The Kelsey Report

When Losing Weight Feels Like A Losing Battle

Who’s not stressed?

Stress is part of life. Maybe it IS life.

So, avoiding stress is impossible. Stress has to be managed. It”s an active, acquired skill.

Learning to manage stress helps you smooth out the bumps in your life; it makes your days more enjoyable.

And there’s another good reason to learn how to manage stress – you’ll avoid losing the battle of losing weight.

Here’s an infographic I put together to explain the complex subject of stress and weight gain.

And if you are overfat, whatever you do, don’t get stressed out about it.

How do you deal with stress?

References:

Epel, E. E., A. E. Moyer, et al. (1999). “Stress-induced cortisol, mood, and fat distribution in men.” Obes Res 7(1): 9-15. ] Epel, E. S., B. McEwen, et al. (2000). “Stress and body shape: stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently greater among women with central fat.” Psychosom Med 62(5): 623-3

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Omar says

Dear Doug and Doug-Readers-

Agree 100%!
Talking about “stress” is about as broad and meaningless as talking about “life”. I think when most people talk about “stress” they are really talking about “insufficient stress management”. I have a theory that insufficient stress management has, over time, made my liver a leaky faucet of sugar. And that, coupled with a genetic predisposition, caused the beta cells in my pancreas to protest and stop showing up for work.

Being diabetic has made my body a very interesting laboratory, effectively decreasing the damping factor on my blood sugar and exposing a lot of things. I know for sure that when life isn’t managed well, the sugar faucet turns on. I can measure it by pricking my finger and squirting a bit of blood into gluc-o-meter.
Similarly, when I exercise vigorously and time that exercise right, I can whack down those sugar levels by hypersensitizing my muscle cells to whatever little insulin I still can make.

A lot of life experiences are truly shocking to the system. But many are problems with definite solutions which require knowledge, planning and execution and somethings repeated re-planning. That, coupled with the faith in yourself and your abilities to solve any problem that comes your way can be a powerful stress management tool.

How do others do it?

    DD Kelsey says

    Thanks Omar for sharing your insights. Very interesting. I agree with you about your assessment that stress as a term is a bit generic. Truth is without it, we would die. Without sufficient mechanical stress our bodies fade away. Without mental and emotional stress, we fail to grow (or grow up 🙂

    One of the keys is recognizing when you’re over-taxed and figuring out what to do.

    Thanks again….be well.

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