My Healthy Tidbits

There is a natural, stress-related hormone called cortisol that may contribute to weight issues, particularly abdominal fat.  High amounts of cortisol are released into the blood stream when you are under stress.  Receptors for cortisol are located in your abdomen, which triggers fat storage there.  In 2000, researchers found that women with a high ‘waist-to-hip ratio’–both overweight and slim –secreated more cortisol under stress and reported more stress in their daily lives than women with lower ‘waist-to-hip ratios’.

Additionally, excess cortisol may actually cause your metabolism to slow down.  This could mean that even if you don’t consume more calories than usual, you could gain weight. But since stress stimulates the appetite, it is likely that you take in more calories than usual when under stress, which only compounds the problem.  Together, eating more calories and having a slower metabolism than usual is a “double-whammy” in the stress/weight connection; not only do you tend to take in more calories than usual, but you don’t burn them efficiently, either. 

The tendency to eat high-fat foods may actually cause a vicious cycle of poor food choices.  Women who eat high-fat diets have been shown both to have increased cortisol reactivity and greater preference for sweet foods.

Ways to cope: 1. Get emotional support by reaching out to others for help.   2. Instead of reaching for a snack, walk outside for a brisk 5-minute walk or walk up and down some stairs a few times. A burst of activity may help suppress your appetite. 3. Get regular exercise that helps regulate cortisol levels, help alleviate depression and get a better night’s sleep.  4. Do relaxation exercises such as, guided visualization, deep breathing and meditation. 5. Get enough sleep.  6. One way to get a handle on emotional eating is to keep a food diary.

Stress can zap your energy and shorten your life!  Don’t let stress get you down.  We all feel stressed at times.  How you react to stress will determine its affect on you.  Stress can leave you feeling depressed or anxious, which depletes energy levels.  Be sure to take time-out…relax…meditate or pray.

How much sleep do you need?  Is it 6,7,8 or 9 hours each night?  Sleep disturbance is a common problem as we age.  Too many of us have let our daily lives take over our night hours.  A majority of Americans have televisions in their bedrooms and a good number of people stay up late into the night Web-surfing or emailing.

Fight insomnia:  Drinking alcohol can suppress your ability to get a good nights sleep.  Try avoiding alcohol for a better night’s sleep.  Also avoid eating a heavy meal right before bed time.  Digestion takes energy, which can disrupt your good night’s sleep.

Meditation: Since we all get exhausted physically and mentally by the end of the day, it is important for us to learn the art of deep relaxation to help restore our body and mind with energy and vigor.  Since most of us spend our day rushed from the moment we wake up to the minute we go to bed, we often feel completely fatigued and exhausted throughout the day.

Take a few minutes, whenever possible, to breathe deeply and relax, letting your mind go silent.

Deep Breathing: There are many benefits of deep breathing.  However, very few of us are able to draw these wonderful benefits for the simple reason that we have become so used to shallow breathing.  As a result, shallow breathing doesn’t enable us to inhale enough oxygen and exhale enough carbon dioxide from our body.  Our bodies become permanently oxygen starved, resulting in permanent lack of energy.

Practicing a full complete breath:  1.  Suck in your stomach, drawing your belly button towards your spine.  2. Exhale thoroughly.  3.  Now expand your belly button outward, drawing in a full breath.  4. Then allow your ribs to open out.  5.  Repeat 5 to 10 times.