Can Stress Cause Weight Gain?

  Stress causes weight gain.

         That's a bold statement to make when there are so many people saying that it's entirely to do with nutrition and exercise. But, we have found that we get massive results from simply removing stress from our clients lives.

Example.
Lianne lost 74cm from around her waist in only 6 months by reducing the stress that she chose to indulge in. She did it without significant increases in exercise and by eating a balanced meal. Here the thing - her balanced meal was balanced when it arrived on her doorstep, but Lianne didn't like the vegetables, so she fed them to the dog!!! How balanced is that?

Stress causes your 'Fight or Flight' nervous system to go on high alert. When it does so (and you might recognize a few of these symptoms) your eyes pop out, your palms gets sweaty, your heart starts racing, your blood pressure increases and your muscles fill with blood so that you can fight or run away. Also your digestive system shuts down, because your body knows that fighting or running away during these stressed periods is a greater priority than breaking down food.

Q: So what happens to the food in your guts when you're stressed?

A: Nothing. It sits there stagnant in your guts while the parasites and bugs go to town on it.

So if you indulge in regular stress, you may wonder why you're frequently sick and/or overweight.

1. You've got more parasites in your system that cause sickness disease than your body knows what to do with.
2. These same bugs prevent the good bugs from breaking down any food that you eat.
3. Your digestive system is in standby mode anyway, so it couldn't absorb any digested food even if it was there.

IF YOU ARE STRESSED YOU ARE MALNOURISHED

If your body feels hungry, it will ask for "more food please" - you overeat, and your body goes into 'starvation mode' - it scavenges any nutrient it can and sends it straight to the fat cells (that way, there will be plenty in storage for later on).

Eating less doesn't help either, cos your body still ain't getting fed.

Solution: To lose weight, get more energy and get healthier - Lose the Stress

I realise that saying 'lose the stress' is easier said than done. It took me 32 years to figure that out.

Sometimes there is a little more to the stress than meets the eye:

• Is it work or you that is stressing yourself out?
• Is your environment causing you stress? It may be as simple as changing your cleaning products
• Is the 'food' you eat causing your body stress? Make sure to eat so that your body feels best.

The most effective way is to face it is head on - sometimes you might need some help to face those demons. For those of you who are willing to attempt it on your own, read on.

Is your brain still running on high alert?

Have you meditated before? How do you meditate?

Your brain is capable of running at various different frequencies depending on what you are doing.

• Beta - alert/working (15-40 cycles/ second)
• Alpha - relaxed/reflecting (9-14 cycles/ second)
• Theta - drowsy/ daydreaming (5-8 cycles/ second)
• Delta - Sleep/ dreaming (1.5-4 cycles/ second)

Generally, the slower your brain waves, the more relaxed you are.

The goal of meditation is simply to slow your brain waves down so that an otherwise overactive mind can take time to recover

I've heard people say they have never meditated before. For many people it is simply that they haven't been aware that they have been. If you have ever gotten home after a long drive down the freeway and wondered how on earth you got there - then you have experienced a form of meditation. (It's probably not the safest place to meditate). Often simple repetitive tasks where you don't need to consciously think can lead to a meditative state. For example walking, gardening, swimming or even just breathing!

You may also choose to engage in more "traditional" methods of meditation. These are as varied as Elton John's sunglasses - it is entirely up to you to find the meditation to best suit you. I find that different meditations have different effects on the way my body functions. I also find that combining bits and bobs from different meditations can enhance an individual meditation.

I will briefly run through several meditations. I strongly encourage that you experiment with each and find the one(s) that work for you.

Exercise: Meditate

Over the next week, Allocate at least 10 minutes every day, (preferably 30 minutes). Remember that the more relaxed your brain is, the more focus and productivity you can gain.

Play with each of the following parts of meditations, some may work better/differently than others for you. Remember that the end goal is simply to take your mind off the stresses of daily life.

Most of these can be done lying down (not sleeping), sitting comfortably or standing.

Breathing - simply breathe into your belly. If your mind is over active, focus on counting your breath (backwards from 100 if you like).

Imagery - imagine a place where you are completely relaxed. It may be a beach, on a cloud, or in the bush somewhere - whatever it is for you. See the image, hear the sounds, and feel the feelings from where you are.

Relax - make sure the following areas are relaxed: your eyes, eyebrows, forehead, temples, ears, cheeks, jaw, lips, mouth, scalp, neck, shoulders, chest, fronts of arms, backs of arms, forearms, hands, fingers, upper back, lower back, abdominals, bum, fronts of legs, back of legs, calves, feet and toes.

Feel - there is a natural flow of chi (warmth, tingling, energy - however you feel it) through your body. Simply feel the flow of energy through your body.

If you really want to "feel it"...

Add this to your meditation - Standing Meditation

Stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart and knees bent slightly. Hold your hands in front of you like you're holding a basketball. Some people find that 5 minutes of this is enough. Others prefer up to 2 hours (but work up to this long). I recommend about 30 minutes. Expect your legs to shake, and your body temperature to rise.

*** take care if you have any knee problems ***

Keri Norley is an international coach who has helped hundreds of people to reach their ideal body.

With her husband, Hugh, their business http://www.targetedfatloss.com.au can help you with individualized plans and coaching to help you get rid of fat in those hard to lose areas that don't budge with common weight loss practices.

