Fitness Article
7 Ways & Reasons To Zap Stress Before Stress Zaps You!
By Dr. Frank B. Smoot, MA, DD www.CoachFrankSmoot.com
What does stress have to do with fitness, fat loss, or health in general?
Why would you want to zap stress? Could it really zap you?
If you don't already know the answers to all of these questions, you will in a minute.
Let me start by making it clear that the kind of stress we're talking about here is psychological in nature. We're not talking about the body/physical stress that comes from picking up something that's way too heavy, being slammed with the flu, or getting your foot run over by a truck.
We're talking about the kind of stress that you "feel" in your life -- the kind that most of us are living with every day of our lives. We're talking about the kind of stress that people talk about when they say, "Man, I am totally stressed out!" or "Wow, what a stressful job interview / presentation / performance review that was!"
But what can you do about stress? Isn't life just going to be stressful sometimes -- and really, really stressful other times -- no matter what we do?
The answer to that question may surprise you…in a good way!
1. First, Understand That Stress Is A Self-Inflicted Condition. Yes, believe it or not, any and all stress of the psychological kind is self-created (and thus, self-inflicted).How can this possibly be true? What person in their right mind would create / inflict stress upon themselves?
Ah, there's the catch. Nobody in his "right" mind would inflict stress upon themselves.
But you see, it's a largely (or entirely) unconscious process. It's something we learned to do. Creating stress is, in fact, something we have been programmed to do in certain situations and under certain conditions.
While the specific details of our individual "OK, this is stressful" recipe varies from person to person, the mechanism is always the same. At some point in your life, you developed your own, unique, stress-creation equation, and whenever all the "right" ingredients are present, voila!, you create stress -- automatically, unconsciously, and predictably.
2. Be Aware That There's Good Stress And Bad Stress. As pioneering stress researcher Hans Selye pointed out decades ago, not all stress is negative. He used the term "eu-stress" (as in "euphonia." or "The Eurhythmics.") to describe the healthy stuff.
How can stress be healthy? It's healthy when it inspires you and motivates you to accomplish good things, to reach your goals, or just to get out of bed in the morning. Eu-stress is created when you understanding the difference between where you are and where you want to be, and then have a healthy (not frenetic) desire to get there.
Eu-stress is created when you understand that you don't have to make yourself crazy, beat yourself to death, slay the dragon, keep up with the Joneses, be the first one on your block, or "knock 'em dead" to get what you want in life.
A life with zero stress would be boring and unhealthy. But a life high in negative stress is even more unhealthy. So you need to understand how, when, and why YOU create stress, and become the conscious source of the stress in your life -- and not the unconscious victim of it.
3. Understand That Negative Stress Impairs All Healthy Body Functions. In fact, negative stress can literally kill you. Psychological stress can lead to so much physical stress that some essential body function can shut down entirely -- most often, your heart.
Or if excess stress doesn't kill you outright, it can make you wish you were dead, or make you one of the "living" dead. (Maybe you have already met a few of them? Maybe you are becoming one of them.
High levels of negative stress causes hypertension (elevated blood pressure) due to increased pulse rate, constricted blood vessels, or both. It also causes diminished coping ability resulting from low energy and fatigue, due to the constant drain on you resources.
Negative stress also leads to poor digestion and poor nutrient assimilation, again, a negative consequence of reduced circulatory function. This can lead to constipation and, over time, to colitis, diverticulitis, and some really serious colon problems.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
4. Know That Stress Can Lead To Being Overweight In At Least 3 Ways. Negative stress has been clinically proven to caused increased production of the hormone cortisol. Elevated cortisol levels lead directly to increased body fat.
Stress also leads to "compensatory" eating. What's that? It's when you turn to food, not out of real physical hunger, but out of a psychological craving. It's when food is used as a pacifier instead of a nutrient source, as an "escape" rather than a source of sustenance.
And, as we saw above, stress leads to impaired digestive function. That leads to poor digestion and poor assimilation, which can (and does) cause us to eat more than we need AND retain it longer in our bodies. Result? Excess weight.
5. Remember That You Always Have Options Other Than Creating Negative Stress
You really do have a choice. You see, it's not an event itself that creates stress in our lives. It's our perception of that event, what we tell ourselves it means to us. All events are "neutral." It's only our personal interpretation that gives them meaning - to us.
And what underlies our personal interpretation? Our own unique set of beliefs and attitudes. More accurately, it's our "personal programming" that really does the interpreting, which means that it's almost never a conscious process.
In the end, it's our unique personal programming (most of which is operation on an unconscious level) that really determines the amount and kind of stress in our lives. And that personal programming really does differ a great deal from one person to the next. For example, one person may see a car crash as exciting, while another sees it as tragic.
Who is right? Neither. Or both. Take your pick. After all, it really is up to you!
6. Understand That Some Stress Is Normal, Inevitable, And Even Desirable. There is really no way to live a totally stress-free life, and we wouldn't want to anyway. So the key to successful living is to learn to manage (i.e., reduce) your stress, and to keep an optimal balance between negative stress and eu-stress (i.e., enough of the latter, not so much of the former).
There are lots of books, takes, CDs, etc. available to help you learn about and manage the stress in your life. But the ultimate secret of stress management is in understanding that stress is "optional." That is, you can truly opt to create it or not under any given set of circumstances.
7. Best Strategy: Lighten Up! Nobody Gets Out Of Here Alive. Worry is probably the single source of stress in contemporary life. But you really are in charge of what goes on between your ears. So simply refuse to worry.
Worrying is a lose-lose-lose scenario. It makes you feel bad in the present, it drains your energy and thereby reduces your coping resources -- just when you may need them the most. And it causes you to make decisions based primary in fear rather than on a rational, healthy, relaxed assessment of your situation.
Don't take it all so bloody seriously! Simply refuse to participate in the American Nightmare. Let the American Dream be enough. Don't join the "get mine before you get yours / king of the hill / claw my way to the top crowd. That's just one big race to the grave -- the fast lane to the tombstone!
What good is a life filled with "stuff" is you're too busy or stressed to enjoy it? What good is a huge bank account if you drop dead before you can spend it? What good is a 10,000-square-foot house if you're always slaving away at the office?
I think you get the idea.
So relax. That's an option, too!
Peace be with you,
"Dr. Frank" |
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A: To answer your first question, if you plan on taking a digestive enzyme, it would be dependent on what foods were causing you problems. There are different enzymes (that the body makes naturally) that work on specific nutrients. For example, many people find that after consuming milk products they have gas and bloating. Most often this is due to lactose intolerance, the body does not make a sufficient amount of lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose (milk sugar)). In this case, a person can consume milk products with lactase added to the item or take lactase pills prior to a meal. 
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