April is Stress Awareness Month. Take a moment to think how stressed you have been since the start of this year and what you are actually stressed about? What have you done to cope with your stress or eliminate it all together? According to a survey on National Post, of 2,026 Canadians, 67% rate their daily stress as moderate or higher, with 38% of that group experiencing high levels of daily stress.
Stress can be related to good or bad things around you. Perhaps, you are stressed about your work or stressed about your wedding or stressed about your children, our bodies react the same way no matter what kind of stress it is. Believe it or not, stress is actually a good thing for you! It is how we respond to stress that can negatively impact your life.
According to Best Weight by Dr. Yoni Freedhoff and Dr. Arya M. Sharma, stress has both the “psychological and physiological impact on weight management as its affects eating and exercising behaviours.” Physiologically, stress increases serum cortisol, which in turn affects the individual’s appetite. Eating can be an appropriate response to stress as it decreases serum cortisol levels. Psychologically, stressed individuals may find themselves distracted and not able to focus on their weight loss plan.
Stay tuned to next week’s post to find out the symptoms of stress and how you can manage it.