I'm sure you've heard of the fight-or-flight response, and you probably know that it's the way your body reacts to danger, fear or stress. But do you know what the fight-or-flight response is? Well, it has to do with hormones. When you are faced with danger or fear, your adrenal glands release three hormones: norepinephrine, epinephrine (aka adrenaline), and cortisol. Norepinenephrine and epinephrine cause several changes inside your body to help "survive" during this time, including an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and a decrease in insulin so you have blood sugar available for energy and a decline of your appetite. After the danger, fear or stress is gone, cortisol tells the body to stop producing norepinephrine and epinephrine and then your appetite returns.
This is the way your body deals with short-term survival situations. But your body deals with ALL stressors this way. Deadlines, kids fighting, laundry piling up, late for work, argument with your mate, busy traffic, forgot to pay a bill, and the list goes on and on. The problem is when stress is constantly present, your body can't get rid of the excess cortisol built up in the blood.
Then it turns into fat cells! WHAT?!
Stress can make me fat? Excess stress turns into excess cortisol which turns into fat cells and increases your cravings for high-fat and high-carb foods! So the term "stress eating" is not just a statement, it's a scientific fact. When you give into these cravings, your body releases "happy" chemicals to your brain that encourage you to start an addiction to that food, it becomes a coping mechanism that your body will want to fall into the pattern of doing.
It creates an addictive behavior- you stress, you eat.
If you don't control this pattern, you can become psychologically and physically dependent on that way to manage stress. You can help keep cortisol from turning into the bad guy by avoiding simple carbs, processed foods, refined grains and an excess of 200mg of coffee a day. Get plenty of protein and drink plenty of water throughout the day. It is critical that you find other stress- relief techniques that keep you from grabbing the nearest donut or chocolate chip cookie. If you can keep your stress down, you will lower your cortisol levels and doing so will help you keep the extra pounds away!
Maybe I should have mentioned this BEFORE the holidays??? Oops :)
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