Firstly, I know I am a bit delayed on getting the second part of this series out.
The way that stress affects our body, our behaviour, our food choices and of course weight, is so complex and yet so simple at the same time.
It’s simple because all you really need to know is that chronic stress is most likely underlying in many of the things you are struggling with at the moment.
Your weight, your energy, your food choices, your mood, your digestion, skin, hair, nails, sleep, hormones etc. etc.
It’s complex because I think that most people probably know this. They just don’t know the why.
And sometimes we need to and want to understand the why so that we feel motivated to managed and create change.
So today is a little bit more of the why.
If you saw my previous post on Is Stress Your Metabolic Road Block? (If you didn’t head over the previous blog post), you should hopefully know now that modern living creates an unresolved stimulation of the brain-adrenal connection, stimulating stress hormone production.
I want to come back to this term “unresolved“.
It is one of THE most important terms I use to contextualise what is going on with people.
When there is a problem be it weight, sleep, mood, hormonal imbalances, digestive complaints, poor energy, foggy brain, skin issues or anything else someone would come and see me for…
the problem is always the same problem…
Something unresolved.
Now that might seem like a silly thing to say.
Of course the problem is something unresolved. It’s a problem, therefore it isn’t resolved.
But let me explain it like this.
The symptoms (weight, sleep, mood, hormonal imbalances, digestive complaints, low energy, skin problems etc.)
Are not the problem.
The symptoms are not the problem they are a failed solution.
An attempt to create resolution that was not successful.
If it was successful there would no longer be any symptoms.
Now I know this is getting confusing so let me explain further (stay with me, I want you to get this!).
EXAMPLE:
Being overweight is a symptom of insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance, if you read my previous series on weight loss, is when we can’t get energy into cells to be burned up, so we store energy in our fat cells instead.
Insulin resistance is an attempt to resolve a problem.
One can be insulin resistance for many reasons.
Perhaps you have an infection in your gut and your immune system wants to prioritise energy resources towards itself to fight the infection.
Perhaps you are over-consuming calories and your body wants to store excess in the form of fat for times of famine (because traditionally, starvation was a real threat to survival)
Perhaps you are in a state of high stress and your body wants to keep energy for a fight or flight response.
So can you see how something happens (a stress – infection, food, perceived danger) and your body creates a change to cope with that thing.
The change in this example is insulin resistance.
The symptoms is weight gain.
The problem was a stress.
The insulin resistance was created to overcome the stressor.
It was the solution to the problem.
And… if the problem doesn’t go away (because we are bathed in a life of chronic stress).
We have an unresolved symptom to due an unresolved problem.
I hope I haven’t completely confused you now!
I wrote this on my Facebook page a week or so ago. I think it fits in well here today.
So this is what I want you to “get” from today’s message.
All your “complaints” are likely to come down to stress.
The continuous pressures of our daily lives have a “winding up” effect.
I feel like I have given you enough to think about today, so I will explain the “winding up” effect next time.
I’ll also be giving you some tools to evaluate your life and what you can do about it, because, ultimately, this is your responsibility.
Only you can manage your life.
Yes, there might be things going on at the moment that aren’t pleasant, you don’t know how to deal with and you may be wondering how you can cope.
From experience, most of the things that people worry about don’t happen.
It’s the things that we never thought would happen that blindside us, and we cope.
Everytime.
Because what does it mean not to cope. As long as you are alive and breathing, you are coping just fine.
We cannot change some things in our life immediately, but when we change the way we think about the things in our life, the things in our life change.
I’ll leave you with that thought today.
More pieces of the puzzle to follow I promise.
If you feel totally confused, stick with it. It will all come together and you may need to read these emails a few times (think of all the calories you will burn doing so!).
PS. If you want help losing weight, but most importantly rebalancing your lifestyle to find results that actually last (like these women did below), then feel free to apply for a Complimentary Breakthrough Call to discover if Weight Loss Mentoring is the right approach for you.