Reduce stress to reduce cellulite
Tip No. 5 in the Christmas Countdown is to find ways to reduce your stress levels.
Our bodies are magnificent. They’re automatically wired to respond to situations to keep us safe and free from harm. As soon as our bodies perceive a stressful situation (sometimes even before we’ve had time to process it mentally), our bodies will have primed our central nervous system (CNS) to react with a ‘fight or flight’ response.
The hypothalamus in our brains perceives a threat and sends a message to our adrenal glands to release the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. Whether the ‘threat’ is being chased by a sabre-tooth tiger or hurriedly looking for a pair of clean school socks 5 minutes after you’re supposed to have left home, our bodies will react in the same way, quickened heart rate, increased blood pressure, tightening of muscles, quickened breath and sharpened senses.
Which all sounds kinda great, except that after a few hours or even a few days in this ‘alarm’ stage, our bodies will become completely exhausted. If the stress continues, it can cause sleep problems, memory loss, reduced immunity and generally leave you feeling worn out and miserable.
Most of us know that stress can result in emotional over-eating (and/or making poor dietary choices), but there is also research to suggest that ‘stressed’ women metabolize fat and sugar differently, so they end up gaining more weight (typically around their waist) than women who ate a similar diet but reported low stress levels.
Chronic or long-term stress can not only leave you with mood swings, anxiety, weight gain and malaise, it will also show in your skin as it diminishes water, oxygen and essential vitamins. Skin will often show signs of distress like excess oil, spots and/or acne, rosacea and a dull complexion.
Some schools of thought suggest that humans are designed to deal with stress for about 5% of our day, however the reality is that most of us spend around 95% of our days feeling stressed. Whether it’s dealing with public transport, technology not being nearly quick enough, crazy schedules and bloomin missing socks, it all amounts to the same result – high cortisol levels.
So, it’s vital for us to make conscious decisions to reduce our stress levels. If we can omit the cause of stress, then that’s wonderful, but I bet those socks will stay missing for longer than I’d like, so it’s good to try techniques to help you cope a little better.
Here are a few suggestions to get you started, but really whatever helps you to ‘slow down’ and relax will do the trick.
1. Practice deep breathing techniques (Check out Wim Hof for some seriously inspirational breathing techniques)
2. Learn to meditate (e.g. you can use visualisation techniques, promise yourself 5 mins to sit quietly each day, or meditate using art or music)
3. Get out in nature. Take a walk, go for a swim, lie on the grass – getting out in nature has so many benefits that are only just now being really understood
4. Find an exercise that you love. Yoga, CrossFit, Karate, whatever, as long as it gets the heart pumping and the body moving, it’s all good
5. Meet with a friend to chat and laugh. After all, laughter is really the best medicine.
6. Have a massage. Massage will relieve stress and help with any aches and pains, so it’s a win-win. Plus an endermologie massage will make your skin look fabulous, so what’s not to love?
There are just a start. What do you find works best for you?
