Stress…

To many people, the word alone causes more stress.  It is one of those words that creates a feeling by just hearing it…

Bang!

Boom!

Splat!

STRESS!

Yep…  same feeling for me, how about you? 

I remember when I was a kid, a sign that I saw at my dad’s work, and I think this phrase describes the feeling of stress the best… 

“Stress, the feeling created when the mind overrides the body’s desire to choke the *breath* out of some *jerk* who desperately deserves it.” 

“Breath” and “Jerk” are my edits to keep our PG rating here at T2D Adventures. 

You get it, right?  We all, at one point or another, have felt stress.  But what is that stress doing to our bodies?  What are the long-term effects of living in a constant state of stress? 

I know that saying above is a bit tongue in cheek, but the reality of the situation is that stress is caused by a conflict.  A conflict of competing desires. 

Work Stress!

We may experience work stress.  Ok, let’s face it and be real, I don’t think there is anyone who hasn’t felt stress at work at some time.  Your boss drops something on your desk and asks to have it done for first thing in the morning, you look up at the clock and it’s 4:30, and you are supposed to get out at 5:00…  Stress!  You work in a service industry, for instance a server in a restaurant, and a veritable bus-load of people walks in to have dinner at the same time, and two of your co-workers called out sick…  Stress!

Home Stress!

Stress at home?  Sure, how about this one: The rent is due tomorrow, but payday isn’t for 5 more days, and your bank account is empty… Stress!  You’re significant other casually mentions their mother is going to come to visit next week.  You think: “Ok, I can handle that.”  Then they add she’ll be getting surgery and will need a place to stay for the next month… or so. STRESS!

You see where I’m going, we all experience stress at some point in our lives.  Stress constantly provokes the fight or flight response.  Small amounts of stress are ok.  Heck, this response came about in our early evolution days.  If we didn’t have the fight or flight response, we would likely have become something’s lunch.  It is a survival mechanism.  However, are we really in danger for our very lives at work, at home, or going to the grocery store?  For most of us, that simply isn’t the case.

The Wolf is Calling…

Let’s circle back to the whole evolutionary fight or flight response, and how the body responds to stress. 

Picture the scene, you’re out in the woods, stalking a deer with your bow and arrow that you spent days making.  You’re hungry… you’re about to take the shot, and finally, you and your family are about to eat for the first time in a couple days! 

Suddenly, there is a loud growl from behind you.  A WOLF!!! 

Fight or flight kicks in, and you RUN! 

You’re running for your life, you’re burning the last bits of energy you have…  Barely outrunning the wolf, you make it to safety to live another day. 

If you thought were hungry before, now you’re ravenous.  The stress hormones in your body went into overdrive to get you to safety, and it worked!  However, now the adrenaline rush has subsided, and your body is awash in Cortisol which makes you want to eat even more.  Cortisol is there to make sure you know you need to eat.

You’re hungry! You’re tired!  You’ve expended tons of energy to save your life running from the wolf, and you NEED to eat.  You step out of your hiding spot and your incredible luck continues!  There is a deer in range of your bow, you take the shot, and drag it home to eat with your family.  You’ve survived to live another day.

Modern Survival

Nowadays, when is the last time most of you had to outrun a wolf to survive?  When was the last time you had to hunt to get food for survival? For most of us, the answer to both of those questions is: “Umm, never…”

Food is in ready supply for most Americans.  For most, there isn’t a shortage of food, but rather an over-abundance.  There is also an over-abundance of stress.  We stress over all sorts of things on a constant basis.  We spike Cortisol all the time, which in turn spikes Insulin, which drives blood sugar down.  Low blood sugar is good, right? 

Not always…  Not when it stimulates a desire to eat sugary, carbohydrate rich foods.  In this case, low blood sugar is caused by high insulin.  High insulin causes the storage of carbohydrates as fat in the body.  Now, if we were the person who was running from the wolf for their survival, it would make sense.  We would need to replenish our fat reserves, we cut into them in the days before the hunt, while making our Bow and Arrows, and then even more when running for our life.

Stress Hormone Confusion

Your stress hormones don’t know the difference between the stress caused by running from a wolf, and the stress created by your boss dropping that project on your desk at 4:30.  The main difference between these two situations is that the modern version of you ate dinner last night, breakfast this morning, lunch at mid-day…  Oh, and you surely did NOT have to run for your life from a wolf!

