How 7 successful women leaders take care of their health

Being busy often means putting yourself lower on the priority list—so staying healthy, energized, and (relatively) de-stressed becomes that much more challenging. SELF talked to some of the most successful—and busiest—women about how they find time to take care of their health.

They all have tough schedules that include running companies, producing films, and shaping government policy. These women are so at the top of their game that they’re also giving presentations at the upcoming Summit at Sea—an invitation-only conference of world leaders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs for a three-day cruise this month. Here’s how some big-time women with equally big-time responsibilities find the time to put self-care at the top of the priority list.

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1. Become a morning workout person.
“This is never easy and there have been many periods of my life where it wasn’t a priority. Raising kids while working full time made it a challenge. I finally trained myself to go to bed a bit earlier so I could have an hour or so in the morning for myself. I now spend that hour at a 6 A.M. outdoor boot camp in the neighborhood—which not only gets my blood pumping early, it allows me to have a quick catch up with my friends—something I often use to miss with my busy schedule. I save the hot yoga for weekends, when I have a little more time and can include a coffee chat afterward with friends who may have missed class during the week!”

—Lori Garver, Former Deputy Administrator, NASA
Lori is presenting on The Next Giant Steps in Space Exploration at the Summit At Sea.

2. Find your Zen with yoga.“As I travel a lot, I am constantly juggling between being a founder, model, producer, as a speaker, pitching, creating, etc. Yoga is one of the ways where I find solace. It is a practice that I can do anywhere, anytime. It is my moment to nourish my thoughts, remind myself of the power of love and the gift in challenging my fear.

As a person who’s advocating to change the system especially for trans people, it takes a toll on you. There are days of full doubt and it’s a toggle between success and struggle. I remind myself that I’m a spiritual warrior, and I am at this moment where I’m supposed to be. It’s ok.”

—Geena Rocero, Trans Advocate & Founder, Gender Proud
Breaking It Down: The Many Dimensions of Identity, Trans Justice, and Gender Fluidity

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3. Put yourself on your schedule.
“I travel over 20 weeks out of the year, but no matter where I am, the beginning and end of each day are non-negotiable. My first cup of tea is a morning ritual and gives me great pleasure. I sit with it and outline my day on a notepad. The act of sitting and making a plan structures the rest of my day.

At the end of each day I take a hot bath (having a bathtub in my hotel rooms takes precedence over all else!) and dance or move my body last thing before I go to bed. My skin care routine, sitting down without my phone for meals and tea breaks and doing some form of workout/movement are part of what keeps me connected to myself.

When I am home I visit my animals often throughout the day. I live on a small farm, with a horse, donkeys, pigs, goats, and dogs. Connecting with them in between calls, getting up from my computer and taking a walk over to the pasture, or cuddling my dogs reminds me of why I am doing those things and keeps my body open and relaxed.”

—Michaela Boehm, Intimacy & Spirituality Expert
Michaela is presenting on Radical Intimacy, Deep Attraction: Making Relationships Last and Keeping the Sex Hot at the Summit at Sea.

4. Fit your workout in at home.“My day job is literally health and wellness, so I have to walk the walk. One of my top tips for busy women is to find workouts you can do at home and don’t depend on getting to class. I have yoga routines and videos I love, and a set of weights and kettlebells at home, so even if life gets crazy I can still get a quick workout in. If I depend on getting to a class, too often it won’t happen!

Also I have protein for breakfast every morning—usually in the form of my Parsley protein shakes—because it boosts your metabolism and keeps you full even when lunch gets pushed late. I can’t focus if I’m hungry so I also keep raw almonds and walnuts in my desk drawer as a snack.”

—Robin Berzin MD, Founder, Parsley Health
Robin is presenting on A Functional Medicine Reboot of the Nation’s (and Your Own) Healthcare at the Summit at Sea.

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5. Get 8 hours of sleep—no matter what.
“I don’t. But in my 38th year I’m determined to work on it. So I’ve started exercising more (including cursing a lot while exercising, which I think is a form of cardio). I’ve started biking and also trying to get out of New York City, where I live, to do more hiking and stuff like that. And eat healthy and all those things I’ve been putting off. But the one self-care piece I’m persistent about is sleep. I love a good eight hours a night and I’m a better human being in every sense when I get it. And most nights, thankfully, I do.”

