Love Your Body, Love Your Life
Module 2
Calm the Chaos in Your Mind and Body
Calming the stress response in your mind – and in your body – is crucial for weight loss. Turning off your stress response helps you shift out of fat-storing mode into fat releasing mode. It’s also important if you struggle with anxiety of feelings of overwhelm, no matter what the cause.
If you’re anxious, overwhelmed, or constantly in “fight-of-flight mode” your body is on “high-alert”. Stress may also be at the root a multitude of health conditions including: headaches, stomaches, heartburn, rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, high blood sugars, a weakened immune system, insomnia, and decreased metabolism. Insulin resistance also increases and you are more likely to be in fat-storing mode vs. fat-releasing mode.
Be sure to watch the video below (it’s short!) to learn a very powerful technique you can do anywhere, even when other people are around, to calm down the chaos in your brain.
This technique is great for reducing feelings of anxiety, cravings, anger, overwhelm and more. In fact, you can use this technique to calm down the intensity of nearly every negative emotion you may be feeling. For example, if you’re on the phone with a person who is annoying you, do this technique. If you’re stuck in a boring meeting, do this technique. If your kids are driving you crazy, do this technique!
I recommend you do this technique several times per day. Some of my clients set an alarm on their phones to remind them to take “calming” breaks. The more you do this, the more calming pathways you build in your brain.
If weight loss is your goal, I recommend doing this technique before every meal and snack and ANYTIME you feel like you just need “something”. If you’re standing in front of the pantry or fridge, and you’re not even hungry, do this technique. If you’re sitting on the coach and you feel the urge for a “treat” coming on, do this technique!
I know you are going to love how it makes you feel!
Press & Breathe Technique: Watch Our Video Now
What is STRESS doing to your body?
To learn more about what happens to your body when you’re stress out, read Fight-or-Flight vs Rest-and-Restore?
If you’re stressed, anxious, fearful or lonely, the effect on your health is real… including the effect on your weight. These emotions can actually sabotage your weight loss efforts. Here’s why. Maybe you’re living in a chronic state of fight-or-flight. Maybe it’s hard to shut off your brain. Maybe you feel a low level of anxiety most of the time. Or maybe you’re exhausted but you’re also wired and you can’t sleep. When you’re in this mode, your body is making lots of adrenaline and cortisol (the stress hormone), your cells are more insulin and leptin resistant and your blood sugars tend to be higher. Even your blood pressure and your heart rate and your breathing can be affected – all of which contribute not only to excess weight but poor health overall.
All of this stress also leads to hormonal imbalances that often lead to weight gain and other health issues. If you turn to more dieting and exercising, you’re likely failing to address the real issue for your weight gain (the root cause) which is mental and emotional stress and the effect they have on our physiology. What you really need is balanced weight loss (and other) hormones and better biochemistry for your mind and body. This can be achieved by using tools that minimize the negative effects of stress. Once you do that, the cravings and the overeating start to fade away and you lose weight.
Meditation greatly reduces the effect of stress on your body and that is just one way it helps to balance your hormones so that you can lose weight. And meditation keeps on working after you’re done meditating! Your mind learns how to respond to stress differently so that you’re not flooding your body with biochemicals and hormones that promote fat storage. Your brain actually creates new neural pathways – which is so cool! Instead of responding to stress by self-medicating with carbs or Netflix binges or alcohol or shopping or whatever is your “drug” of choice) you remain calm and balanced and centered. You feel better, you have more energy, you lose weight, and your health improves.
