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Stress and Weight Gain
How to Kick-Start Natural Weight Loss Remedies

Stress and weight gain go hand in hand. Natural weight loss remedies include stress management and managing financial worries.

Some people eat less when stressed and lose weight, but most tend to overeat more. Stress triggers the adrenal glands to release cortisol. This regulates blood pressure and the metabolism of carbohydrates, but it can also build fat around the midsection.

Learn stress management tips and powerful deep abdominal breathing for stress relief.

Stress and weight gain

The question is not, how to stop stress, we can not control what happens,

but we are in control of how we react to those situations.

When I ask my clients how they manage their stress, sometimes I am met with a blank stare. They have no idea what to answer.

If you need to lose weight, one of the most essential things for you to do is to create a list of things to do to help you manage your stress and use them instead of using food!

Deep abdominal breathing
Yoga
Exercise
Listening to relaxing music
Being in nature
Meditation
Crafts or hobbies
Getting together with friends
Herbal teas
Essential Oils
Talking to a friend
Bach Flower Remedies - Rescue remedy
Going for a walk
Journaling
Seeking professional help
etc

As you can see, there are many outlets, which ones can you use?

Deep abdominal breathing is one thing that you can do anytime and any where and is the best thing you can do to help calm your stress an anxiety. Stress and weight gain are a challenge to overcome, but I've seen first hand how most of my client's ailments are stress related! They go away on vacation and all symptoms disappear, they come back and all symptoms return!

Financial stress and weight gain

In the October 2010 edition of Prevention Magazine, Anne Underwood interviewed financial expert Suze Orman. She discussed the fascinating correlation between Financial stress and weight gain over unpaid bills. In 1999 while researching her book, Orman discovered that generally there was a 2 pound weight gain for every 1,000$ of debt. Women who were overweight by 10 pounds were hiding 5,000$ worth of credit card debt from their husbands!

She considers that the shame can be one of the causes of weight gain. People tend to comfort themselves with food. I believe that the constant stress also increases eating and weight gain.

Orman explains that financial stress and weight gain go together. If you are not balancing your check book and not knowing where your money is going, chances are you are not conscious of what you are putting into your mouth either.

A desire to be in control of your life- overcoming financial stress and weight gain

According to Orman, when the pleasure of being fit is greater than the pleasure of eating junk food, then changes will start to take place. Likewise, when the pleasure of having savings is greater than the pleasure of spending, your finances will be more in order.

How to start losing weight? When you realize you don’t want those shoes or the second helping because they won’t make you feel good, you begin to make changes.

When people feel empty they may try to fill up by eating or spending, it’s all about feeling good about yourself and who you are.

Alleviate financial stress and weight gain: Keeping track of spending

Reducing debt can be similar to reducing your waistline.

Keep track of your spending, keeping all receipts and becoming clear on exactly where and what you are spending your money on, how much debt you owe, how much your monthly payments are, etc.

I keep a simple excel sheet. Every few days I take the receipts out of my wallet and they go into an envelope. At the end of the month I put on some fun music, light a candle and have a money date.

This is an idea from the book The Art of Money - A life changing guide to financial happiness by Bari Tessler.

Instead of making accounting and managing money a stressful or boring chore, create some fun and enjoy the process.

For myself, all receipts get added up into various categories and I know exactly how much I'm spending and earning. Of course I do need to keep track of my business expenses but I do like to know how much I;m spending on food, clothes, entertainment, etc, it makes budgeting and staying on track so much easier. You have to find an easy system that works for you or get some help from a book keeper or money coach to get you going.

Alleviate stress and weight gain: Keeping track of food

Keep a food journal.

Write down everything that you are putting into your mouth, even those small bites when you are fixing dinner and after dinner, eating the kids leftovers on their plates. If you do a lot of emotional eating, then keep track of how you are feeling when you eat, how much stress you have, what thoughts and feelings are triggering you.

Before I meet with my clients to figure out their body type, I have them keep a 3 day food journal. Most find it very surprising to see what they are eating, as usually we aren't aware of how much we are eating. They often may say that their food journal is not typical of what usually goes on... Or they may try to eat very healthily while keeping their food journal so they won't be ashamed to show it to me. No one has to see your food journal but you, so do it as well as you can.

After a while you'll see a pattern and you'll have more clarity of what you need to work on.

Once you have the patterns, see where you can trim your spending or notice when you are overeating. Make small changes slowly. For spending invoke the 24 hour rule - if you feel the urge to spend, wait a day.

if you've been struggling with stress and weight gain contact me I taught yoga for 24 years, took an 8 week course in mindfulness based stress management. For over 28 years nutrition and healthy eating has been a passion of mine. I;ve helped hundreds of clients learn how to better manage their stress and drop the pounds they want to.

I love what I do! Contact me today!

Expect lapses and keep on going.