Stress Management
Key Points
- Stress has been linked to obesity and other health problems, so it's important to manage stress in a healthy and productive way.
- There are many causes of stress - identifying the causes of your stress is often the first step in minimising and dealing with it.
- Many strategies for dealing with stress will actually help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Topics
1. What is stress?
2. Common stress responses
3. Dealing with stress
4. Problem Solving Skills
Introduction
For any weight loss program to be successful in the long term, you will need to establish and maintain a range of new, healthy habits for life. Some of these healthy habits relate specifically to having a healthy mind, which includes the ability to deal with stress. There is a strong relationship between stress, obesity and ill health. Unfortunately, common stress responses can work against your healthy weight strategies.
This module outlines ways to deal with stress in a healthy and productive way that will support your weight loss program.
1. What is stress?
Stress is a normal part of our lives - it is your body's way of responding to a demanding situation. It is often described as the feeling of being overloaded, tense and worried. We all experience stress at times. It can sometimes help to motivate us to finish a task or perform well. However, stress can also be harmful if we become over stressed and our response to stress interferes with a healthy, productive lifestyle.
Identifying the causes of your stress is often the first step in dealing with it. There are many causes, such as:
Survival stress - this may be a response to a dangerous situation, eg: an approaching bushfire or an intruder in your home.
Internal stress - this stress is caused by your thoughts about a situation, and these thoughts themselves can make you feel stressed. This often happens when we worry about things beyond our control, or the possibility of bad things happening. What is stressful for one person may not actually be considered stressful by another.
Environmental stress - is a response to things around you such as loud noise, time constraints or pressure from colleagues at work or family members.
Fatigue and overwork - this stress builds up over a long time and can cause significant health problems. It can result from not managing your time efficiently and not taking time out to relax and rest.
Stress can be acute, which is a brief stress response due to a specific demand such as a deadline, performance or argument. Short, sharp reactions to acute stressors that are quickly resolved and forgotten about wilt not cause permanent harm because your body is well designed to cope with this type of situation.
However, there may be episodic acute stress, where acute stress is experienced over and over, such as someone who is always in a rush, or is constantly in arguments with family members.
Stress may also be chronic, due to ongoing demands and pressures with no end in sight, such as an extremely demanding job or financial stress. These types of stress can be very detrimental to your health and happiness.
2. Common stress responses
When you face a stressful event, your body releases hormones called adrenalin and cortisol. These hormones give your body increased strength and energy to get through the stressful situation. Our heart rate increases, our breathing becomes more rapid, our blood pressure goes up and our muscle tension increases. This is often referred to as the "fight or flight" response.
This response may be helpful in some situations, such as when dealing with survival stress, where you either need to fight off a danger or run away from it. However, if the stress is emotional, there is no outlet for this response, so the body deals with it in various other ways.
Unfortunately, many people's stress response is unhealthy and unproductive. These coping strategies may feel like you have temporarily reduced stress, but they cause more damage in the long term.
They include:
• over eating or skipping meals
• withdrawing from family and friends
• watching television or playing computer games for hours
• staying in bed and over sleeping
• being forgetful and unfocused
• procrastinating and filling up your day to avoid facing issues
• taking stress out on others (verbal or physical outbursts)
• smoking, drinking or using other drugs to relax
Unhealthy symptoms of stress can include:
• susceptibility to common infection
• headaches and other aches and pains
• upset stomach, indigestion
• decreasing self esteem, lack of confidence
• anger, irritability, depression, anxiety and fatigue
• insomnia
• feeling overwhelmed and out of control
• high blood pressure, heart disease
Stress can contribute to weight gain in the following ways:
• Chronic stress often means we are too busy to prepare healthy meals, and opt for processed, fast foods instead.
• People experiencing chronic stress tend to crave more fatty, salty and sugary foods. In addition, excess nervous energy can often cause you to eat more than you normally would, leading to weight gain.
• Prolonged stress can alter blood sugar levels, causing mood swings and fatigue and long term health problems.
• Stress hormones influence where we store our fat. High levels of stress are linked to increased abdominal fat, which is linked to greater health risks than fat stored elsewhere in the body.
• Too much cortisol can slow your metabolism, which makes it more difficult to lose weight.
• When stressed and overloaded, many people feel that they don't have time to exercise. What should be a priority is then often neglected
3. Dealing with stress
Learning how to deal with stress in healthy ways is very important. Here are some simple techniques that may help turn an unhealthy, unproductive stress response into a productive, focused one:
Steps for problem solving
- Define the problem as you see it.
- Make a list of possible solutions.
- Weigh up the pros and cons of each option.
- Choose the best and healthiest option for you and make this your goal.
- Make a plan of how to achieve your goal.
- Commence your chosen course of action.
- Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment and confidence you get from solving a problem effectively
5. Your stress management plan
By focusing on your stressors and how you usually deal with stressful situations, you can clearly identify what needs to change.
How do you usually respond to stress?
(eg: lose sleep, eat sweet foods, lose my temper)
How can you change any of your stress responses that are unhealthy behaviours?
(eg: I will go for a walk to clear my head instead of eating a handful of biscuits)
Choose a specific situation that frequently causes you stress
(eg: meeting deadlines at work)
How do you usually respond to this stress?
(eg: become unfocused and procrastinate)
What are some problem solving strategies for you to deal specifically with this situation?
(eg: I will timetable activities, and turn my phone and email off for an hour a day, in order to focus on meeting my deadlines)
How can you eliminate some of the other major stressors in your life?
(eg: I can say "no" to taking on extra tasks when I feel overloaded)