication, maybe you've felt a version of the meat ick if you've taken a first bite of salmon and it tasted too fishy, or you've cooked up some chicken that still tastes suspiciously gamey. But for some people taking injection weight loss drugs such as Zepbound and Wegovy, even the freshest chicken, pork, steak or salmon can lose its appeal. Researchers, patients and prescribers of GLP-1 medications are discovering that the drugs can significantly change people's tastes in food. And losing a taste for meat is especially concerning for people on these medications because they need to consume plenty of protein to prevent muscle loss and reduce side effects. So what's going on, and can a case of the meat ick be cured? Here's what we learned. What is the 'meat ick' and why do people get it on GLP-1s? The meat ick is just a more relatable version of a more technical term called food aversion. It's a phenomenon that's probably most familiar to people who have been pregnant and experienced the dreaded morning sickness along with appetite changes that can leave them hating their favorite foods. Food aversion can come with or without nausea and has a number of potential causes, ranging from hormonal changes, such as those in pregnancy, to certain illnesses and even mental health issues like depression or anxiety. Medications, including antibiotics and omeprazole — a common acid reflux treatment — can also cause food aversion. So the effects of blockbuster GLP-1 drugs aren't totally unprecedented. But something new is going on with these particular types of medications. Older diabetes medications that are also considered GLP-1s — including Victoza and Saxenda — have been around for more than a decade. 'What's very strange is that really nobody ever reported this meat ick thing to us [while taking these drugs],' Tiffany Bailey, a physician's assistant who makes educational content about GLP-1s on social media, tells Yahoo. 'What I found strange is that we started seeing this phenomenon when we started using GLP-1s for weight loss,' rather than to treat diabetes, she adds. There isn't much research on the meat ick or other food aversions triggered by GLP-1s — Bailey notes that it was never mentioned to her or her colleagues when they were learning how to prescribe and manage side effects — but there are some sensible theories. For one, Bailey suspects that the reason people are getting the meat ick while on, for example, Mounjaro, but not Saxenda, is that versions of drugs designed for weight loss are usually higher doses than the same medication formulated for diabetes treatment. That likely means the side effects of the weight loss versions will be stronger. Second, these drugs help people lose weight by slowing down gastric emptying, or the process of digestion. So after someone taking a GLP-1 eats, 'food just sits there longer,' helping them to feel fuller faster, explains Bailey. Heavy, dense foods, including meat and other proteins, already take longer to digest. But if they sit in your gut for too long, they can trigger nausea, a biological response designed to tell us Slow down, I've had enough and can't handle more right now! Your digestive system 'registers that you ate this, and it sat there and made you nauseous, so it will subconsciously tell your brain, 'This is bad.'' So your brain gets conditioned when it tastes, smells or in some cases even sees that food to think: nausea. It's not just meat Bailey estimates that between 10% and 15% of her GLP-1 patients with food aversions get the meat ick, specifically. But she says as many as 70% of people taking the injections develop some kind of food aversion. The most common culprit? Coffee, 'even if they used to live for their coffee,' says Bailey. Too much caffeine from coffee can cause nausea, queasiness or stomach upset, which might partially explain the phenomenon. But Bailey says that coffee simply tastes bad to many of her patients. 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Now she's discovered a love of salmon, a healthy, nutrient-packed source of protein and good-for-you fats. Smith avoids any highly processed 'manmade' foods, she says, opting instead for whole foods — and teaching her 4-year-old daughter to do the same. It's a common, positive effect of being on these weight loss medications, Bailey says. 'Studies show that people choose a lot lighter foods in general after being put on a GLP-1,' she says, referring to a shift away from high-sugar foods and unhealthy fats found in ultra-processed foods. That's good for weight loss and improving health metrics like cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar. But this dietary change does present a problem: consuming enough protein. Fatty fish like salmon and tuna are great sources of protein, but Bailey says some of her GLP-1 patients can't tolerate even this good fat. So how can you hit your protein goals if you're on a weight loss medication? Lean options like grilled chicken or turkey are less likely to trigger the ick, say both Bailey and Taylor. And, when in doubt, you might just have to hide the meat a little. Taylor and Bailey suggest going for lightly breaded chicken. Try cooking it in an air fryer or baking it in the oven, rather than deep-frying it, which bathes the chicken in fatty oil — or else you might find yourself right back in the ick. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Times
33 minutes ago
- New York Times
He Was Getting Weaker and More Confused. Could It Be His Drinking?
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