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Stress And Weight Gain

There is ONE main thing that is important for you to understand about stress and weight gain.

The main glands that affect your gaining weight when stressed are your adrenal glands.

Whether you knew it or not, your adrenals are analogous to the batter of your car. They are one of the main players that allow you to function physically.

You cannot live without your adrenals for more than 12-24 hours.

Good and bad news

The good news is that you really don’t have to worry about stress and weight gain with acute stress (short term). It is when you have been living with chronic stress that your adrenal glands begin to function differently.

Here is a simplified diagram to give you an idea of the mind/body connection that exists with chronic stress:

Perceived stressor --> brain (hypothalamus and pituitary) -->

sends message to adrenal glands --> increase heart rate and the

increased stress hormones and steroids change the way the body grows

fat.


Adrenal glands and weight gain

Cortisol is a stress hormone that gets released by the adrenal glands. When you are struggling with chronic stress , the adrenals will increase their release of cortisol.

This is not a good thing for the body.

Increased cortisol levels can create a lot of damage in your body. And, these increased levels can also mess up the hunger signals and suppress your brain's normal reward system.

This can create an abnormal sense of being hungry, and often an increased desire to eat sweets.

Increased levels of cortisol can very likely be the culprit that weakens you willpower. There might be some very good reasons why you eat more when you are stressed! Cortisol is the guilty party keeping you from a slim waistline.



In spite of how the roll of the adrenal glands change with chronic stress, we would not be able to adapt to change (stressors) in our lives without them.

The adrenal glands are one of our best friends for survival that we have. And, they are a great example of how connected the brain and the body are with stress.

stress and weight gain scale



Tips for controlling stress and weight gain

The primary stress management goal is for you to create more opportunities throughout each day is to incorporate the stress relaxation techniques that will trigger the relaxation response.

The body functions optimally when in balance. Stress takes you out-of-balance, and the relaxation response will restore balance.

With the function of your adrenal glands in mind:
  1. Try to not succumb to those hunger pangs when you are stressed.


  2. Try to get 20-30 minutes of physical activity each day to reduce cortisol levels.


  3. Do more intentional slow deep breathing from your abdomen. This will activate the relaxation response and help you to relax.


  4. Get at least 6-8 hours of sleep each night. Stress exhausts the body, and it needs time to relax and rejuvenate each night.


  5. Drink more water. Not only is it a good way to quench a hunger pang, it is an important way to flush toxins out of your body that increase with stress.


  6. Eat healthy. This is the obvious one to help you lose weight.


The relationship between gaining weight and stress is chronic stress. By becoming more involved in coping with stress will enable your adrenal glands to function more normally.

That normal functioning will help to reduce the build-up of fat in your body.







For more information, please see:

Return From Stress And Weight Gain To Stress And Health

Return From Stress And Weight Gain To Coping With Stress Home


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Stress Tip Of The Day!

Throughout each day, the primary cause of stress is because of threats of uncertainty.

It is thoughts of fear and worry that are triggering the stress response.

Staying focused on maintaining a positive attitude is an important stress technique.



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“Ms. Churchill is the unique health care worker everyone hopes to encounter, but rarely does. She has an extraordinary gift that allows her to do much more than diagnose and treat.”
Abbie K. – Minneapolis




K., age 45, is a long term chronically PTSD disabled patient. She has had daily headaches for 20 years. Two weeks ago she reported that she had had 4 days of pain free time, and was having the exceedingly odd sensation of "smiling all the time". She and Cathi have made extraordinary fast progress together.
Dr. Cole




I referred C.L., age mid-forties, to see Cathi after a life of suffering the post traumatic stress disorder of parental sexual abuse over many years of her childhood, with major dysfunctions of alcohol and drug abuse, and with the disabling symptoms of migraine that have for more than twenty years become chronic.

She has lived with daily headaches that have not responded to any of the several drugs which have benefited many such suffering patients. She has needed chronic opiate treatment of her chronic pain syndrome.

In the few weeks that Cathi has worked with her, C.L. has begun to experience days without pain, periods of happiness, and a reduction in her opiate dosage requirements that represent a breakthrough in her stalled-out life as a single mom raising a teen-age daughter with only social security income resources.
Dr. Racer








“I first met Cathi Churchill eight years ago when she effectively helped my work unit through the stress of a hospital-wide layoff. I was impressed with her clear-minded approach and willingness to listen.”
Andy R.




N., age 60, is a hard driving attorney twenty year patient of mine who hit the wall with chronic fatigue four years ago, and began to realize she had to learn to rest. She recovered enough to return to her workaholic lifestyle when she was stopped by a herniated cervical disc and resumption of her chronic colitis.

Working with Cathi, she is discovering "the way she does life" and learning to make choices about it. She came in last week, having "danced until dawn". She is learning to dialogue with her body in effective ways.
Dr. Cole




“I stumbled upon Cathi after my recent heart attack that was brought on by stress. I was scared of having another one, and didn’t know what to do. I had lost hope. Working with her has changed my life. I’m so grateful."
Debbie – Canada




M.S., a woman in her late forties with progressively more and more disabling rheumatoid arthritis since childhood, whose most recent problems have arisen over the last two to three years as complications of immunosuppressive therapy for her disease. The complications have been associated with the severely disabling chronic pain of recurrent herpes neuralgia for more than three years, and for the past 15 months, recurrent osteomyelitis in her right lower mandible.

The second, more alarming (even life-threatening) problem has caused months of diagnostic and therapy confusion among her many consultants, three successive resections of the bone over the last six to eight months, and the still ongoing threat of more relapses of the smoldering bone infection and chronic pain only made bearable by chronic, massive doses of opiates.

In the few months since M. began to work with Cathi with several modalities: stress management, therapeutic touch, guided imaging, and others, her life has become more livable, as she has become able to bear the pain and the discouragement of unresolved disease.

She has relied on many of the methods for maintaining hope and getting through overwhelming discouragement by using the inner resources she has learned with Cathi.

My hope as her primary physician, is that Cathi and M. will be able to continue to work together to maintain that inner strength and hope as she faces yet more months of pain, and further repeated surgery.

Thank you for the healing guidance you've been able to give her thus far.
Dr. Racer




“I sought out the help of Cathi during my divorce, and found her to be an insightful and compassionate coach. Her ability to see deep into the heart of an emotionally stressful problem is, I believe, unique and I would highly recommend her service to anyone.”
P.R. – Brooklyn Center




S., age 48, is a Laotian patient of mine with 15 years of chronic abdominal pain. She has had an extensive medical worked up, and nothing ever worked. Cathi saw her over several months.

S. has improved! Cathi established a trusting relationship with her, and helped her to effectively break through her wall of silence and grief about her son's mental illness, and taught her how to "change her thinking".

S. now comes in smiling, notes some unusual continued symptoms, but no longer has chronic abdominal disabling pain.
Dr. Cole




“Control My Stress is so amazing. I want to thank you, again, for such a valuable resource.”
Tony.


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