Rushing Increases Stress Levels

If you find yourself in "rush mode" all the time, beware. You are robbing yourself of good health and shortening your life. Rushing around raises stress hormones in the body while increasing inflammation and reducing your overall enjoyment of the activity. If your kids are rushing around
going to more events than they need each week, they may be jeopardizing their health as well. Rushing, especially at a young age, does two things: it teaches kids this unhealthy behavior early in life and it increases their stress levels promoting overeating while fueling the obesity epidemic we now face.

Try to Slow it Down

Rushing has reached epidemic proportions; more in this country than any other in the entire world. When rushing starts to affect your health, many unhealthy things can happen. Your waistline can expand as healthy eating habits are eroded. Your bones can lose calcium and matrix as stress
hormones acidify your body. Very quickly, you can find your good health eroded and slipping away.  

The most important question to ask is "where did I learn that running around like this is good for me" and "why do I keep doing it if it's not?" By slowing your life down, you have the opportunity to enjoy more things even when you do less.

Let's take a closer look at two areas of your health that can suffer the most from overdrive living.

Rushing and Your Bones

Your bones need stimulation in the form of safe and effective exercises. But unlike the saying "if a little is good, more must be better" your bones need to rest as much as they want to be active. Rushing around promotes a hormone shift to higher cortisol levels. Cortisol along with other hormones is associated with loss of bone strength and density. The only way to achieve healthy bones is to slow your life down and get your work and rest time in better balance.

Rushing and Weight Gain

Weight gain is almost a certainty when rushing starts to affect your eating habits. In most cultures, food is enjoyed, even savored in long lunches where conversation and social interaction are the norm. When you eat on the run, not only do you raise stress hormone levels but you encourage unhealthy habits like overeating, poor digestion, lack of satiation and weight gain.

Here are 5 reasons to stop rushing especially when you eat:

1. Portion Control: Eating more slowly reduces the amount of food eaten in the same amount of time. Eating more slowly allows the brain an opportunity to correctly register when you are full. Without counting calories or dieting, you can reduce food consumption that can translate into losing several pounds per year.

2. Food Enjoyment: Meals are a time for enjoyment and socialization rather than just being another "thing" we need to get done. Taking the time to really taste your food makes meals become much more enjoyable. Taste, smell and texture all contribute to your sense of happiness and well being. Gulping down your food in an attempt to rush off spoils most of the enjoyment in the eating experience reducing it to just another activity.

3. Better Digestion: Saliva in the mouth is the first stage of the digestion and absorption process of the food you eat. Eating slowly allows you to chew more thoroughly mixing more saliva in with your food. Chewing more thoroughly allows your food to be more easily digested and absorbed when it reaches the stomach and intestines. You'll derive more nutrients from less food with complete digestion. Better digestion also reduces the chance of gastric distress such as bloating, food allergies and heart burn.

4. Mindful Eating: This is one of the keys to any successful weight loss program. Taking the time to eat when you are not distracted by the television, a newspaper, magazine or the computer helps increase food enjoyment. "Gulping it down" bypasses your food enjoyment centers in the brain encouraging you to eat more to feel full. To register with your brain, food must contact the taste buds in your mouth long enough to send a pleasurable signal. The way food tastes is also changed by the amount of time spent on the taste buds.

5. Healthier Food Choices: It takes extra time to consider a healthier food option and move past the "instant food" selections. More often than not, rushing to eat forces you to pick "the quick option" rather than the healthier one. Fresh, flavorful, colorful and nutritious foods may not necessarily be convenient for you but they are always better. Balancing your foods and planning a healthier meal is time well spent. You are worth it, so go ahead and stop the rush and enjoy life more.

Would you like to reduce stress and get to a healthy weight but don't know where to start? Woody McMahon provides an easy to follow program called Healthy Weight! that helps reduce excess weight, improve your bone health, posture, balance and strength while improving your health. Contact Woody for a no cost consultation at 703-628-2880 or email woody@sequoiahealth.com.

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