These are notes from my weight management class.

– What is stress: is the body’s physiologic response to the demands of a stressor:
– Stressors can be Physical or emotional
– Internal or external
– Acute or chronic
– Positive or negative.
– There are two responses to stress: fight or flight. Ex: being overweight.
– Driving to work in the winter when dark
– Emotional stresses: children, family, relationships
– Internal: struggle with anxiety. Inner brain dialog.
– The most import characteristic we need to do is adapt to change.
– Acute is immediate, like when you break your arm.
– Chronic stress is long-term stress
– Stress puts bodies into alarm mode. Even when we don’t need to fight or run away.
– When we experience every day as an emergency, the stress response itself can become damaged to your major organs, mobility to fight infections, and our ability to function well and enjoy life.
– In stress: immunities are lowered and change. We get sick
– Chronic stress can affect our metabolism.
– Stress affects eating, activity levels and efforts for weight loss.
– Increased risk of heart disease/attack/stroke. High blood pressure, elevated blood cholesterol immune system dysfunction, certain cancers, depression.

During a period of stress:
– We skip meals
– Consume high-calorie/low nutrient snacks
– Increase the intake of coffee, soda, and other high caffeine drinks
– Increase the intake of alcohol
– Ingest mood-altering drugs like nicotine and painkillers.
– People use eating as self-medication.
– Often people will crave sugar when drinking a diet soda. 80% people buy a candy bar at the same time of diet soda.

During stress:
– We’re less likely to plan meals ahead of time
– More likely to eat up
– We succumb to emotional eating triggers
– We’re less like to be physically active.
– The number ONE reason to stop our weight loss goals is stress.