When I was in the height of my healing journey, my Functional doc discovered that while I was eating highly nutrient-rich foods and fiercely abstaining from inflammatory ones, I still wasn’t absorbing the nutrients from the foods I ate.

You can imagine how discouraging that was.

And at that moment in time, I wasn’t in a stress-state anymore.
I was truly doing what I thought was resting.
In fact, I couldn’t work anymore.
But I was  experiencing the effects of a few years of intense stress on my body.

What unfolded was many years of research, trials, and errors, and digging deeper and deeper into the effects of stress on our bodies.

Researchers now say that highly stressed individuals actually have a harder time utilizing the foods they eat. There was a study conducted specifically regarding caregivers and how the stress they endure affects their bodies’ ability to process the foods they eat. And guess what? They found that those under extreme stress didn’t handle junk food as well – it led to larger waistlines and insulin insensitivity. 

Tune in to find out more and for a couple of simple practices you can begin to implement today!

Have you ever considered yourself a “stress eater?” 

Or sometimes it’s labeled as “emotional eating.” 

Turning to food when your stress levels increase is a common occurrence. 

It’s a root cause for many obese men and women. 

The simple fact that our lives are full of stress – and we increase our calorie consumption during those times – is enough to pack on the pounds easily. 

Researchers now say that highly stressed individuals actually have a harder time utilizing the foods they eat. There was a study conducted specifically regarding caregivers and how the stress they endure affects their bodies’ ability to process the foods they eat. 

The University of California’s San Francisco Department of Psychiatry wanted to find out how chronic stress and eating affect the body. They took a sampling of women who were caregivers to a parent or partner suffering from memory loss and measured how their bodies reacted to the increase of more fat and more sugary foods. 

They compared that to women who were eating the same foods, but not under the same stressful long-term conditions and they found that those under extreme stress didn’t handle the junk food as well – it led to larger waistlines and insulin insensitivity. 

This particular study was for women over the age of 50. It revealed that the high stress group had metabolic changes – the kind that lead to disease, while the lower stressed women did not. 

If you’re a man or woman (of any age) who is experiencing chronic stress and notices that you eat your worries away, then the key isn’t in trying to diet, but in trying to get a handle on the stress levels you experience. 

There are many ways you can alleviate stress in those circumstances. 

It’s all rooted in self care. You have to take time for yourself and allow others (such as hospice workers) to take over while you rejuvenate yourself during these tough times. 

The KEY INGREDIENT is rejuvenating activities.

You’re not just doing it for yourself and your own health, but for the loved one that you’re caring for. And if you have chronic stress that doesn’t involve care-taking, you can still engage in self care to stave off metabolic changes that might harm your body, too. 

Why Cortisol is the Problem

Stress is no joke. That’s because the stress hormone *cortisol* has a ripple effect on just about every aspect of physical and mental health, like…

🔥 Immune Function

Cortisol keeps inflammation in check, but too much can lower the body’s ability to fight off infections and illness. 

🍪 Blood Sugar

Cortisol increases blood sugar (to help us respond to stress), but this can lead to insulin resistance and blood sugar issues over time. 

👖 Belly Fat

Chronically elevated cortisol leads to weight gain—particularly around the middle. 

💩 Bloating & Digestion

The gut is our second brain and responds to stress hormones too!

❣️ Emotional Health

Cortisol can contribute to anxiety, restlessness, apathy, and other mood changes. 

So, what can we do? 

This is one of the most significant root causes of health issues in so many of my clients. What we do is look at what is actually happening with cortisol and come up with a plan to bring it back to a healthy and natural rhythm. Here are 2 basic breathing practices that can begin to create a major shift.

2 SIMPLE PRACTICES:

#1 – Slow down your breathing
Take time all throughout the day to simply become aware of your breathing, slow it down a little, and reset. This practice releases healing into your entire being. It shifts you into a Parasympathetic, rest, heal, and digest state, and begins flooding your system with much needed oxygen and nutrients. 

#2 – A Psychological Sigh
Take a deep inhale followed by a calming sigh of relief. Do this 3 times in a row for an invigorating, yet healing sensation. As a bonus, when you do this around others, you’ll inspire their nervous systems to reset as well!