The Hidden Cause of High Stress
Tasha Stevens
Clinical Nutritionist, B.S + Hormone Expert, CPT, STOTT Pilates Instructor
It’s no mystery that you are feeling the signs of high stress. You are burnt out, overwhelmed, exhausted, and plain frustrated.
Maybe the most frustrating part of it all is you are doing everything in your power to fix it.
?? You are eating nutritious food.
??♀? You are working out.
??♀? You are practicing yoga or doing breathwork.
Even worse, you get frustrated because your body becomes inflamed, you feel puffy and uncomfortable in your body, and weight loss becomes near impossible, in fact, you might even be gaining weight because you are doing it all right.
So then you push yourself more, add more protocols, and restrict more foods. And the pressure continues to pile on.
In fact, you are stacked to the brim with wellness habits trying to get rid of the stress. But still, it is sucking the life out of you.
So what gives?
Chronic stress can lead to nervous system dysregulation and a stress addiction.
Yikes. I know.
When you are stuck in a chronic fight or flight response your body produces ample amounts of cortisol to keep up with the demand. High levels of cortisol lead to increased suppression of your happy hormones – dopamine and serotonin.
When these levels are low, your body will do whatever it can to help get a spike of these hormones to fill a gap, even if it is only temporary. Do you know what can spike your dopamine?
Stress.
So without even knowing it, you are seeking out and creating your own stress in your life to fill this gap. You get your dopamine “hit”, and you feel good momentarily. And then all of a sudden you crash, and your body finds a way to create more stress to get its fix again.
Oh, and let’s not forget to add insult to injury – high stress leads to inflammation and breakdown of your gut lining and bacteria. 95% of your body’s serotonin levels are made within the gut. So not only are you chasing the euphoric dopamine hit, but in the meantime, you feel depleted and maybe even a little depressed and anxious because of low serotonin (your calm and happy hormone).
So what are the signs that you might be addicted to stress?
This can be the most challenging to identify because these signs are often masked in productivity, determination, and a commitment to your health:
I know as a type A person myself, this was difficult to recognize and to shift. Because it meant breaking down everything I knew about wellness and productivity.
Because while it is so important to be driven and have a routine for your health – it also can be toxic!
Think about it, how many times have you overbooked your calendar with trying to get the cold plunge in, doing yoga, meditating, dry brushing, and all your other activities you know are just adulting? Only to become overwhelmed, exhausted, and wondering how you are going to do it all over again tomorrow.
You have to break the stress addiction in order to truly heal from the stress.
How to Break the Stress Cycle
The answer is not more wellness habits, it is strategic support. Can wellness habits and routines help you keep your stress at bay?
Absolutely. But initially, when your body is so overwhelmed you have to be strategic on what you focus on, and what you leave.
Breaking my stress addiction was how I got to a space where my body was even willing to lose weight. And once I did, I lost 30lbs in 3 months. And then built to lose another 20 lbs. All by slowing down my life.
And I have helped hundreds of my clients do the same. My client Haley lost 23 lbs. in 7 weeks by strategically focusing on handling the stress. Before we started, she was doing every single wellness trend imaginable without any success. We shifted and focused on two core areas in our first two months together.
This is often the most challenging part of the hormone balance journey. Because we have to focus on doing less to get more.
Stress and overwhelm is not a badge of honor. And truly breaking up with this and allowing the space for you to heal is critical. To do this, you have to focus on managing the stress in life you can control (aka how you fuel your body) and address the nervous system dysregulation that keeps you stuck in that pattern.
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Focus on Reducing Controlled Stressors
There are things in life you can control aka how you nourish your body, how you move your body, and how you rest. And things you can’t control like workload pressures, family emergencies, and big life transitions.
The idea is you need to make sure your body is as strong as it can be to better withstand the stress you cannot control. And you absolutely cannot do that if you are under-eating it, depriving it of key nutrients, and not training it to become stronger.
Often this part is the easiest when you understand it. The first place to start is through a structured cycle-synced reverse diet. When your car has gas in the tank, it can drive. When your body has fuel it can function and do it optimally. Chronic undereating from years of dieting and diet culture marketing is likely inhibiting how you are fueling yourself. Your body needs enough nutrients at the right times to fuel hormone balance.
Simple places to start are:
? Make sure you are eating every 3-4 hours
? Eating at least 25-30 grams of protein with each meal
? Eating 3-4 cycle-synced phase foods each day to support hormone balance
Strength training is the single most effective way to reduce circulating cortisol levels, regulate your nervous system, and increase stress resiliency. Not to mention, it reminds you of your strength and power to withstand any storm. But you have to make sure that the pressure you are placing on the body aligns with your hormone cycle so your body does not reject it.
Nervous System Regulation for Reduced Stress Addiction
The harder part of this journey is shifting your actions and beliefs around stress, productivity, and how to engage in the world. As I mentioned, stress is not a badge of honor.
When you are deeply rooted in this stress cycle, it can be hard to recognize that most of the habits and actions that you take within a day are subconsciously keeping you in your stress cycle.
Learning to slow down and find worth outside of always being “busy and productive” is critical to this healing. For the most success in this process, it takes digging in with an expert to understand where the stress addiction stems from and how to replace it in your life.
Ways to start this process include:
?? Daily cold exposure with a morning ice bath
??♀? Heat exposure (in a sauna) to stimulate parasympathetic nervous system activation
?? Cycle-synced social activities to reduce stress and optimize hormone function
?? Social media fast for 7 days
?? Morning unfiltered sun exposure for 10 minutes
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