Between a slow economy and the challenges of everyday life, stress is at an all time high. You may have noticed that despite your best efforts, you are gaining weight or have hit a complete plateau in your results. Could stress be to blame? The answer is yes. So how exactly does stress affect our weight and sabotage our goals? When you are under stress, your body automatically sends your “fight or flight response” into full swing. This response releases certain hormones, specifically cortisol (also known as the “stress hormone”). When there’s an over-release of cortisol due to stress, your metabolism slows down dramatically.
Chronic stress can also lead to changes in blood sugar. In order to create balance within your body, increase metabolism and burn fat consistently, it’s critical to maintain stable blood sugar levels. Stress throws your blood sugar levels out of whack and may cause fatigue, lack of energy and even mood swings. And when you are not feeling well, your entire health structure suffers including your quality of sleep, and your motivation to exercise and eat well.
So what can you do? The first step is becoming aware of how much stress you do have and what’s causing it. Often times we are so stressed for so long that it becomes the “norm” and this kind of thinking leads to chronic stress. At the Bali Health Institute we focus on lifestyle change and creating “balance” in your life.
Here are some of the primary factors to consider:
• Sleep: The amount of sleep needed for each individual varies, but consistency is key to keep the body in balance. Lack of sleep will keep you in a continual “fight or flight” mode, which will slow your metabolism and deprive you of needed energy throughout the day.
• Exercise: My moto is ”if you don’t use it you lose it,” so get moving. Start small, anything more than what you are doing will help not only boost your metabolism, but it will lower your stress dramatically.
• Food: Eat consistent balanced meals every three to four hours to help stabilize your blood sugar. Balanced means protein, carbohydrates and fat with every meal. Skipping meals will also put the body under stress, causing the metabolism to slow down.
• Water: Benefits of water are:
– To prevent and treat depression: hydration helps the body naturally replenish its supply of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
– To prevent and treat sleep disorders: hydration is needed for the production of nature’s sleep regulator, melatonin.
– To prevent and treat attention deficit: a well-hydrated brain is continually energized to imprint new information in its memory banks.
– To prevent and treat lack of energy: water generates electrical and magnetic energy in every body cell, providing a natural power boost.
In real estate we all know that location, location, location is where to buy homes. In weight-loss it is consistency, consistency, consistency. Through the consistency of proper sleep, exercise, food and water, the body will be in balance to effectively release stored fat and give you increased energy throughout the day.
Garrison Family Medical Group is located at 18520 Via Princessa, Suite C2 in Canyon Country. For more information, please call 888-333-2996.