Greetings,

I will offer you tips and advice on nutrition, exercise, motivation and lifestyle changes based on my over 12 years of experience as a professional fitness trainer, competitive bodybuilder, sports nutrition specialist, wellness and motivational speaker.

Improving your health and even losing body fat can actually be a positive experience with many valuable lessons learned along the way. If you are ready to hit the road towards better health, jump in let’s get going.

I’m looking forward to our trip together.

Zo Carroll

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Table of Contents

1) STRESS -killing you from the inside out!

2) FOODS THAT CAUSE STRESS vs FOODS THAT FIGHT STRESS.

STRESS can kill you from the inside out!

Boy, talk about stressful times. Let’s see....we’ve got fears over global warming, the stock market is down, home foreclosures are up, food prices keep rising and it’s become downright painful to fill up the old gas tank. Then there’s “The War”, drought here out West, floods in the Midwest and to top things off-salmonella in our tomatoes. I get stressed just writing about these things!

It’s a well known medical fact that too much stress can increase belly fat and wreck our health from the inside out. Whereas we cannot control things like the weather, gas prices or which way the stock market is pointing, we CAN exert control over how much we’ll let stress affect us. We can try to minimize its damage.

I’m a sucker for a good Super Hero movie (like Iron Man). When the Super Hero is faced with the old “fight or flight” situation, he springs into action. He gets to kickin’ butt and takin’ names like, right now! The day is saved and all ends well.

Unlike the Super Hero, we may not be faced with the stressful job of saving the planet, just the stressful job of trying not to freak out too badly when we checkout at the supermarket or fill up at the gas pump.

Those same stress hormones which spark us into action wreck our health when they have no release. As we sit around stressing and worrying, stress hormones like cortisol rob our bodies of B vitamins which help maintain our nerves and brain cells. We have a big need for B vitamins when under stress. Cortisol also slows down the metabolism which can lead to weight gain.

What we eat and how we live our lives can help fortify our bodies against the ravages of stress. Besides sustaining us, food affects our mental health by affecting our internal chemistry. Unfortunately the typical Western diet increases stress on our internal chemistry.

“It’s a double whammy for the body if calories consumed during stressful times don’t come from nutritious foods as they’ll then be depleted even more quickly. Even a slight vitamin B deficiency—say, from a few days of overloading on chips and soda—upsets the nervous system and compounds stress,” according to Elizabeth Somer, R.D., a nutritionist in Salem, Oregon.

In 2002, The Food and Mood Project (now called the Food and Mood Community Interest Company) a web based company that provides dietary self help research for improving mood and emotional health in the U.K., looked at foods that stress you from the inside called “food stressors,” and those that help people under stress called, “food supporters.” They surveyed 200 people and found the following:

Participants reported that cutting down or avoiding “food stressors” like sugar (80%), caffeine (29%), alcohol (55%) and chocolate (53%) had the most impact on mental health. So did having more “food supporters” like water (80%), vegetables (78%), fruit (72%), and oil rich fish (52%).

Although the results of the study were subjective, a third of the participants felt “very strongly” that including more food supporters in their diets had a beneficial effect on their mental health.

Foods that cause stress are those that attack the immune system like:

Refined Carbohydrates (white bread, white pasta, white rice, high fructose corn syrup)- they cause blood sugar levels to swing. This causes irritability, confusion and headaches. They can also cause you to overeat and gain weight.

Caffeine (chocolate, coffee, tea, soft drinks)-can make you jittery and nervous.

Salty Foods (chips)-dehydrate the brain bringing on fatigue.

Sugar (sugar, honey, fructose, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup)-same as refined carbs basically.

Junk Foods-cause internal inflammation which cause lots of internal damage to body.

Eating to fight stress is not only healthy but tasty. I always recommend a good, natural (non-synthetic) multi-vitamin/mineral supplement to make sure that your basic nutritional needs are being met. There are tons of great foods that help to reduce the affects of stress such as:

• Almonds – high in B vitamins, zinc, vit E and antioxidants

• Herbs or herb supplements (link) – like tumeric and cinnamon

• Blueberries – high in vit C and antioxidants

• Fresh dark green leafy veggies – high in calcium and magnesium which help relax muscles

• Cottage Cheese – high in B vitamins

• Fish – high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids and loaded with B vitamins

• Melons, strawberries, spinach, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, mango, kiwi, cantaloupe and purple grapes – all are loaded with antioxidants such as beta-carotene and vitamins C and E and phyto-chemicals which boost the immune system and help fight the negative affects of stress

• Organic foods – aren’t full of chemicals that depress the immune system and cause internal inflammation

Did you notice how these are the same foods that are recommended for a healthy diet? Why? Because, they supply vital nutrients for daily living as well as for fighting stress.

If you need to take the edge off and are considering an herbal supplement, check out Shaklee’s Stress Relief Complex. Its non-habit forming, 100% safe, 100% natural and 100% guaranteed to work (or your money back).

In his wonderful book, Transforming the Mind, Teachings On Generating Compassion, His Holiness The Dalai Lama states, ”the Buddhist believe we have fundamentally flawed ways of perceiving and relating to the world. For example, we falsely view things and events which are in reality impermanent and transient, as eternal, permanent and unchanging.”

As this relates to stress, we would be wise not to look at our present stressful conditions as permanent and unchanging. Remember the wisdom in 4 simple words-THIS TOO SHALL PASS. So let’s lighten up, laugh more, love more, live more and be thankful for the blessings in our lives. A life joyfully lived will do wonders for combating the ill effects of unbridled stress.

Thanks for your time. See ya next issue.
Zo