Ingredient #7 to a healthy lifestyle is stress reduction. When you are doing everything else right and you still can’t lose weight, it’s almost always linked to either too much stress or a hormonal imbalance. Stress plays a huge role in causing your body to hang onto fat. This is actually a normal physiological response. During times of famine, stress hormones played a huge role in helping us stay alive by causing our bodies to hang onto fat and prompting us to go looking for more food. 

In today’s society our rising stress level is much more likely to be caused by deadlines or overcommitted schedules.  Unfortunately, your body doesn’t recognize this difference and treats all stress the same way.  As a result, stress is a big factor in weight gain.

When dealing with stress, first do what you can to eliminate the cause. Often this is not possible. In this case, the trick to dealing with stress is to acknowledge it and have key strategies in place to reduce the negative effect that it is having on your body. 

Maybe it's not about the happy ending. Maybe it's about the story. ~Unknown

Check-In:

1. Are you making your health a top priority in your life? Now is a good time to journal the changes you have made in your life since starting the program. Are there still some areas that you need to make some changes in?
2. One way to combat stress is to learn to relax. What do you do that is just for you on a daily and/or weekly basis? This is a great area to set some goals and rewards for yourself.
3. The next time you are in a very stressful situation, focus on slowing down your breathing. If you breath slow and deep, you can trick your body into thinking you are not stressed and this will reduce the harmful effects from that stress.