October 8, 2013 at 10:40 p.m.
Is your stressful lifestyle making you fat?
Did you know that stress can make you fat?
We usually think that a lack of exercise and poor diet constitutes weight gain but stress is just as important.
Does this story sound familiar to you? It’s almost midnight and you’re up watching TV, you go to bed late but find it hard to sleep waking up a few hours later in a cold sweat before the alarm clock goes off and it’s 6am!
Jumping out of bed, you pour a massive cup of coffee to wake up so you can get the kids dressed for school and get yourself ready for work.
En route you’re caught in the morning rush and fuming with the traffic.
It’s so busy at work that when it’s lunchtime you decide to stay at your desk before realising you haven’t eaten anything all day so make a trip to the vending machine for some candy and a Diet Coke.
After a long day in the office you rush out to take the kids to an after-school activity and grab something else from the gas station as you are now starving and could eat a horse.
Once you finally get home, you make the kids their dinner before slumping in front of the TV and before you know it, it’s midnight again...
Is this how you are going to live the rest of your life? Like you are being chased by a lion all day?
Lion’s menu
On a biochemical level, our body thinks it’s next on the lion’s menu.
This is because our Autonomic Nervous System is broken up into the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) and the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS).
Our SNS is known as the ‘fight or flight’ system as it prepares the body to react to all the daily stressors listed in my story.
The PNS known as the ‘rest and digest’ system controls rest, repair, digestion and reproduction.
We need to balance out both these systems during our day to eliminate all this stress.
Most of us are constantly in a ‘fight or flight’ state.
Our body is always talking to us. Simple signs of stress include anxiety, fears, ADHD, breathing difficulties, digestive
problems, increased muscle tension, elevated blood pressure and fat accumulation around the middle of the body.
If you experience any of these signs then don’t stress....
I will explain how to overcome it all in next week’s article.
Colin Ayliffe is a certified Personal Trainer and Holistic Lifestyle Coach with over 10 years experience in training clients. Colin is Head Trainer at Court House Squash and Wellness in Hamilton. He graduated from the University of Surrey with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sport Science and is also a CHEK Practitioner, Golf Biomechanic and accredited by the National Academy of Sports Medicine.
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