How Reducing Stress Can Help With Weight Loss
Alright, brides. Time for a deeper conversation about stress. It’s such a key piece of nutrition and wellness, and learning to reduce your stress can be a serious game changer in so many ways. And, if weight loss is a goal of yours and you’ve been struggling, despite doing “everything right”… then keep on reading.
Chronic, constant stress is simply not what our bodies were/are equipped to handle - yet the majority of people are, indeed, living in a state of chronic stress. And if you’re not actively managing that stress, you’re going to be constantly fighting an uphill battle in your wellness journey.
Now, to be clear, stress is not inherently bad. Back in the day — like, really back in the day — our bodies would enter what’s known as “fight or flight” mode if we encountered a big threat… like, a lion chasing us. Our adrenaline would pump, our heart rates would increase, and we would run like hell to keep ourselves alive. When the threat was no longer present, we’d return to our normal state. The stress was good, because it literally kept us alive. Importantly, it was also temporary.
But nowadays - we’re essentially stuck in that fight or flight mode. There might not be lions chasing us anymore, but there are constant smaller stressors coming our way; and the more of these we’re facing (and not actively managing), the less able our bodies are to fully recover.
You might be one of the lucky ones thinking to yourself, “but I don’t feel stressed that often” (GOOD FOR YOU, GIRLFRIEND! Care to share with the rest of the brides-to-be how you’re managing that one?!)
But here’s the thing: stress isn’t always quite so straight-forward. A poor diet, refined and processed foods, blood sugar imbalances, eating foods you have a sensitivity to, eating all the “right” foods mindlessly, digestive distress, dehydration, not setting personal boundaries, tech overload, and more, are all causing stress to your body. And your body doesn’t really know the difference between all of those and the lion. Stress is stress.
Yikes.
Cue: exhaustion, mood swings, adrenal fatigue and other hormonal imbalances, insulin resistance, autoimmunity, trouble sleeping, weight gain, acne, brain fog… all the things.
Ladies, it is vital for your health and wellbeing, your weight included, to get your stress in check. When we both reduce our stress load (dietary changes are a hugely impactful way to do so) and implement stress management techniques into our day to day lives, we give our bodies a fighting chance to recover. And with that recovery, we can fall back into our natural balance. Our systems can normalize. We can give our poor pancreas and adrenals a break from constantly pumping out insulin and cortisol in an attempt to keep us in some state of balance (and these two hormones are huge players in our weight!) When we get our stress in check, we can finally start to make strides in both how we feel and how we look.
Feeling inspired? I’ve got another blog post with some easy stress reduction techniques: you can check them out here!
Ready to become the glowing bride you DESERVE to be? Then I’m ready to guide you there. Take a look at the different ways we can work together here!
Curious to learn more & see if bridal nutrition is right for you? Schedule a FREE clarity call and let’s chat about it!
