Staying healthy this planting season
Lifestyle Wellness with Tara Newsletter
During planting season, a Farmer’s workday is sunup to sundown and often, longer. If the focus is making the most of the day, it can be too easy to skip meals and forget to hydrate. Sleeping can also be very hard after being wound up for most of the day. Not paying attention to your health when you need to perform at such a high a level can come at a cost. Productivity goes down and stress goes up.
- Start your morning off with a 10-minute dynamic stretch, your back will thank you for it. With incredibly long days you cannot afford to be injured or moving slow because of pain. Stretching will limber up those tight muscles and help prevent pulled muscles or sore backs. Here is a link to a video for a 10- dynamic stretching warmup 10-Dynamic Stretching
- Nutrition – if you know you are not likely to stop and eat lunch or have a snack, bring meal replacement shakes with you and set a timer to remind you to drink
- Sleep – When working long days, it is probably tempting to want to stay up late so you feel you have some time to yourself, but lack of sleep with wear you down quickly.
- .Add things that make you happy to your day – Smiling relieves your stress response so find things that make you feel good during your day… listening to your favourite music, comedy shows or a podcast. Find time for play. Have a competition with family members or other farm workers to add a little fun.
- .Plan to have a relaxation routine an hour before bed. Our bodies sometimes need signals to help us wind down and if you do not have a lot of hours to sleep then it is important to fall asleep soon after getting into bed. A Few tips to start the winding down might be: Have a hot shower, turn lights down low. Turn off screens an hour before bed…blue light can be stimulating for our brains.
This season think about planning a head to take care of yourself so you can perform at your highest level and stay safe.
We hope these simple tips will assist you in a safe and successful planting season. Happy Spring 2021!