Stress Even Makes Hamsters Fat
When researchers stressed hamsters by putting them in the home cages of larger hamsters, the “intruders” ate significantly more, and gained significantly more weight and more fat, including the belly fat associated with diabetes, cancer and other serious disorders. "Intruder" hamsters became stress overeaters when placed in the foreign cage as few as four times, for a total of 28 minutes. Bottom line: From mice to men, we’re hardwired to self destruct under chronic Toxic Stress. A2 is always the solution.
Tired of your Toxic Stress and living off the stress-fat connection? Here’s one of my favorite sayings to get you on the right track:
"For fast-acting relief, try slowing down." --Lily Tomlin
Watch Out for Stress-Free Expectations
When people come to me, countless thousands over the years, and say, “Dr. Peeke, I’m just absolutely going to make it work this time, because this is a time of low stress in my life and I don’t expect any major stresses,” I’m scared. Because if you’re planning on being Fit to Live to survive, enjoy and challenge yourself, then you’re planning on living a long time. If that’s true, anything can and will happen.
When I wrote "Fight Fat After Forty:The Stress-Fat Connection," I noted in my discussions on stress overeating, that “the greatest stresses of life come from unmet expectations.” Over the years, I discovered that one of the greatest stumbling blocks for people as they try to adopt a healthy lifestyle is that they keep expecting things: everything from a stress-free life, to monumental changes once they cut the fat and look better. The better way to look at this is to teach people to accept and embrace every event in their lives. Then to A2 through the challenge and come out wiser, smarter, and hopefully healthier.
So many people get stressed out because they expect things in their world to be stress free. Then they are shocked when things are hard and proceed to self destruct. The deal that didn’t come through, the project that has deadline pressure, the husband who becomes depressed. Each bump of life is absolutely shocking. If this is true for you, first ask yourself if the event was truly unexpected: you married a guy with depression in his family and he was already hospitalized twice for it. When it happens again, why the surprise?
The phone is going to ring. Who knows what it’s going to be? Did you win the lottery? Or are you going to find out that your son fell down and broke an elbow? No matter what happens, can you A2 and make it work? One thing that helps is to add a dash of wit and humor. Can you say to yourself, “I’m really going to laugh about this at some point.” Or “This is going to make one heck of a story!” Then take a deep cleansing breath and live through the problem as best you can.
For instance, you’re late for an appointment and you’re a POT-- Prisoner Of Traffic. You now have a choice. You can sit there, whining and beating on the steering wheel, or yelling at other POTs and folks on your cell phone. That’s a high ticket item option and costs a lot of Body Dollars -- you’re cooking your brain cells and frying your immune system. Plus your stress hormone system is in overdrive, cranking out more cortisol that is going to make you fatter and less able to sleep.
Or you can do A2 by simply saying, “You want to know something? I’m going to do the best I can.” Then you make one quick phone call to the people you’re supposed to meet with and, regardless of how uptight they are with you, say, “You know, it is what it is. I’m stuck in traffic. I’ll be there when I can.” Then you stick in a special music CD or maybe get out that book on tape you’ve wanted to listen to. Or call a friend you’ve been meaning to catch up with. By choosing the second option, you’ve put out a little effort, because obviously there was a little sweat. But the price has been pretty low. You’ve cruising in the cool lane and you’re well on your way to better stress management--- and lifelong wellness!
