Are you mindful about your stress?

A brain friendly strategy, to manage weight gain!

Spoiler alert: you can literally manage your gain weight, when you manage your stress.

I am dipping into one of my favourite books again: “Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain” by Lisa Feldman Barrett.

I am on holiday on Benguerra Island, off Mozambique and feeling 1000% healthy, fit, strong and energised. Even though I am eating three meals a day, versus two meals a day at home. I hardly drink alcohol at home, and the white rum Cocktails are going down smoothly … lunch and dinner. Plus the odd dessert or two!

I ran like a Kenyan on the beach this morning (well sort of), and now while sitting and half watching the ocean, I flipped open Lisa’s book, and landed on Page 92. I love doing this. When I have already read a book cover -to-cover … I love dipping back in, and randomly landing on a page. Mostly to remind myself of the topics that I loved, and the facts that I can’t quite remember.

Pg 92: “Two other studies, which I find remarkable as a scientist, but unnerving as a person, measured the effects of stress on eating. One study found that if you’re exposed to social stress within two hours of a meal, your body metabolizes the food in a way that adds 104 calories to the meal. If this happens daily, that’s eleven pounds gained per year! Not only that, but if you eat healthful, unsaturated fats, such as those found in nuts, within one day of being stressed, your body metabolizes these foods as if they were filled with bad fats”.

FYI : 11 pounds = 4.98kg.

A holiday without children, or grandkids with my hubbie is always 100% stress-free, so clearly the above paragraph jumped out at me.

I feel that I manage my stress living in Johannesburg pretty well…given the crime, power and water outages, high interest rates, imploding economy etc.

But do I ?

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What else could I do, that is within my control?
Weight -gain is probably the least of our worries, when it comes to the physiological effects of stress. We should worry about the effects on our brains!
Are you becoming MORE, or LESS mindful about how you self manage your STRESS?
I am keen to hear.

#selfmanagement #stressmanagement #whatsinyourcontrol #bodyandbrainawareness #BOUNCEFORWARD

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