A major factor in anyone’s ability to release excess weight is our ability to release stress. If we are under a lot of stress, or even chronic low-level stress, our insulin and cortisol levels rise. Increased insulin and cortisol can lead to:
- weight gain
- inability to lose weight
- inability to build muscle
- decreased calorie burning
- increased fat deposition at midsection
- increased inflammation – exacerbates every known disease
- die off of good gut bacteria – leads to many types of digestive issues
- wasting nutrients – we don’t get the nutrients from the foods we eat
- decreased immunity – we get sick more easily
- decreased energy
- dysregulated appetite – we may NOT feel hungry when we need to eat, OR we may feel hungry all the time.
- desensitivity to pleasure – we need MORE food to feel satiated.
- decreased Mitochondrial function – can lead to muscle weakness, and organ disease
- decreased Thyroid function – can lead to fatigue, weight gain, joint pain, dry skin, thinning hair, irregular menses, fertility problems, slowed heart rate, or depression.
- poor sleep quality
- reduced sleep quantity
So it’s clear that if we want to release excess weight, we MUST find ways to RELEASE the stress we experience in our lives.
Stress & Perception
Normal life stressors include death or illness of a family member, financial worries, work-related stress. This kind of stress can’t be avoided, but we can learn ways to diminish it, so that it has less effect on our health. We can also learn techniques to help us shift the way in which we perceive stress. Perception determines everything, and certainly colors how normal life stressors affect us.
For example: Several employees are let go from a company.
High-stress perception of the situation says loss of income is a huge setback, we’ll fall behind on bills and maybe lose our home. Now THAT will stress you out.
Low-stress perception of the same situation says that my next income will be higher, affording more economic opportunities, and that the Universe always has my back so it was obviously time to leave that position to find something better and more fulfilling for me. What a blessing! No worries, no stress.
Self-Chosen Stress
Reducing the stress in our lives is absolutely essential if one of our goals is to release excess weight, and the stress easiest to release is the self-chosen variety.
Are you kind to yourself like you would be to someone you love? Or do you criticize yourself for every perceived imperfection, belittle and shame yourself for not doing enough? Do you compare yourself to others and always judge yourself less than?
When you look at your body in the mirror, do you lavish it with love and praise for supporting and sustaining you every day of your life no matter how much you abused it? Or do you heap shame on it for not looking like some swimsuit model who’s been surgically enhanced, tucked, and airbrushed?
Self-criticism and body shame create a toxic stew of stress. It’s like living in a situation where we are being attacked every day, because we are attacking ourselves daily!
Weight release requires learning to love ourselves, or at the very LEAST, learning not to treat ourselves like shit. This process takes time, patience, and constant reminders, but pays off in improved health, happiness, and more success reaching all of our goals!
Processed Foods
Perhaps one of the most treacherous self-chosen stressors in modern life is processed foods because most people choosing them don’t even know that processed foods cause stress!
The chemicals being put into manufactured foods affect our energy and our mood. According to Dr. Joan Ifland, people who eat a diet high in processed foods tend to anger more quickly, be more anxious, and irritable.
Processed foods tend to be very low in nutrition, and poor nutrition is perceived by the body as STRESS.
Poor nutrition is also a major reason that we overeat after dinner. Our body has done the calculations, found us missing essential nutrients, and sent off alarm bells that scream, “We did not get adequate nutrition. EAT MORE FOOD!” If we reach for more processed foods, we still don’t get the nourishment our body is screaming for, but we pack on pounds from the excess empty calories.
Here in the United States, processed foods tend to be high in many kinds of sugar, wheat flours processed with roundup, GMO corn, low quality soy, and saturated fats – ALL of which cause inflammation and have the potential to disrupt digestion.
Digesting and metabolizing even one of those inflammatory ingredients is stressful on our intestines, liver, and cardio-vascular system. Digesting many of them all at once, maybe several times a day leads to serious health issues like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
If we eat processed foods, it’s adding stress to our life in multiple ways, and most of us aren’t even aware of it!
Bottom line is that if we want to release any excess weight we may be carrying, we must begin to learn to release whatever stress it is within our power to release, including processed foods.
Processed Food Addiction
Now, if you are sitting there thinking that you can’t even imagine a life without processed foods, you are NOT alone.
A recent poll done by the University of Michigan found that older adults reported intense food cravings. Twenty four percent said that at least once a week they had such a strong urge to eat a highly processed food that they couldn’t think of anything else. Nineteen percent said that at least two or three times a week they tried and failed to cut back, or stop eating, these kinds of foods.
Twelve percent said that their eating behavior caused them a lot of distress more than twice a week, so if any of this resonates for you, I hope you are starting to see that you are not the only one.
Dr Joan Ifland wrote the text book, Processed Food Addiction. You will find a wealth of interviews of Dr. Ifland on YouTube where you can learn more about processed food addiction and it’s treatment.
Elimination Diet
One of the fastest ways to get relief – from stress, inflammation, excess weight, and a long list of unwanted symptoms – is to release the thoughts, foods, and behaviors that are causing us stress, inflammation, and unwanted symptoms.
If this resonates for you, experience has shown that an elimination diet is one of the best tools for identifying foods you suspect may be causing the unwanted symptoms, and is very safe.
An elimination diet is an eating plan that omits a food, or group of foods, believed to cause unwanted symptoms. By removing foods for a few weeks and then reintroducing them during a “challenge” period, you can learn which foods are causing symptoms or making them worse.
We often think of reactions to food as happening quickly, however, many other ways our bodies react to food may not be so immediate or noticeable.
My mission is to help people revitalize their lives and transform their lives around food and body, so I created the Relief through Release Playgroup to fully support women who want to play with releasing thoughts, foods, and behaviors that are creating unwanted symptoms, for the purpose of getting relief from those symptoms!
Relief through Release Playgroup
R&R Playgroup is an eight week online playgroup. For three weeks of those two months, we release self-criticism and sugar – two of life’s biggest stressors – with all the support it takes to make that shift.
In R&R Playgroup, we learn:
- the science behind overeating, and create strategies to reduce overeating.
- to listen to our appetite instead of trying to suppress it.
- to tap into our body wisdom to understand what foods truly serve our health.
- to identify and overwrite limiting beliefs, and shift to less stressful perspectives.
- how to increase our energy and awareness, build confidence, and celebrate every success.
- to marinate our energy in thoughts and ideas that feel good and uplifting, instead of stewing in a negative vibration that diminishes everything we try to do and be!
All of this adds up to creating the healthy energized lives that we long to lead!
The next playgroup starts in a few weeks!
Get complete details at THIS LINK.
Whether you choose to let go of self-criticism, take up yoga, learn to shift perspectives, or try an elimination diet on your own, or with a group – don’t you owe it to yourself and your health to play with some new ways to relieve stress?
Grow on!
What foods do you suspect may be causing issues for you?
What processed foods do you crave?
Which unwanted symptoms do you have that might be tied to food?
How willing are you to play with letting go of suspect foods?
What thoughts are you thinking that you would like to release?
What self-chosen stressors can you identify, and play with releasing?