Stress And Fat


 

I was so excited this morning, when I discovered for the second day in a row, I did not have

 

Florida

 

to do a complete bed change on Al’s bed. Yipeee!!! I was able to sit down and drink my hot coffee and linger over my emails right away, while Al ate his breakfast of Toaster Streudals. He loves those things, and his favorite is Strawberry and Cream Cheese. I so wish I could have one, but they are loaded with carbs, sugars, and fats, but for him, it is alright, since I don’t want him to keep going with his weight loss.

 

I didn’t get any smiles this morning, but I did not receive tears neither, so I was content. After breakfast, he watched his divorce court show and part of The Price is Right, and then he decided to get properly dressed, as I had a doctor’s check-up for labs that I had drawn last week.

 

When the time came to leave the house, we headed for the doctors. He was doing well enough, that I left him in the waiting room and went back to the small doctor patient room by myself.

 

I had gained two pounds, and this is so disappointing to me. When I moved here from Florida, I had lost so much weight, but I was involved with the YMCA and Al went to a daycare, and the sun was shining, and I swam most of the year. Now that I am back, my physical activity is pretty narrowed down to cleaning the house, and once a month, rearranging furniture, to get that heart beat moving, and of course, my fingers get their work out on the computer and also lifting the fork to my lips.

 

The doctor said all of my tests were good except the usual culprit, the cholesterol, which I refuse to take the medications to lower it because of my mother’s warning, and the doctor knows exactly how I feel and how important it is to me what my mother told me. He said my sugars were better than last test time, my triglycerides were wonderful, kidneys were good, in fact, all was great. So, I looked at him and asked him why am I gaining weight? Is it because I get hardly any activities in?

 

He said he didn’t think it was what foods I was or was not eating as my sugar levels were acceptable. He said there was one area that was causing me weight gain more than anything else, and I asked, what was that. His answer was something I did not care for, because I can’t seem to beat the odds in that area.

 

Do you think you know what his answer was? The dirty culprit helping me to gain weight is STRESS! Yes, stress, he explained how stress causes a hormone change and causes weight gain. He also went on to explain that at this point, he did not want me to get overly concerned, because he knew what I was dealing with at home, then he smiled. He said everything will be back to normal one day, just be patient with life.

 

Stress? I never knew that could cause weight gain. Do you think I was stressed when I came through the birth canal? Because I have seen my baby picture where I had a couple of rolls of baby fat. Do you think I was stressed when I was in elementary school, maybe kids picking on me, or teachers that didn’t like my constant chatter. Maybe I was stressed as a teenager. Experts state that teenagers have to find themselves and where they fit in with life, and I would think this would cause much stress. Maybe, I was stressed when I got married, divorced, and did stupidly repeat that process one more time. That surely causes stress.

 

I think from now on, I will not blame that ice-cream cone, or that hamburger on a white bun from McDonald’s, and I won’t even blame my weight gain on that one little pumpkin doughnut, that I popped into my mouth for breakfast. I will blame everything on being a woman with hormones, who stresses out easily.

 

Now that I know who I am and why I am who I am, I decided that Al and I needed to celebrate my good report and finding the answers to being fat. So we went to the KFC for lunch and we had that new little sandwich, the Chicken Little sandwich? Yes, they are fairly good. They come with too large of a miniature sub-bun, with mayonnaise and two pickles with one long chicken strip. They are alright, but not that great for cheating on my carbs. I should have went to Ruby Tuesdays and had a fish snack pack. Now those carbs are worth eating!

 

Then after we finished lunch, we went to our favorite little thrift store, and Al immediately scanned the aisles for coca cola, and found two tin type signs, and I bought two car air fresheners and a tiny pair of baby satin shoes to match the baby dress I had purchased there last month. They are Victorian, and you already know how crazy silly I am about Victorian era. I also found another lamp that is small with crystals hanging from it, with one single bulb socket. It is more like a night stand light. It was the right size, right price and so I claimed it.

 

We had a good time and  now we are  both home, and Al hit the bed for his nap, as his nurse is coming at 4pm.

 

 

 

30 thoughts on “Stress And Fat

  1. When we get stressed out it produces cortisol and the excess cortisol retains fat. This goes b ack to cave man days when stress equaled a shortage in the food supply–hence the body would retain fat as a survival mechanism. We no longer need this function as a species to survive but the mechanics are still there. Hence why, meditation, yoga, bubble baths and quiet time are so important, escpecailly for women who can have hormones running amock.

