At a doctor’s appointment in my early 20s, I asked what a healthy weight goal would be because I was once again in the midst of trying to lose weight. The doctor said, “Anywhere is better than where you are right now.” I remember it so vividly because it angered me, yet simultaneously validated my desire to be smaller. I weighed 175-180ish pounds at the time and was a size 12/14. He added, “You could get to 140. You’d be pretty thin.” At 5’10”, I had weighed anywhere from 160 to 190 since my teens…140 wasn’t a weight I had seen in many years. I don't think that doctor had my health in mind when he mentioned that number.
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Stress can be a good thing; it gives you that kick in the butt to perform well. Too much stress on the other hand will result in physical and mental manifestations. The on-going, negative, daily stresses that build up over time can have massive impacts on your quality of life. Unrealistic deadlines, “not your favorite” co-workers, traffic, arguments with a loved one, aging parents, childcare, illnesses or injuries, unexpected repairs, insomnia, watching the news = STRESS! Just reading that list made me feel it! We all have variable doses of stress throughout our lives and when it's not well-managed, it adds up. If we look at women with very similar situations and sources of stress, we’d still find differences in perceived stress levels and how each is affected by them.
How do you address your stress? Do you open a bottle of wine, grab some pizza, and complain to a friend? I’m not gonna lie, that sounds ideal when you're dealing with an unexpected rough patch. However, for ongoing day-to-day stress that is affecting your life, you've got to have some other strategies. Several forms of coping, such as reliance on alcohol, will eventually make you feel worse. And it matters because chronic stress can have a significant impact on your health and well-being. Chronic stress has been shown to have numerous effects on the body. Immune function, cardiovascular health, and gastrointestinal processes can be negatively impacted. Stress influences hormones which influence metabolism and appetite, leading to changes in weight and energy levels. Hormones also affect recovery rates from illness or injury, ability to sleep, mood, and more. Chronic stress can impact relationships at home and at work. According to the American Psychological Association Stress Survey in 2014, 48% of those polled said stress had a negative impact on their personal and professional lives. Social support increases chances of succeeding in exercise and healthful eating efforts. It follows that if relationships are strained, it will be harder to find dependable social support. When under chronic stress that is continually pushed down or ignored, it will likely manifest in changes to your health, energy, mood, and/or relationships. That's kind of a big deal! If you are working on improving dietary and exercise habits but you don’t address chronic stress, you aren’t likely to get very far. Even if exercise itself helps; addressing stress is an essential part of a comprehensive fitness plan. Information on eating well and exercise has never been more complicated, convoluted, and overwhelming. But I have some great news! If you are asking, “where do I start?”, you have decided that what you are currently doing isn’t working for you anymore. Technically, one could argue that you have already started.
Questions I've heard more than once: How do I shrink my belly? How do I get rid of arm “flab”? How do I get six pack abs? How do I get toned? How do I get smaller legs? These questions are similar and quite familiar to personal trainers. Of course the answer is: it depends! Many factors will come into it AND honestly, sometimes the answer is...You don’t! You focus on other things instead. For the most part, you likely have a pretty good idea of what you need to do and may have attempted and even achieved your desired results previously …but it’s not that simple, right? I’m not gonna lay out a weight loss or six pack abs plan for you here. But I will present a few important areas of consideration. Before you lift a weight, break a sweat, or modify your caloric intake in an effort to change a specific body part, consider the following questions.
Why do you want to change that particular body part? In order to sustain the effort needed to make these types of changes, it’s important to have a strong and defined why. Sometimes when we delve into the desire for change, we discover it is based on a previous negative experience, comparing our bodies to others or the bodies of our youth, or something deeper like improved health, self-confidence, strength or endurance. You may find that your desire isn't so much the arms or stomach or legs, it's what they represent to you. Body image issues and negative focus on specific body parts is pretty much a universally-shared experience among women. It’s okay to seek change or "improvement" but at the same time it is necessary to practice self-acceptance, self-compassion, and the realization that perfect bodies, especially as seen on Instagram, don't exist. |
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