Life Blog
Cutting-edge information and tips for creating health in all areas of life – wellness, nutrition, fitness, attitude, and relationships
June 27, 2024
Is Stress Affecting Your Weight? How to Manage Your Mindset for Weight Loss
Globally, health experts agree that incidences of stress and obesity are rising. In the US, recent studies show that up to 1 in 5 adults often or always feel lonely, anxious, or depressed. Similarly, obesity is growing rampant, with two-thirds of all adults in the US qualifying as such. As it happens, the fact that these two issues are on the rise at the same time is no coincidence. Health experts have found that excess weight and heightened stress levels perpetuate a toxic cycle, where one encourages the development and progression of the other. This is concerning since the World Health Organization (WHO) notes that obesity-related complications are responsible for nearly three million deaths from around the world every year. With this in mind, it’s important to understand how stress and weight are connected and how to cultivate a positive weight-loss mindset. Where weight and stress meet Although stress is primarily mental and weight is physical, they are undeniably linked, where one’s symptoms manifest in the other. To start, when the body is stressed, it causes hormonal changes. Chief among these fluctuating hormones is cortisol, which regulates the body’s fight-or-flight mode. During this period, the metabolism naturally slows. High cortisol levels also cause slower production of the hormone leptin, which controls feelings of satiety and hunger. Without enough of this, appetites can increase and lead to weight gain. Stress can also demotivate a person from pursuing weight management methods like diet and exercise. Meanwhile, eating is a self-coping method for…
Rising Above Guilt & Regret Today
Can you believe it’s Christmas next week? The year has flown by. For many people, it’s been a tough year. Let’s face it, the past two years have been challenging and given rise to feelings of guilt and regret over failed relationships, missed opportunities, or not having the chance to say “goodbye” to loved ones. What are…
Learn MoreWhy You Should Take Time To Improve Your Mind Right Now!
When you improve your mood, you improve your life. And it makes you feel much better about yourself, too! Plus, you’ll have more friends because people will be less inclined to avoid you like they do a threatening letter from the IRS. A hopeful, optimistic mood makes everything about your life better. Here are some…
Learn More10 Ways To Avoid Gaining Weight During The Holidays
Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas. No wonder people gain about a pound each year on average during the holiday season. That it’s just one pound is nothing short of a Christmas miracle. One pound. Not so bad, right? Our clothes still fit, kind of. But seven or eight years from now (and eight or nine accumulated pounds later), it…
Learn More5 Reasons To Be Grateful For Adversity
Sometimes, life just hurts. And while the holiday season fills many people with gratitude and warm fuzzies, for others, it seems to make their pain worse, and their hearts feel a little colder. If you’re someone who feels on top of the world and abundantly blessed, you don’t need to finish reading this post; enjoy…
Learn MorePart 6: Defeating Self-Doubt
To unlock your best life, you must overcome self-doubt and start believing in yourself, which requires inspired action on your part. Here are some ideas to get you started and boost your self-confidence. Identify Where Your Self-Doubt First Started Did your self-doubt begin in childhood or an unhealthy relationship? Was it triggered by something you…
Learn MorePart 5: Strategies for Overcoming Self-Doubt
Everyone wrestles with self-doubt from time to time, even “successful” people who look like they have it all together. Self-doubt isn’t the problem. Letting it control you is the issue. How much does self-doubt influence your thoughts and decisions? Does it rule your life? Consider these strategies for defeating self-doubt once and for all. Find…
Learn MorePart 4: Defeating Self-Doubt By Rising Above Your Negative Thoughts
Negative thinking fuels self-doubt. You can either let negative thoughts steal your happiness or condition yourself emotionally to manage them when they charge into your mind. Use one of these nine strategies the next time negative thoughts pop into your mind. Shift. Your. Focus – You’re going to have negative thoughts. But instead of fighting…
Learn MorePart 3: Defeating Self-Doubt, Reasons to Believe in Yourself
Regardless of whatever you’re going through, the only person who must believe in you is you. So what if every other person on the planet doesn’t believe in you? Is it essential to your happiness and success? No! Would it be nice? Yes! Defeating self-doubt begins with YOU believing in YOU! And guess what, if…
Learn MorePart 2: Defeating Self-Doubt
Self-doubt takes a real toll on your life, especially on self-esteem. Knowing the source of self-doubt makes it possible to recover from it and strengthen your self-confidence and self-worth in the process. Here are some common sources of self-doubt. Learned Behavior and Limiting Beliefs in Childhood Parents and caregivers that struggle with self-doubt often…
Learn MorePart 1: Dealing with Self-doubt
It’s easy to doubt yourself. You second guess important decisions. You wonder if you’re going in a healthy direction. You don’t know if you have what it takes to create the life you desire. On and on it goes. Occasionally doubting a decision or a choice is one thing; everyone has those moments, but living…
Learn MoreCognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has been around for a long time (80 years) and is an effective method to relieve many mental health issues. What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy? It’s a combination of cognitive and behavioral therapy treatments that Aaron Beck developed in the 1960s. It’s based on the belief that our thinking (cognition), actions…
Learn MoreHow To Become More Resilient
There’s a lot of talk about resiliency these days, but what is it? According to the dictionary, with regards to an object, it’s the ability to spring back into shape; elasticity. Regarding you and me, it’s the ability to recover quickly from tragedies and challenges; it’s mental and emotional toughness. But resiliency is more than…
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