—Sally Kohn, Columnist, CNN Political Commentator
Sally Kohn is presenting on What Lives Matter? A Conversation on Humanity and Policing in Communities at the Summit at Sea.

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6. Unplug every once in a while.
“We’re all so overloaded and hyper plugged in that self-care is often what we don’t do. I’ve been good about keeping a New Year resolution to be awake a full hour before checking my phone or email. I make myself tea and say hi to my day before rushing to catch up with emails. I also unplug from social media for mental health breaks, sometimes for an hour, sometimes for several months.”

—Dream Hampton, Writer, Film Maker, Cultural Producer
Dream is presenting on America’s Prison Problem: Culture-Shifting an End to Mass Incarceration at the Summit At Sea.

7. Multitask by working out with friends.
“It is really challenging when you are a working mom to make self-care a priority. Hikes with friends are great for both catching up and getting in fitness time, getting up early before my family is up to meditate is also one of my tips. The most important thing is to remind myself to prioritize self-care, because the old adage is true, if you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of anyone else!”

Widow of firefighter who died on 9/11 completes marathon for husband

• (photo by MARATHONFOTO.COM)

NextTheresa Giammona spoke to her husband, Vincent Giammona, twice on the morning of September 11, 2001.

The first was a call to plan the day. It was Vinny’s 40th birthday. A lieutenant in the fire department, he had just finished a 24-hour shift at Ladder Company 5 on Houston Street in Manhattan, and he stuck around longer at the firehouse so he could go for a run.

Vinny was training for the New York City Marathon that November, which was to be his first attempt at 26.2 miles.

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Theresa wished him a happy birthday, and they made plans for how they’d celebrate when he got home.

The second call was a short one after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. She asked him if he was coming home. Although his shift had ended, there was no way the man his firefighters dubbed “Lieutenant Fun” was leaving. (Vinny was renowned for dressing in an Elvis costume for roll call and holding country western parties at the firehouse.) 

Vinny told his wife, “I have to go,” Giammona recalls. “I was like, ‘Okay, be careful.’”  

She told him she loved him, and that was the last time they ever spoke.  

Vinny left behind Theresa and four daughters, then ages 8, 6, 3, and 2.

There was also a smaller matter after her husband's death, but one that nagged at Giammona for years: Vinny’s unfulfilled dream to run the NYC Marathon.

In November of 2001, 13 of Vinny’s friends and firefighters ran it as a relay to honor him. In 2008, Steven Giammona, Vinny’s younger brother, ran it when he turned 40, wearing Vinny’s shoes.

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Theresa Giammana thought about trying to run the race from time to time. But it’s hard to train when you’ve got four young girls to raise alone and you’re nursing a broken heart.

“I always said, I’m going to do it,” Giammona said. “I wanted to do it when I turned 40. Life always got in the way. My kids were little. And I just never had the time to put in the training.”

She’s now 45. Her oldest three girls are in college; the youngest is a junior in high school. In February, an email arrived from Answer the Call, the benefit fund for New York’s police and fire department widows and children. The organization was looking for people to run the marathon and raise money.

“I was like, ‘This is perfect,’” Giammona said. “I’ll be able to run it for Vinny; that was my main objective. And then also I’m raising funds for the organization that has helped me and my children for the past 14 years.”

Training got off to a rocky start for Giammona, who says she’s not a runner. She sustained a knee injury early on. She started again in July, just as New York Road Runners began its 16-week virtual trainer program.

In September, as her training was in full swing, she was hit by a car while she was riding her bike. No fractures, but she required stitches in one elbow and was pretty banged up. Two more weeks off.

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Giammona was able to get in a long run of 19 miles three weeks before the marathon. On race day, she caught a bus with other FDNY runners out to the start on Staten Island.

The firefighters of Ladder 5 were waiting for her with hugs as she came off the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan at mile 16. Family members stood and cheered at 116th and First Avenue, and more were in the Bronx.

And she felt the presence of one, in particular, for the entire run, which she finished in 5:40:21.

“I felt like Vinny was with me the whole time. Because, like I said, I’m not a runner,” she said. “I really felt him with me.”  