Comparatively, you have expended very little energy when put up against the amount of energy expended by your ancient ancestor. Additionally, for most of us, we had quite a bit of padding to begin with.  But I repeat, your body doesn’t know a bit of difference between what happened with the wolf, and what happened with your boss.  Essentially from a hormonal perspective, they are identical.  Your hormones tell your brain to get some food because you are hungry and EAT! 

You then follow the direction your hormones give, and face it, most of us do this. 

It is then that our other hormone, our arch nemesis, “Insulin,” comes around like a bully, and forces our body to store that food.  The food that we didn’t really need to eat in the first place, is stored as good ol’ fat. 

As we have covered before, your body shoves that sugary goodness wherever it can, starting with your Liver, then your Pancreas, and other organs…  This either begins, or perpetuates, the cycle of Insulin resistance. Fast forward for a few years of doing this, and POW!   You’re obese… potentially leading to Type 2 Diabetes(T2D). 

Recipe for Disaster

What a combination… A recipe for disaster really. 

No joke, stress, literally can kill you, it will take a while, but it is toxic, it will over time wear you down and eventually lead to your demise. 

Living with constant stress can lead to some pretty unpleasant conditions:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Headaches
• High Blood Pressure
• Insomnia
• Weight Gain (duh!)

So, what can YOU do about stress? 

The obvious first suggestion is to avoid it.  However, to many, avoiding stress leads to more stress down the road.  I’m going to procrastinate working on that report due on Friday, it’s only Wednesday…  Friday rolls around, and look out, here comes the stress parade!!!  It’s not so easy to avoid stress, maybe we need to look at ways of managing stress.

Stress Management

Here are some suggestions:

1. Light Exercise: Yoga, Brisk Walking, things that get your body moving, but not too much.  Intense exercise is just like running from a wolf… again, your body won’t know the difference, will spike cortisol, putting you right back where you began.
2. Sleep: Yes!  Getting enough sleep is super important for our bodies to recover.  If you are in a state of sleep deprivation constantly, that is simply another form of stress…  Not good, so get your sleep.  Try taking a hot shower just before bed, I bet you’ll sleep like a baby. (I’ve been doing this lately, and it’s been very successful!)
3. Relaxation Techniques: Participate in activities which promote relaxation of the mind and body. Some examples here are reading, meditation, or listening to relaxing music.  No hardcore punk, or heavy metal for you!
4. Mindful Eating: Some of the worst things we do when eating is mindlessly chowing down on whatever is in front of us.  Sometimes we only have 30 minutes for lunch.  Take the first 5 to 10 minutes of your lunch break to do some deep breathing exercises and relax.  This way, when you eat, you will be more in tune with your body.  Eat slowly and stop when your stomach tells you it is full.  There was a reason we were told as kids to chew our food fully before swallowing.  This told our body that food was coming, and to get ready to accept it.  Today, far too many of us can devour a Big Mac in under a minute.  We might have been full with that, but those fries will follow along and we didn’t really need them.

Constant Stress!

Constant stress is a reality we all need to deal with.  It is a large part of why many of us are overweight or diabetic.  Stop.  Take a breath.  Take it easy.  Most of our stress is self-imposed. 

When it comes to eating, stress caused by eating is one of the absolute last things we need!  Stress eating causes more stress eating, which causes yet more stress eating.  Many have turned to various forms of diets to help us maintain our weight.  Have you really stopped to consider why most diets fail?

Because we are constantly STRESSED!

Conclusion

My theory is that the stress caused by having to conform to the rules of the diet is completely counterproductive.  Can I have this on my diet?  Can I have that?  Do I need to prepare all my food for the week? Rules!  Stress! 

When we break it all down, Stress leads to cortisol spikes which leads to wanting to eat junk food, which makes us obese, and being obese can lead to Type 2 Diabetes(T2D).  So, when we remove all the middle stuff, Stress can lead to T2D!  Ouch!

Take it easy.  Simplify your life.  De-stress!  Consider Intermittent Fasting… Generally, you only need to prepare one meal a day, and it can be, for the most part, whatever you want.  Talk about LOW STRESS!

Here’s to reduced STRESS!  If you laughed at any part of this, I hope it helped reduce your stress a little bit!

-Todd

P.S. Please check out our “About Page” and some of our other posts…

1.  Precipice
2.  1 Simple Reason
3.  Trapped in Food Prison!

And our Recommendations Page!