    🙂

    ivonne

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  2. Not an expert, but I think stress can cause all different health problems .. when I get stressed I can’t eat – but I eat the double later when I come down. When we don’t feel good .. the whole body kicks up too – we are all over the place with everything. So you have to stress less and let things come as they do .. because they will do that anyhow. We can’t change anything, so why get stressed about it .. and maybe its not even happening .. what we are so stressed and upset about. Learn to take the day as it comes .. with the bad and the good.

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  3. My diet plan lasted about 5 hours today…then the purchase of some Reeses Pieces Cookies…sabatoged me…
    I thought of Al and his Reeses Blizzard…I quite understand the liking of those peanut butter/chocolate pieces…Now I have to begin again tomorrow!…

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  4. Terry, I also think you need to sit down and have a talk about your situation – counselor – it helps. Not a shrink – just to talk about how you feel and how you see thing. They recommended that to me after my treatment and I went very reluctantly, but I’m glad I did .. it took me some meeting before I started to react. It helps .. to get things of the chest. Promise it’s a massive relief.

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    • i am so used to being so much more active, and i think this stresses me out being in the house all the time………………but i have to do something, i don’t want to be unhealthy. thanks for the great comment!!!

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  5. I’ve never heard this. I think I do comfort eat when I’m stressed and added to this it is a bad combination for me. I think you’ve clicked a lightbulb on in my head with this post – though I can’t claim it will make a huge difference to my weight, or that I’m under the level of stress you are experiencing.

    Time to get out that yoga mat ASAP!

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  6. Terry,

    Good topic for discussion! My own life experience leads me to the conclusion that stress isn’t caused by difficult life situations; stress is caused by destructive patterns of thought. There really are techniques for changing thought patterns and they basically involve taking charge of what you’re thinking and resolving to change your mind about false beliefs you have about yourself, about other people, about the world and even false beliefs you might have about God.

    It is also important to develop a meditative practice and to stay with it. Without daily meditation, I have found, I’m going to get caught up in stress. As I said, stress doesn’t result from any particular difficulty that might be going on in your life. We catch stress from each other — one person’s frenzied, impatient, mistrustful way of going through life will effect the stress level of everyone around him/her — unless you’re grounded by habits of positive belief, healthy thoughts, and feelings of joy and gratitude (by the way, I don’t think you feel joy and gratitude because you’re experiencing fortunate circumstances — you feel joy and gratitude because you’ve practiced it until you’ve got the knack for bringing joy and gratitude into every situation).

    Naturally, forgiveness is key. Receive forgiveness and rush to give it to anyone who may have caused you harm. Holding on to regret and resentment are huge stressors.

    Anyone who wants to change behaviors should consider that behaviors result from beliefs, thoughts and feelings — To change behavior, it’s best to start by changing beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

    As I grow in experience and understanding I find that my interest in distinguishing between good mental health, good physical health and good spiritual health keeps diminishing. Everything interconnects.

    Short response — your doctor is completely right.

    Smiles,

    Paul

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    • thank you so much for this comment Paul. How do I do meditation? I think I could benefit from it highly because of the situation I am in daily with my brother. I so want to thank you for stopping by and leaving me this wonderful comment. I do need help, because there is too much stress in this house. I hear about dying and death and pain usually on a daily basis.

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      • Gee, for starters you could check out my blog and decide whether I speak a language you can respond to positively.

        The person who is going to help you take control of your thinking is going to want to learn, and to help you learn, what ideas you carry about in your mind about “dying and death and pain”. Obviously, these things are part of EVERYONE’S daily experience so you can’t possibly rid yourself of them — but you can challenge the ideas you have about them.

        Let me tell you a story that will probably put you off of me forever. One day a few years ago, I was strolling through the historic and beautiful Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge MA (which happens to be a short walk right down the road from me) and I got it into my head to “ask” those folks who’d been laid to rest so many, many years ago whether they had wisdom to share with me. (Oh no!!! He’s got a screw loose!)

        The answer I got seemed to me to be a unanimous chorus of wisdom, “Don’t be afraid to die. Be afraid to pass up the chance to live.”

        All we got is right now.

        Smiles,

        Paul

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      • Oh, I don’t think I will think you have a screw loose, lol
        My problem is that I am surrounded by my brother’s talk of death, dying and pain due to his Parkinson’s Disease. He is in a lot of pain, but if I am not careful, as his sister and caregiver, I can be sucked right up into it, and I don’t want that, so it becomes stressful for me. I can see me walking the grave yard saying or thinking the same exact thing!!!!

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