Every day you turn on your nightly news and think the world is coming to an end: oil is hitting record levels, the economy is slumping, inflation is rising, the mortgage crisis, lost jobs, etc. The best indicator of stress is the amount of belly fat. Large waists and high stress are directly related. If your body fat isn't dropping, look at how you are dealing with your stress. The body is programmed to hold onto fat when we are at our most stressful periods. Even someone that is lean has fat cells around the stomach. The difference is their cells stay relatively small. Someone who is obese doesn't have more fat cells, but larger fat cells. When people are under stress, their bodies release high amounts of steroids into the blood stream in the form of the hormone, cortisol. A body in a state of chronic stress tries to get rid of these free floating hormones. The fat in the stomach area has receptor sites that bind to this free floating cortisol. Unfortunately, cortisol supercharges the bodies ability to store fat, causing you to store more and more body fat.
In order to stop this vicious cycle, you must lower your stress level. I have come up with a few ideas to that might work for you:
• Avoid television and Internet news (negativity)
• Turn off the TV at least an hour before bedtime
• Turn off your cell phone when you get home. (With Blackberry and Iphone we become attached to our electronic devices, and therefore work never ends.)
• Write a "to do" list. (Life seems overwhelming with all of our daily tasks. Writing them down will help you to organize and strategically accomplish your goals.)
• Read a book at night
• Try a yoga class
• Listen to calming and relaxing music
• Eat foods that make you feel wonderful. (ie. Fruits full of antioxidants.)
• And, last but certainly not least, exercise. (Nothing helps relieve stress better than a great cardio session.)
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