Yes, I know. I’ve told you to lay off the soda, get some sleep and now I’m telling you to get rid of your stress. These, of course, are all things that we all want to do but the demands of a busy lifestyle often take precedence and we forget to take better care of ourselves and give our bodies time to relax and sleep eight hours a day. Well, my friends, it just isn’t possible to look healthy without being healthy. The fact of the matter is the biggest hurdle for most of us to lose weight is to give our bodies what they really need: good food, plenty of water, lots of sleep and no stress.
So what do you do if you want to lose weight in the real world?
Apparently, a study of more than 1,000 American adults revealed that Americans ignore healthful food choices, as well as diet and exercise guidelines. No kidding?
According to the study author, Chris McCarthy of Landis Strategy & Innovation: “One of the key findings in our report ‘Wellness in America: Lifestyles Spell Disaster’ is the relationship of stress in goal achievement or failure, especially where health and well-being is concerned. That stress, inherent in American lifestyles, leads to a resulting need for comfort, which in turn is the willpower buster.”
So we live busy, stressful lives and every once in a while we want some chocolate chip cookies to take the edge off? Yeah, who couldn’t have told us that? It boggles the mind that there are actually people out there calling themselves scientists and studying what any one of us could have told them. Life is tough so we take comfort where we can. For those of us who know we have a weight problem, our comfort is often found in food.
So what should we do to lower stress?
Here is the tricky part because it may actually cut into your sleep time. Exercise. Yes, exercise actually lowers our stress levels. It takes some effort and it takes some time, but if you can manage to take that time out of your television schedule instead of your sleep schedule, you’ll notice a significant decrease in your daily stress levels. If you want to be really effective, put an exercise machine in front of your TV and plan your workouts around a show you watch daily. Trust me, it can work!