If you want to get rid of flabby arms, thunder thighs, love handles, fat belly, man boobs or a double chin, contact them today at info@targetedfatloss.com.au.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Keri_Norley

You Can Eat Chocolate and Have Weight Loss Success

         Yes, chocolate can have a place in your weight loss plan...you can indeed eat chocolate and have weight loss success. No food should be off-limits completely in a healthy life for most people.

When we think about losing weight, or going on a diet, we tend to think we cannot have our favorite foods. These foods then become "forbidden fruit"...although rarely are fruits in question. I do not believe any foods should be forbidden. First of all, that is just no fun. More than that though, by placing certain foods off-limits it actually increases the emotional pull they have...it can lead to feeling deprived which then tends to prompt us to binge.

To really succeed at losing weight we don't want to be in that cycle of craving foods, using will power to not eat them and then finally succumbing in a binge. We want to be in a healthy cycle where we feel good about ourselves and the progress we are making towards achieving our ideal health goals.

So incorporating some of your favorite foods, in small portions can actually help you lose weight in the long run-including chocolate!

Now--don't let that lead you to believe you can just eat bon-bons all day long! Nor does it mean that we should eat large quantities of the "healthy chocolate" that you see advertised.

It is important that we change our thinking--not just what we eat. Focusing just on the food we eat will always backfire! A lot of people will suggest you substitute a low calorie or low fat version of whatever your favorite food is.

The biggest problem with substituting foods is that you aren't changing your thought process or behavior-the things that allowed you to gain weight in the first place! If you swap eating a dozen chocolate chip cookies for low-cal cookies you are engaging in the same behavior and will not have weight loss success...the low-cal version won't always be available or someday it won't be enough!

I contend that even if what you swap for is carrot sticks you are still not changing the thinking. Because if you still stuff yourself, at some point you will decide the carrot sticks just aren't cutting it and look out baby--then a super-binge is on the way!

When we change our thinking about food and our bodies and begin to really love ourselves we want to truly take care of these wonderful bodies we have. One of the ways we take care of them is to fuel them properly rather than stuffing them with food because something is "eating us" emotionally! Instead we learn other ways to deal with issues and no longer feel the need to self-medicate with food.

But fueling properly doesn't mean you never get to have a treat...and chocolate is a great treat AND can actually have some health benefits. Be sure to eat dark chocolate for maximum heart benefits. And take small pieces--you only need 1/4 oz to achieve the benefits--that means a standard size chocolate bar will pretty much last you a week. Savor the chocolate and enjoy using chocolate as part of your recipe for weight loss success.

You can lose weight successfully, safely and permanently by first changing your mindset. After spending decades dieting only to gain it all back, Laurie Tossy discovered that the real secret to weight loss success is not what goes in your mouth...it is what is going on in your head. Join Laurie at http://RefuseToDiet.com/ as she inspires and encourages others on their road to health, sharing weight loss tips and stories from her personal experience of dropping 125 pounds without dieting. Laurie's book "Refuse to Diet" is due out in the fall of 2009. Click this link to claim a copy of Laurie's free report "Seven Secrets to Weight Loss Without Dieting."

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurie_Tossy

Weight Loss Motivation Ideas

             One of the first things you should do when deciding to lose weight is to decide what will keep you motivated when you hit plateaus or you come across really hard temptations. These things could include shopping sprees, small goals and small rewards, accountability to others(you don't want others to know that you slipped up or gave up), or even getting paid for losing weight.

I know it seems impossible to get paid to lose weight but there are ways to do so and it seems to be a proven strategy for keeping people motivated to reach their goals.

So, how do you lose weight and get paid for it? Well, there are a few ways:

1. Pay yourself, you can start a collection jar and for every pound you lose, save $5 or so (depending on how much you have to lose). While it isn't actually getting paid, once you reach your goals and get to open that jar, it can be really exciting and you feel like you have been paid for losing weight.

2. Bet on yourself. You can bet other people that you will lose the weight. Set a goal weight, and work your butt off (literally). Once you reach your goal, the others pay up.

3. The next thing that you can do is to join a weight loss challenge. These are very common and you can find them locally and even online. Most of them offer a cash reward for the person or group of people who lose the most amount of weight within a set period of time. That is really exciting and can be a great motivation to work as hard as possible because you never know how hard the other person or people are working to get the prize. The only draw back is the fact that the prize money is not guaranteed.

But, there is another way to join a weight loss challenge and have a guarantee that you will get paid for it if you lose weight within a certain amount of time.

There are several places and companies that will pay you once you reach a certain amount of weight loss or even once you get your BMI down to a healthy weight. Be careful though, there are quite a few places that claim to pay you but have a lot of fine print in their rules which often times means that you will not ever get paid.

ShakeUpTheDay.com has partnered with HealthyWage.com to do just that, let you get paid for losing weight. If you lose just 10% of your body weight over a 6 month period, you win $200. You literally get paid to lose weight. For more information and to get started on how to get paid to lose weight visit http://ShakeUpTheDay.com.

Cami Lopez is a wife, business developer, writer and Herbalife independent distributor. She helps hundreds of people get the healthy body they desire. She also helps people get started and become successful in home business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cami_Raye_Lopez