Stress and weight loss do not play well together

- “Stress is the confusion created when one’s mind overrides the body’s basic desire to choke the living daylights out of some jerk who desperately deserves it” -

- Author Unknown -

LOL!

Now that I made you smile, here’s the serious stuff about stress and its effects on weight loss

It’s all about the prehistoric fight-flight response our bodies used as a defense mechanism, hardly needed in our modern world.

While temporary stress- mid- high levels of arousal –is necessary to help us accomplish important tasks, i.e. school exams, job interviews etc, when stressful situations are the order of the day we are in trouble.

Constant fight-flight response triggers excess cortisol production

While cortisol (a stress hormone) is released as part of our defense mechanism it can also promote weight gain.

Also, it affects digestion because during stress cortisol causes blood flow to be diverted from intestinal organs to other areas of the body.

Key Point: Stress can affect your weight loss by triggering food cravings – especially foods that you find soothing, like sugary and starchy foods.

Other effects of stress besides weight gain are high blood pressure, poor memory and concentration, high blood sugar levels, weakened immune system and decreased sex drive.

So, how can you avoid letting stress affect your weight loss?

Here are a few good ideas:

 - Burn it off

Stress and weight loss may not get along well, but there’s one activity that can burn stress AND help your weight loss – EXERCISE. 

Working out burns off all that tension and strain (as well as calories) so you accomplish two great things at once.

Even better, try a calming type of workout, like yoga.  It will be strenuous enough to burn off tension, but also soothing enough to calm your mind and emotions.

 - Relax, meditate, chill

A few minutes of calming meditation do wonders in releasing stress!  Sit quietly for 10 minutes, just breathing deeply and quieting your mind. 

If negative thoughts keep popping up, release them and go back to focusing on keeping your mind quiet. 

It does take some practice to master it but eventually you’ll feel more in control of your focus and stress won’t be able to affect you as deeply.

 - Natural calming aids.

If you can’t seem to manage stress with exercise and meditation, try some natural calming aids.  Drinking a cup of chamomile tea or an herbal supplements might help, such as valerian root. 

Key Point: If stress and weight loss are your major enemies in your quest for health make it your mission to find ways to conquer them the best way you can.  Whatever works for you- just relax!

For weight loss management strategies guaranteed to work, check out Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle system here.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Luz Laureano

Tags: Health And Fitness, Weight Loss

This entry was posted on November 15, 2011 at 3:19 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Health Nutrition by Luz Laureano No Comments Yet