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Giammona said that in the years since Vinny’s death, the family milestones have been particularly painful. A new normal set in, but with every birthday and graduation, the loss feels fresh again.

“Time does heal, but you never forget, you know?” she said. “Vinny and I were only married nine years, and we were blessed with four beautiful kids. We didn’t even make it to our 10-year anniversary. But if you told me back then, ‘You’re only going to get this amount of time,’ I would do it all over again.”

This milestone, though—the five-borough milestone—had a different feel than the others: uplifting.

By Wednesday morning after the marathon, the woman who says she’s not a runner had already gone out again for a three-mile run. A few of her friends are now saying that they want to do a marathon with her. Giammona’s on the fence.

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Johnson & Johnson and partner ViiV Healthcare, which specializes in HIV drugs, announced results from the first 32 weeks of the planned 96-week study, which combines one drug from each company.

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The potential to sniff out disease

Image copyrightThinkstock

Image captionSome people have a very sensitive sense of smell - but dogs can detect four times as many odours as humans

The fact diseases have a smell comes as no surprise - but finding someone or something that can detect them at an early stage could hold huge potential for medicine.

Breath, bodily odours and urine are all amazingly revealing about general health.

Even the humble cold can give off an odour, thanks to the thick bacteria-ridden mucus that ends up in the back of the throat.

The signs are not apparent to everyone - but some super-smellers are very sensitive to the odours.

Joy Milne, for example, noticed her husband's smell had changed shortly before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.Humans can detect nearly 10,000 different smells.

Formed by chemicals in the air, they are absorbed by little hairs, made of extremely sensitive nerve fibres, hanging from the nose's olfactory receptors.

And the human sense of smell is 10,000 times more sensitive than the sense of taste.

But dogs, as the old joke might have had it, smell even better.ia caption

Claire Guest from Medical Detection Dogs says her dog Daisy helped detect her cancer: ''She looked concerned''

Their ability to detect four times as many odours as humans makes them a potential early warning system for a range of diseases.

Research suggesting dogs' could sniff out cancers, for example, was first published about 10 years ago.

And there have been many tales of dogs repeatedly sniffing an area of their owner's body, only for it to turn out to be hiding a tumour.

What they are smelling are the "volatile molecules" given off by cells when they become cancerous.

Some studies suggest dogs can be 93% accurate.

Others suggest they can detect very small tumours before clinical tests can.

And yet more studies have produced mixed results.

Does cancer smell?

At Milton Keynes University Hospital, a small team has recently begun to collect human urine samples to test dogs' ability to detect the smell of prostate cancer.

The patients had symptoms such as difficulty urinating or a change in flow, which could turn out to be prostate, bladder or liver cancer.

Rowena Fletcher, head of research and development at the hospital, says the role of the dogs - which have been trained by Medical Detection Dogs - is to pick out samples that smell of cancer.

Further down the line, a clinical test will show if the dogs' diagnosis is correct.

She says the potential for using dogs in this way is far-reaching - even if it is not practical to have a dog in every surgery.

"We hope one day that there could be an electronic machine on every GP's desk which could test a urine sample for diseases by smelling it," she says.

"But first we need to pick up the pattern of what the dogs are smelling."

And that's the key. Dogs can't tell us what their noses are detecting, but scientists believe that different cancers could produce different smells, although some might also be very similar.

Electronic noses

Lab tests to understand what these highly-trained dogs are smelling could then inform the development of 'electronic noses' to detect the same molecules. These might then give rise to better diagnostic tests in the future.

The potential for using smell to test for a wide range of diseases is huge, Ms Fletcher says.

Bacteria, cancers and chronic diseases could all have their own odour - which may be imperceptible to only the most sensitive humans, but obvious to dogs.

It may be possible in the future to use disease odours as the basis for a national screening programme or to test everybody at risk of a certain cancer in a particular age group.

However, there are fewer than 20 dogs in the UK trained to detect cancer at present. Training more will take more funding and time.

On the positive side, all dogs are eligible to be trained provided they are keen on searching and hunting.

Whatever their breed or size, it's our four-legged friend's astounding sense of smell which could unlock a whole new way of detecting human diseases.