“I’m stressed out”, so I find myself elbow deep in a bag of chips or oreos. A tub of ice cream doesn’t stand a chance. Have you been there? Let’s be real – we all have at some point in our lives. But some have leaned on food during periods of chronic stress on a regular basis, thus increasing our weight, waistline and costing us healthy years if we don’t get this connection between stress and food under control.
Stress is defined by Webster’s dictionary as “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation”. I found this fascinating that even the definition of stress ALONE referenced disease. So, what does that tell me? If you are someone who finds yourself living in a constant state of chronic stress, you may be a ticking time bomb. I’ve been there, done that, wrote the book, bought the t-shirt, and, DAGGONE IT, how much I despise having days that I feel like I’m reliving that.
We must control our stress in any way humanly possible. But, when we are in stressful situations that are out of our control, we must control our response to that stress – especially with regards to food.
First, it’s important to recognize the tricks that our body will play on us as a result of our stress. Sometimes in periods of acute stress, we may actually have appetite suppression or a reduced appetite; but, in chronic stress, our HPA axis (hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal) is activated, resulting in the secretion of cortisol, which stimulates appetite and the desire for high carb/high fat foods. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.21790
As you can imagine, over longer term periods of stress, this behavior, if not controlled, will most surely lead to weight gain – sometimes at an alarming rate.
If we feel ourselves in stressful times wanting to eat anything that isn’t nailed down, think about what your body is doing, and do something – even if it’s just for 60 seconds – to relieve the stress at the moment. Meditation and prayer, deep diaphragmatic breathing, closing your eyes and allowing yourself to take a vacation in your mind to your favorite destination – any of these practices done regularly over time can help reduce cortisol levels – thus reducing your cravings and giving you a much healthier way of handling stress.
There is a study listed in Pubmed by the NIH that concluded that “mindfulness meditation lowers the cortisol levels in the blood suggesting that it can lower stress and may decrease the risk of diseases that arise from stress”. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23724462/#:~:text=Conclusion%3A%20Mindfulness%20meditation%20lowers%20the,in%20combination%20with%20standard%20treatment
If you make this a regular practice every morning in the first 30 minutes of waking, as well as just before going to sleep, or as you drift off to sleep, and as needed in brief periods throughout the day, you will greatly reduce your stress, your cortisol levels, and ultimately your cravings and poor eating habits if you are choosing your foods mindfully.
We must recognize when we mindlessly eat, that we are doing it – not out of hunger – but out of a likely cortisol or other imbalance as a result of stressors.
What else can we do? Allow your body a digestive break every day. Fasting for 12 hours every day (most of which is overnight while you are sleeping), is key to giving your hormones an opportunity to rebalance each night. While 12 hours without food may sound stressful all by itself, it really is so much easier than you may realize. If you finish eating your last meal of the day at 7pm, you just don’t eat again until 7am. That simple.
It is also very important to focus on eating a clean anti-inflammatory diet. One should avoid processed foods and eat more whole natural foods. Additionally, a diet high in magnesium-rich foods – avocados, bananas, broccoli, dark chocolate (real stuff – not Hershey and Nestle), pumpkin seeds and spinach are incredibly beneficial, as magnesium is a natural smooth muscle relaxer, helping to aid in stress reduction. Our bodies react to being in an inflammatory state as a state of stress – thus releasing more cortisol – so we need to proactively do our part to reduce that inflammation by choosing the best foods to nourish our body and reduce the inflammatory processes that processed foods cause. In fact, a diet expert at the Cleveland Clinic recommends the Mediterranean Diet, which is a complete diet rich in fish, poultry fruits, vegetables, whole grains and healthy fats. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/eat-these-foods-to-reduce-stress-and-anxiety/
Additionally, in a lifestyle change of choosing the best foods, it is equally important to know which foods to avoid when you are concerned about increased cortisol levels. As stated above, avoid all processed foods (especially processed meats); but, also avoiding high sugar foods, caffeine and alcohol is important, as all have been associated with high cortisol levels.
Lastly – exercise. There are countless studies proving that regular exercise decreases cortisol levels in your bloodstream. Focus on “moving more than before”. I encourage my clients to do a self assessment of their movement over the previous 30 days, and step it up a notch. If you are extremely sedentary – start by doing small things like parking at the back of the parking lot when you are at the grocery store, or walking an intentional 5 minutes a day, 4 days a week. If you are someone who’s already walking 10,000 steps daily, add some weights or 4 minute Tabata workouts (free online) 3 times weekly! Maybe step your goal up to 10,500 daily steps. Always strive for increasing your activity so your body is always challenged. Are you walking an occasional day, but find yourself with sedentary days in between? Strive for consistency! Start with 4000 steps a day minimum and increase monthly until you hit 10,000! It’s a slow increase, but so much easier for your body to manage instead of causing you MORE stress to suddenly try to become a gym rat! Be intentional, but be reasonable and realistic with your goals that you set.
In summary, YOU are in control. In a life when we may feel like we are at the mercy of our stressors, you absolutely MUST grab hold of the steering wheel and stop flopping around in this life like you are in a pack of bumper cars just careening whichever way you are pushed. This is a perception that only YOU can change, and YES YOU CAN! Start of making small changes, and if you make small consistent changes daily/weekly/monthly, you may not be able to see the results right away, but you absolutely will eventually look in the mirror and see a very different person – full of confidence, full of control and with a much greater handle on the stressors you once believed had full control of you!
When you feel like you need assistance in putting all of the pieces together – I am absolutely here for you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me at wendy@freedomholisticwellness.com, or schedule an appointment with me for us to chat at https://masseywellnessscheduling1.as.me/ to learn of my program and the success my clients are having with health improvement and weight loss.