Week 9 - Stress

Do You Know When You're Stressed?

Do You Know When You're Stressed? Many people live with day-to-day stress from a variety of sources all of the time. External sources of stress often cannot be avoided, making taking responsibility for how you manage stress a real priority for your wellbeing and for your weight loss. Sources of stress can be work related, including for example, having too much work to manage, facing redundancy and even bullying at work. Stress can also come from difficult relationships either at home or at work, financial stress, or caring responsibilities, to name but a few. Being unwell yourself can also create increased physical and emotional stress. The effects of long term stress can be so gradual and subtle that you might not even realise that you're suffering the effects of stress.

Our Top Tips to Managing Stress Related Weight Gain

Finding ways to reduce the effects of the stress you're experiencing is a priority. To help to reduce the negative effects of stress, look at taking part in activities that you find relaxing like gentle exercise, getting fresh air or chatting with friends. You might not always be able to control the stress that you have in your life but you can minimise the impact it has on your body. What helps to relieve stress varies from one person to another. It's about finding something that works for you. Options to try include; going for a walk, meditation, laughter, keeping a gratitude journal, doing mind puzzles, having a soak in a bath, or chatting to a close friend. Making sure you get enough sleep can also help to reduce the negative effects of stress (9).

Can you eat to reduce the effects of stress?

Eat a low sugar diet, one that is lower in sugary and processed foods. By doing this, you're bringing more balance to both insulin and blood sugar levels and reducing your cortisol levels (10).

Eating a diet that is high in whole foods, fruits and vegetables, herbs, spices, whole grains, good quality lean protein (animal or vegetarian), a little healthy fat and low fat dairy products is important for weight loss. For further advice we have written some eating guidelines for you to follow - Follow our core eating plan, our low carb diet guidelines or our mediterranean diet guidelines - hop back to Week 2 for a reminder.

Specific Nutrients that can play a role in aiding stress management

Magnesium - having low levels of magnesium in your body has been linked to higher levels of stress. Magnesium is known to have a calming effect and can help you get restful sleep (11). Boost magnesium rich foods in your diet. Sources of magnesium include pumpkin seeds, whole grains, dark green leafy vegetables, low-fat milk and yoghurt as well as beans and legumes such as soybeans, baked beans, lentils, and peanuts. Some nuts also contain magnesium such as almonds and cashews.

Taking magnesium as a supplement can upset your stomach. Using a topical magnesium spray or gel instead can prevent this and magnesium is thought to be absorbed well through the skin.

Vitamin C - an antioxidant which can be really useful if you're suffering from high levels of stress, because vitamin C deficiency is common in many stress related conditions (7, 12). Fresh fruits and vegetables contain good levels of Vitamin C, particularly citrus fruits (lemon, orange and grapefruit), peppers, strawberries and cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, cauliflower and cabbage).

B vitamins - eating foods high in B vitamins can be beneficial for you when you're experiencing stress, particularly chronic stress, which can deplete some B vitamin levels and so increase your need for them (13). Food sources of B vitamins include dark green leafy vegetables, chickpeas, kidney beans and nutritional yeast.

What you drink also makes a difference to how much cortisol you produce. Research has found that drinking caffeine rich drinks, such as fizzy drinks, coffee, tea and green tea can increase how much cortisol you produce if you're already experiencing emotional stress (14). We recommend that you reduce the amount of caffeine-containing drinks that you consume each day and swap to low or no-caffeine options instead. Experiment with drinking chamomile tea which has been found to have calming effects and may help alleviate anxiety (15).

Box Breathing Exercise This is a really simple evidence based tool to have in your pocket for use when you're feeling stressed, or when you need a reset. Box breathing exercises can help to create a sense of calm when you're feeling agitated or stressed (16). The great thing about this simple exercise is that you can do it anywhere once you have learnt the principles.

The box breathing technique is a simple breathing exercise using a count of 4, 4, 4 and 4. We advise setting a timer of 60 seconds at a minimum to practise box breathing. You can use the technique with your eyes open or closed, however with your eyes closed it’s easier to bring your full attention to your breath. Try it both ways and see what works best for you.

If 4 seconds feels too long for you, you can still benefit from breathing to a count of 3, 3, 3 and 3 and once this is easy for you you can extend it to 4, 4, 4 and 4. This box breathing technique has been shown to efficiently shift your nervous system from the fight or flight state to the rest, digest and heal state. It could be useful to do a few minutes of box breathing before a meeting or presentation, or any situation that you know might be difficult. It’s also useful to use after a stressful experience to calm yourself down and shift your body out of the fight or flight state and back into the rest, digest and heal state. Use it to support your system to relax and relieve stress as often as you need.