Healthy Living

It’s back to school time, and I can feel my body tensing up. I’m in grad school, and it’s no walk in the park. I’m in classes, on committees, a teaching assistant, and the department social director. My body can feel the stress - and is already responding with weight gain. Those five pounds I lost easily as soon as school ended are creeping back on, although my workout and eating habits haven’t changed.

What gives?

Stress and cortisol levels.

I’ll spare you the physiological details, but if you want to know, read about it here.

My lay-womans take on it is that your body reacts to stressful situations, which can include anything from sitting in traffic to giving a presentation, by releasing more cortisol into the body. The result is a often feeling of energy. However, as Americans live with so much stress, our bodies release way more cortisol than we need. The result is too much energy, nervousness or a jittery feeling, followed by exhaustion, and finally, weight gain. Your body - thanks to our cave man ancestors - think that when we experience a lot of stress, we must be fighting for our lives, running from a predator, going into winter, or preparing to starve. So it releases cortisol, which helps store fat. Lots of it, especially around the abdomen. This was great when we lived on the Savannah, but not so great now.

The best thing we can do about this is to remove stress - but can you really remove your evening commute, your needy children, or your boss? Probably not.So do what you can. Breathe. Stop doing so much. Take vitamins to repair your body. Rest. Back off the coffee, and remove what stress you can.

I have the superwoman complex where I want to do it all, all the time, all the way. Backing off a little may enable me to enjoy what I do, relax, smile, be kinder to others, and keep cortisol down, thus keeping weight off.

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