Christmas Stress is making me fat!

Stress and weight gain can be directly related. 


As we head into the Christmas and Holiday season, many people find themselves under greater stress.  To the everyday stress of work, family, home, bills, life, we add the stresses of what gifts to get, how to afford them, to get the decorations up, travel to see family - sometimes multiple locations to juggle, hosting family in our homes, and worrying about fixing the perfect meal for all those guests, and then how to pay for all those gifts we charged on our credit card.

A perfect combination for hitting the wall of stress and weight gain.  No wonder Santa has so much visceral fat, with all the stress of all those children and to not get the gifts mixed up.


What does stress have to do with weight gain? There are several ways that stress can contribute. 1 has to do with cortisol, a stress hormone.

When we are under stress the fight or flight response is triggered in our bodies, leading to the release of various hormones. Whether we are stressed because of crazy amounts of stress at work or we are really in danger, our bodies respond like we are about to be harmed, we need to fight for our lives. To answer this need we experience a burst of energy, shifts in metabolism and blood flow and other changes.

If we remain in this state for a prolonged period of time due to chronic stress our health becomes at risk. Aside from a host of other dangers, chronic health stress also causes weight gain.

Take a break this Christmas season. Remember to take time for yourself, time to relax, time to look at the big picture, and time to reflect, (in 5 years will this really matter).  Pay attention to prevention, give your waistline and your health a break.

Some options to help reduce that stress and help your waistline.

• Take a walk or get some exercise
• Take 30 seconds a day to meditate
• Try a high quality B Complex supplement
• Deep breathing to relax your body (work up to a count of 20 inhale, count of 20 exhale)
• Eat a healthy diet to counteract the stresses on the body (Complete Multi-vitamin)
• Make an effort to get more sleep (try a dose of Calcium Magnesium at bedtime)
• Eat plenty of high quality protein to ensure the energy needed to keep up with Holiday schedules.

Enjoy your Christmas season, and remember...

If you've got the Drive, we've got the Vehicle.