I get so many enquiries about how to reduce stress and is stress causing my excess midsection fat?

Personally I don’t believe stress is the ultimate bad guy. Intermittent periods of stress can be very beneficial, it’s the chronic stress that is the demon. Chronic stress can invite tissue breakdown and hormonal havoc.

The following is a typical example of how the stress response is operated as it’s intended survival mechanism:

• An individual is faced with a stressor

• A complex hormonal cascade ensues, and the adrenals secrete cortisol

• Cortisol prepares the body for a fight-or-flight response by flooding the body with glucose, to supply energy to escape or fight

• Cortisol narrows the arteries while the epinephrine increases heart rate, both of which force blood to pump harder and faster to help you deal with the situation at hand

• The individual addresses and resolves the situation

• Hormone levels return to normal.

However, in our ever-stressed, fast-paced lives, our bodies are pumping out cortisol almost constantly and this results in:

• increased visceral fat storage - this is the dangerous fat around our organs and often shows up as swelling around the mid-section of our bodies

• increased muscle wasting

• reduced calcium absorption - osteoporosis dangers

• increases appetite and may stimulate cravings for high-calories choices

• hindering of the release of fat from fat stores to be used for energy

• blocking progesterone conversion to testosterone = low libido

• blocking pregnenolone conversion to DHEA = flat/tired/fat & frumpy

• increased risk of insulin resistance via the ignorance of the functioning of insulin

• Accelerated Potassium loss and possible inhibition of sodium balance and thyroid health

I’m sure you can image what goes on in a cortisol-flooded, stressed-out body when food is consumed; digestion and absorption are compromised, indigestion develops and the GUT mucosal lining becomes irritated and inflamed.

The problems is, nobody wants to read or hear this as it stresses us out to know that stress is so harmful. I hear this as I was a self confessed cortisol junkie! I’ve done many things to tame this addiction to the fast paced life. I have been testing my cortisol patterns and much to my delight my new formula has been a huge success in balancing my own circadian rhythms of cortisol and its apposing hormone - melatonin.

Diet is important and I will discuss this in a further Blog. Coffee, alcohol and high GI foods are probably not your friend if you are experiencing any of the above.

Stress Harmony Blend is my new product that assists your body and buys you time to deal with the emotional and lifestyle contributions to leading a holistic and happily balanced life. My Stress Harmony Blend is a beautiful Turmeric and Adaptogen Blend that modulates cortisol and aids in lowering inflammatory responses in the body. This includes mediation of inflammation in the GUT!

There’s absolutely no reason why you cannot enjoy this delicious Turmeric Blend each and every day but personally I recommend a four week period of enjoying this elixir 2 to 3 times daily (morning and afternoon, if you can manage - morning, midday and late afternoon that’s the gold standard!).

Pick up my Blend at Crossfit Ballina and experience the joy or spicing up your world by balancing your cortisol levels.