Stress is part of life. And we certainly need it to be more resilient and to grow.
But what happens in the body, especially in your brain (Autonomic Nervous System), when you face a stressful event?
First and foremost, it doesn’t matter if the stress comes as a real or a perceived threat. Your Subconscious Mind via your Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) deals with it according to your beliefs and past experiences. If it perceives, that it is going to harm you in any ways, it will consider it as danger ⚠️.
It can be anything from your boss is yelling at you, a job you hate, too much junk food, too little food, lack of water, too much caffeine, a small child that doesn’t leave you sleep at night, too much time inside in wireless electromagnetic fields, not proper posture and breathing mechanics, too much exercise etc.
That will immediately activate the Sympathetic branch of the ANS, which sends the signals to your adrenal glands, to elevate your stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline) and activate the fight or flight mode in the body.
Remember, it’s main goal is to protect you and keep you alive!
Your ANS is going to increase your heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate, metabolism, blood sugar from your liver to fuel your muscles.
It shuts down your digestion, immune, sexual and reproductive systems. Because if you have to run away or fight a potential threat, all these things can wait.
If you don’t have anything physical to do with your stress response as I have described (run away or fight), your insulin levels are going to be elevated if the blood sugar and triglycerides are not used in the stress (fight or flight) response. This will decrease your ability to metabolize fat and increase the accumulation of it.
Chronic Stress Response
If it gets chronic, the muscles become insulin resistant, and the fat grows around the belly (belly fat).
The hip to waist ratio indicates the level of insulin resistance. The bigger the ratio is, the bigger the level of insulin resistance is. This usually leads to fatigue all the time, so the use of stimulants (caffeine, sugar and so on) are increased, which leads to poor sleep quality. It creates frustration and binge eating.
Poor self-management and not being aware of this cycle leads to yo-yo dieting, which creates even more stress in the body.
This cycle unfortunately is pretty common in our current society.
How to change it?
It is difficult to change this, unless you are aware of it! That’s the first step. Be honest with yourself. Accept where you are, don’t fight it! Explore the possibilities and take action!
Ask for help, give trust to people. You are not alone.
Go outside. Do breathing exercises. Eat quality food. Drink clean water. Sleep enough for your needs. Do something that you love more often. Laugh. Hug someone. Move gently. Massage yourself. What else?