6 Signs You May Be Too Stressed

admin • August 24, 2021

Everyone experiences stress differently. The National Institute for Mental Health defines stress “as the body and brain’s response to demand”.


On the outside some people look like they are coping well in a stressful situation, others look like they are about to fall in a heap. Either way it’s how their body is showing up that can be an indicator of whether the demands are too high.


Below are 5 signs that our body might be telling us we need to stop and relax. 

1.) You are sick more often


You may have heard of the ‘fight or flight’ response if you are put under stress. This is the response that if you get a fright, it kicks in causing a release of the stress hormone cortisol.


Chronic day to day psychological stressors can cause this same ‘fight or ‘flight response, leading to continually elevated cortisol. The negative consequence can be seen as inflammation in the body and a lower immunity.


2.) Your sleep is disturbed


Do you struggle to go to sleep or wake during the night unable to fall back to sleep? Or maybe you wake feeling fatigued, like you haven’t slept at all. Often mental strain and stress is the cause.


This decrease in sleep quality and quantity can result in decreased energy levels and a negative impacts on body composition showing up as as increased body fat.


3.) Your headaches are frequent


Everyday irritants and pressures can cause spikes in cortisol and trigger tension / stress headaches.


These daily stressors can cause you to tense your muscles, grind your teeth or stiffen your shoulders only to make your headaches worse.


4.) You’re storing weight around your tummy


Prolonged and constant feelings of stress can affect your health in many ways, including raised blood pressure, increased blood sugar levels and elevated stress cortisol levels.


When stress levels remain high enough to continue producing cortisol for long periods of time, unhealthy and dangerous changes will begin to occur within your body.


Raised cortisol levels triggered by chronic stress have been associated with weight gain and abdominal obesity.


5.) Your stomach doesn’t feel right


The gut is loaded with nerves and bacteria that communicate with the brain in order to regulate mood and promote overall bodily health. Stressful moments can interfere with this communication, leading to pain, bloating, and other types of gastrointestinal discomfort.


Don't ignore these symptoms of possible chronic stress! 

If you are recognising some of these signs it might be time to start adopting some of the following habits:

  • Exercise regularly
  • Eat healthier 
  • Manage your time
  • Stretch 
  • Meditate

Eat Better, Feel Better, Look Better

By admin • September 3, 2021
Even with the best intentions, kicking the bad eating habits and losing the unwanted kilos can be a challenge. You may have tried the healthy heart diet, a low carb diet, paleo, keto or even a juice cleanse. At first you can see some quick results, but over time it can result in hunger, low energy and frustration. This way of eating is not addressing the reason you may have been putting on weight such as through toxicity or stress. It’s also not a balanced way of eating or teaching you lifelong healthy lifestyle rituals that are easy to stick to, so you can still enjoy the foods you love. Imagine if you could reset, reboot and rebalance your body and ‘Spring into Action’ - a little bit like a full service to your body like you’d service the car. With a combination of nutrient dense food and intermittent fasting your body can be running like a well oiled machine in no time! It’s amazing when hormones are in balance, food timing is considered and your body is given a rest from digestion to perform a process called autophagy, that the body can achieve weight wellness and gain incredibly vitality. So if you are looking for more flexibility and long term results, a diet filled with nutrient dense food and intermittent fasting may be what you’ve been missing to achieve you goals.

Stop Dieting & Throw away the Scales!

By admin • August 27, 2021
Have you spent your life yo-yo dieting? You hear about the next best thing only to be bitterly disappointed by the results or that way of eating is just not sustainable. It’s a hard way to live! Being in the nutrition and fitness industry for so long I am saddened by the fact that people are being mislead. They are not being taught the simple principles of a healthy lifestyle and the impact of the unhealthy choices. NUTRIENT TIMING Determining when to eat is just as importance as deciding what to eat for both weight loss and athletic performance. If you owned a Ferrari you’d want to put in the best fuel so it stayed in mint condition and so it performed at at its best. You’d never run it on an almost empty tank! You need to think of your body the same. Fuel to keep your body in mint condition and operate with gusto and vitality. Empty calories or simply food with little or no nutritional value mean your body is not being provided with the nutrients it needs to do its job properly, or for you to have energy to get through your day. The process is simple! Eat regularly, consume high quality nutrient dense food and don’t make your body work unnecessarily having to process high acidic, sugary foods on a daily basis. PROTEIN PACING Even if you do not exercise regularly you may still benefit from regular intake of protein every 3 - 4 hours. This strategy has been found to help in keeping you feel full longer, aid in fat loss and assist in the maintenance of lean muscle mass, which has an impact on metabolism. So alongside your carbohydrates and fat … because they are all important, consume around 20 - 40 grams of protein in every meal and around 10 grams in your mid morning and afternoon snack. There have been a number of studies completed around protein pacing and the benefits to changing body composition and energy, so it should be the foundations for everyone’s nutrition plan regardless of whether your goal is weight loss or muscle gain. DITCH THE SCALES Scales will never be your friend and can almost send you crazy! They don’t tell you when you are holding more fluid, when it’s that time of the month, if you have put on muscle or even if you just need a poo! That’s right the scales will change from day to day, that’s normal. When your body starts to lose dangerous fat and all the hard work at the gym starts to show in great lean muscle, your scales will never congratulate you and tell you are on the right track. In fact muscle can show up as an increase on the scales. Use a tape measure, photos, clothes or even a look in the mirror as a more accurate guide of whether what you are doing its working. So it’s time to Ditch the Diet and Throw away the scales! A more sustainable plan of eating to fuel rather than to starve, will have you seeing results you never thought possible.
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