StResS

Getting through life is not easy for most people.  I'm definitely part of the 'most people' clan, but even I know I don't have it as bad as many others.

I have sat and listened, watched, read and tried to assimilate what stress does to us.  My area of interest in it comes from wanting to live in the leanest healthiest body possible with the least amount of effort. We are such intricate works of machinery, all parts dependent on other parts to perform the task of being alive and run without glitches.

Nutrition.  Its so much more than what I thought it was even a year ago.  Back then, I bought into the 'eat less, exercise more' mantra that we've been preached at for 50+ years, maybe more! Take a 30 second glance around you and you know that dog don't hunt.  It never did, but so many factors like corporate food companies, doctors and industries grew like mold to make us accept it as fact. The whole Diet Industrial Complex was born.  Kind of like exploiting cancer, except no president has ever declared a war on fat. It would be bad for the economy, you know.

There are too many aspects to go into here of what goes into making our bodies create fat and make them unable to function under the conditions we put them through by eating and living the way we do.  My focus, I find, is stress.  Stress causes inflammation, the seedling of every chronic disease and breakdown of healthy cells.  Stress causes burnout of the organs, the brain and leads to all kinds of problems we were never designed to suffer.

From my embryonic understanding of stress, it is a driver of cortisol which is secreted when the body perceives stress which in turn makes the body go into survival mode, not using its stores of fat and not burning the calories consumed as they should be.
Okay, so I'm not a doctor of any sort, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.  This I do understand; Stress is my enemy.

Stress is all around us, all within us and is lurking around every corner like the grim reaper.  Stress?  Moi?  You say, "I don't have any stress!!  I don't hate my boss.  Hell, I don't even work!"  But the way you live creates your own stress on body and mind.  Sitting on the couch is stressing the body. Exercise stresses the body.  Learning a new language stresses the mind. Overeating causes stress. Starving causes stress.

Dieting = Stress.

That's why I'm no longer a dieter.  I am searching for the means to live without stressing about food or exercise.  As we age, we are even more susceptible to the effects of stress.  Yes, even after we are retired! Really, all retirement is for me is a plate of new problems heaped high.

I have taken on a Mission Impossible task. Call me 'Mr. Phelps', I have to accept this mission, because I have no choice but to look for and work to reduce stress so that all my parts work together as well as possible.  You know what, though?  There are tons of helpful sources out there with fantastic insight on how to get through daily life and manage in better ways.  I wish I could mention all the things I have found that have helped me in my own self discovery journey to better health. Probably the springboard from which I have gotten the most valuable information is from Metabolic Effect.  Please don't think I'm pushing a product or company.  This is just a place packed with smart, prudent, down to earth professional people who can make sense to me out of our endocrine system, neurology, and behavioral tendencies.Oh, and of course they explain the biochemistry of movement and exercise.

Mindfulness
Moderation 365
Menopausal plan
Adrenal Fatigue
Endocrine functions
Supplements
Digestion
Hunger, Energy, Cravings
Metabolism
Hormones

These are just some of the topics I've been educated on in the past few weeks.  I will never know it all, but continuing on, I know I can get a handle on it enough to emerge with a better understanding of why I am the way I am, think the way I think and do the things I do. I can tell you that this is waaayyy harder to figure out than just mindlessly following some 'plan' or 'diet' like I have done in the past.  There is no one size fits all, and there is no single magic formula that will take me through all the phases of my life.

I'm a student of ME now!!  Freshman class, coming up to midterms maybe.
Hey mom and dad, send money- I need to buy more Quest Bars!