Many of us live with chronic stress. You may not even realise that you are suffering?
My emotional meltdown last summer was the result of 18 months of chronic stress.
I didn’t even realise how bad it had got!! It had become my normal.
Meh…..
I’d stopped seeing friends, going out, engaging with the kids, communicating with my husband and stopped enjoying life.
I’d let my own well being go to pot. I wasn’t looking after myself. I was eating an unsupportive diet and not moving my body at all!!
I was focused on work, work, work. The thing is I was overworking and under performing. Being in stress mode meant that I wasn’t creative and consistent.
Yikes!!! No wonder I had a meltdown.
You know what they say…..on the other side of a breakdown is a breakthrough!! Sure doesn’t feel like it at the time!!
It took for me to be on the edge to take a good honest look at my life. It took time but I had to build myself back up slowly.
Now I unselfishly put myself first. I take my own advice and walk the walk. If I’m not feeling and living to my fullest then anyone around me is getting a bad deal.
These things now take PRIORITY in my life:
- Daily 10 minute meditation/quiet time …whatever you want to call it!!
- Exercise – whether it’s walking, going to the gym or a 10 minute stretch at home
- Time with my kids. really listen and be ‘present’
- Go and have FUN!!
- Get at least 8 hours sleep (or dont talk to me)
- Eat a diet that includes foods that support me (yes that includes cake )
Insulin and cortisol are a bad hormonal combination for fat loss. These two hormones, when combined together in high amounts over long periods, push the female physiology towards storing fat when calories are high (as opposed to building muscle), and reduce the amount of fat burned when calories are low (burning muscle instead). This is a bad combination for any woman, but a menopausal woman is affected to a much greater extent.
Since insulin and cortisol may be the primary culprits in female belly fat storage, the transition into menopause often results in fat gain especially around the middle. from metabolic effect
I cannot stress how much stress plays havoc with the delicate dance between hormones.
No amount of red clover, sage or black cohosh is going to help you if you are pumped full of cortisol (one of your stress hormones)!
Stress Hormone – Cortisol
Cortisol is not the baddy, in ‘normal’ levels it
- Increases your appetite and energy level
- Tones down your immune system’s allergic and inflammatory responses
- Stimulates the storage and release of energy in the body
- Helps the body resist the stressful effects of infections, trauma, and temperature extremes
- Helps you maintain stable emotions.
However in the case of adrenal fatigue when you cortisol levels are going crazy it:
- Make you feel like the living dead before your morning caffeine fix
- Sugar cravings (ever eaten the kids Easter eggs before Easter?)
- Foggy thinking/memory
- Cause belly fat
- Depression
- lack of libido
- Insomnia even though you are exhausted
What can you do to reduce it?
- Go to sleep before 10pm (the more you sleep before midnight the better)
- Watch your thoughts. Focus on loving thoughts
- Hug someone/something
- Eat a healthy, non processed diet with plenty of protein
- Support yourself with Siberian Ginseng, tulsi tea and licorice
- Get outside and in as much natural daylight as possible and/or use a light box
- Take some time for you (read, bath, laugh, sex, hugs, walks, yoga…..)
What’s the SMALLEST ACTION you can take today that will net you the BIGGEST RESULT??
Choose one thing and do it consistently and you will reap the rewards
Tx
