Scale Not Budging? Maybe You Need to Slow Down!
In my last blog, I shared some tips to lose fat. Many suggestions I made were for obvious things.
I touched on stress and would like to expand on that a little more.
The problem with stress is that it has become socially acceptable. It seems that stress is required to manage your job and your life.
Have you tried to make changes?
Eat better? Exercise?
Not seeing results?
It could be stress.
Now you’ve probably heard that stress raises cortisol levels which leads to fat accumulation, particularly in the abdominal area.
People that tend to store most fat in their belly most likely suffer from chronic low-level stress.
You’ve also heard of stress eating where we turn to food for pleasure to deal with stress.
Did you know that stress can destroy your metabolism?
You may have digestive stress. In other words,
YOU'RE MOVING TOO FAST!
Eating fast & eating on the run causes digestive upset. If you eat under physiologic stress, you can’t effectively burn calories.
The slower you eat, the faster you metabolize.
Basically, when you’re in a stressed state, three physiological things happen.
There is a reduction of the salivary enzyme content in your mouth
Your stomach can’t effectively breakdown protein, fat, and carbs
The blood flow to the small intestine is decreased dramatically which decreases the assimilation of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.
Why do these things happen?
Well, your autonomic nervous system is responsible for digestive activity. One of the branches of your ANS is your body’s fight or flight stress response. When it is activated (or when you’re stressed out) your digestion shuts down. Your body is concerned about protecting itself, not digestion. The blood flows away from your stomach and out to your arms and legs and up to your brain for quick thinking.
When your digestion shuts off, you store fat.
A good way to test if you under stress is if you’re still hungry after eating a big meal
So if you want to start getting more results from your efforts, you need to
SLOW DOWN!
To boost your metabolism you have to relax and stop producing so much cortisol.
Now it’s not realistic for most to just turn off life and relax but there are some things you can do.
- If possible, try to arrange your home and work schedules, so you have more time for meals. This can be your time to relax.
- Try to take a little longer for each meal. If you eat breakfast in 5 minutes, make it 10. Give yourself at least 20 minutes for lunch and dinner. Lunch is the highest fat-burning time of the day, so if you slow down and eat, you’ll assimilate nutrients well.
- Focus on chewing your food
- Try to take ten conscious breaths before each meal and engage your senses as you eat. When you engage your senses, you tend not to eat as much. Focus on taste, smell and texture. When your brain is signaled, the appetite mechanism shuts down.
Keep these tips in mind. Your body will get more nutrients, you'll find you have more energy and you just may be surprised at the numbers on your scale!