Stress – Why It Inhibits Weight Loss

Did you know that if your stress levels are frequently high your body gets the message that due to your high stress environment you need to preserve energy for emergencies, creating an obstacle to weight loss? To lose unwanted weight and keep it off, we need to focus on how we talk to ourselves, how we manage our stress and whether we take time out to reset.

If you only focus on what you don’t like about your body and the weight you want to lose it will just make a weight loss journey feel like a chore or punishment. However, if you have the right Coach who empowers you and teaches you about the mental health benefits, makes it fun and provides practical nutrition (eg: how to have treats without regrets) you can break the negativity and stress cycle and even desire more. While diets may get you to your destination, you’ll be unlikely to stay there if you don’t have the right mindset and information to keep you grounded.

We love to say that the gym is our temple, its an opportunity to practice self-care, to breathe deeply, stretch and release stress. It makes us feel renewed and helps us to get more out of life. Ultimately, it puts us back in the control seat.

After all, we are designed to move. Our bodies have evolved to spend much of our day walking, climbing and running. When we do this It body begins to respond positively – we function better and begin building resilience, self-esteem and gratitude.

However, many of us spend much of our day sitting while drinking stimulants, eating high carb and high sugar foods to manage our moods, this sends our stress levels sky high – a recipe for grumpiness in the short term, weight gain in the mid-term and myriad of health problems in the mid to long term.

Think of the brain as your cockpit with you as pilot; with the right knowledge and support, you can choose to steer your thoughts and actions toward your destination of choice. Without it, autopilot could take you somewhere you don’t want to be.

Weight Loss and Stress – In a Nutshell If we exercise:

• It lowers the stress hormones in our body – improving our mood, lowering anxiety, resting blood glucose and blood pressure.

• We crave less sugar and “comfort food” – also triggered by chronic stress levels and low serotonin (happy hormone) levels

• We sleep better – less comfort food and alcohol means less stress hormones and better quality sleep

• It boosts our immunity – we are less likely to catch the ‘bug that’s going around’

• We produce more ‘happy hormones’ such as serotonin or endorphins – we are just nicer, happier and calmer.

So mindset is key to weight loss and keeping it off. Balanced nutrition and exercise can COMPLETELY change our life – how we relate to others, ourselves, perceive the world around us, manage our stress levels, balance our hormones, digest, our cognitive abilities, our memory and SO much more.

The right Coach can help you develop this mindset.

Just remember, the less likely you feel like getting active, the more intensely you’ll feel so grateful you did – your mood and outlook will transform, the clouds will part and you’ll be clear for take-off.