9 Tips to Relieve Stress: Stress is Making You Fat

This page is designed to help you understand stress..what it is, how it affects you, and hopefully give you a few tips on how to properly deal with it.

Whats required of the reader?

1. Need to change
2. Open minded
3. Participate in Writing Exercises
4. Patience in developing new habits

Definition of stress

Any factor (including emotional, physical, social, economic, etc) that requires a mental or physical adaptive response. These factors or demands can be real or imagined. They can be outside the body or within.

Costs of stress

3 out of 4 employees are overly stressed at their jobs. Stress accounts for ¾ of all visits to physicians' offices. A USA Today report states that 550 million days of work are lost annually, 60-80% of which are due to stress related illness.

The physical consequences of job stress are staggering - estimated to cost more than $200 billion annually. That's more than the after-tax profits of all of the Fortune 500 companies combined!

Physical effects of stress

• Decreases immune system function
• Increases risk of premature death
• Increases rate of mental hospitalization
• Increases risk of complication in pregnant women
• Increases risk of clinical depression
• Twice as likely to develop illness
• Releases cortisol which results in fat deposits around midsection
• Memory and attention problems
• Increases blood pressure and risk for heart disease
• Increases anger

Behavioral effects of stress

• Isolation
• Increases arguing
• Appetite changes
• Overeating/obesity
• Increases smoking, drinking, drug use
• Impulse behavior

List the 7 greatest sources of stress in your life

Be Specific....

Take a minute and write them down. What are the biggest things that are weighing on your mind?

Sources of stress

• Finances
• Business partners, colleagues or customers
• Isolation - home design, office, computers
• Media - violence, sarcasm, anger, poor relationship role models
• Home maintenance
• Family or personal illness
• World, national or local affairs
• Information overload
• Neighbors
• Children
• Relatives
• Work

**Please don't read ahead until you've got your list written.

List 7 most important things in your life

Compare your ‘stress' list to your ‘most important' list

Sample List:

1. Myself
2. Occupation
3. Income and Investments
4. Family
5. Friends
6. Leisure time
7. Home

Rank your ‘important' list in order of priority

When you don't live according to you internal priority list (realized or not), you will experience internal conflict and stress leading to stress.

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony" Mohatma Gandhi

Sample Priorities

1. Faith
2. Wife
3. Children
4. Health
5. Occupation
6. Extended Family and Friends
7. Hobbies

Family, Spouse, or Group Support

** Recent studies show that negative behavior during marital conflict is associated with decreased immune system function.

Exercise

• Moderate exercise increases immune function and reduces stress
• Severe, prolonged exercise supresses immune system functions

Proper Nutrition

• Stress causes increased metabolic demands. A well balanced diet is evenmore important in order to have energy.

Vitamin Supplementation

• Vitamin B, Calcium, and Magnesium
• Greater need for all vitamins in stressed people

Adequate Sleep

• Sleep increases serotonin.
• You should wake up before the alarm
• In 1850 the avg person slept 9.5 hours. Today it's 6.5 hours per night.

Time Management

• Use a planner or Outlook
• Have weekly meetings with your spouse to discuss schedules
• Take time to relax
• Does your schedule reflect your priorities?

Relaxation Techniques

• Breathing techniques - try breathing deeply for 2 minutes
• Massage - A good massage therapist can work wonders!
• Quiet time - take time and be quiet daily.
• Visualization - Imagine yourself relaxed. Take time to dream about a life you'd like to lead and imagine that it's already so!

Positive Talk

• Be conscious of your words....speak positively about your day, your life, your friends and your family.