Could Stress be making you fat???

Stress in our environment (fear, anger, shame, anxiety, urgency) and toxins in our food trigger our adrenal glands to release stress hormone cortisol.

This keeps us ready to react to the stressor in a way that our body thinks may save our lives. It's an outdated formula and with modern fast pace and high stimulation, the very chemicals that kept our ancestors alive, are keeping us fat.

Digestion is harmed

When we're stressed, we can't digest our food properly and we don't absorb all of our nutrients. Our body shoots it through to ditch any blood flow distractions not necessary to get us out of that jam. Hence why people in super scary situations have the sudden intense urge 'to go'.

High Cortisol = Tummy Fat retention

Beyond our body not metabolizing our food, chronically high cortisol goes from being a performance enhancer, to a serious liability. The body holds onto tummy fat in the presence of cortisol incase it needs future caloric energy reserves and as a protective buffer for our organs.

Cortisol may save our lives in extreme situations, but it doesn't help get us ready for bikini season. The body releases fat stores when it's calm, breathing in oxygen, and sending the messaging to the brain that everything is A-ok.

Toxins stress the body & are stored in fat cells!

If you're sleeping, meditating, breathing, and chilling but the weight isn't releasing, look at internal trapped toxins that could be creating a state of constant inflammation.

Chronic high inflammation reads as stress to the body. The body releases cortisol to manage the inflammatory incident. Inflammation, when acute is quite healing. But longterm, it's extremely damaging. It's a sign to the body that there is something to fight, something wrong. Chronic inflammation puts the body in a state of internal war as immune system soldiers get mixed signals and often friendly fire bringing on autoimmune diseases. The body often holds onto protective fat. 

The body also manages toxins (chemical stressor) by getting them out of circulation and stored away IN FAT CELLS. This means the more toxins, the more the body holds onto fat cells as protective cubbies keeping toxins from damaging parts of the body.

The body is not going to burn important toxin cubholes (fat cells) when you exercise. It does not want to re-release toxins into the system. People that have stored toxins and lose weight too quickly often see a panicked body recruit even more fat cells and quickly put weight back on to get those toxins again out of blood circulation. Resulting in EVEN MORE WEIGHT GAIN!

Here's the GetHSH Weight Release Program I wrote to address this 20th century stress syndrome and give us a real chance to be our body type's ideal happy, healthy weight.

Stress releasing slimming system with the 9 free recipe, workout, and mood enhancing bonuses

Exercising harder doesn't work when our hormones are off and our toxins are being stored in fat cells. Let this book show you how to lower your stress & systemic inflammation and release trapped fat.

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BONUS VIDEOS:  Stress keeps us tired & fat

Dr. Steph from Functional Medicine SF breaks down what stress really does to you, what Adrenal Fatigue is, and what you can do about it. Get HealthySexyHappy interviews top experts to help us look & feel our best.

We know how important sleep is and it's frustrating to miss out on essential healing, restoring beauty zzz's. Dr. Steph from Functional Medicine SF breaks down what's been getting in the way between you and a blissful night's sleep.

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LIVER DETOX

Liver- Processes toxins & Fats when healthy

13 Foods that make a big Difference

Garlic- Liver Allison & Selenium- aid in liver cleansing

Grapefruit: Vitamin C & ANtioxidants, Boosts Liver Detox Enzyme, flushes carcinogens

Beet & Carrots- High in Flavanoids

Green Tea- Caticans (asist liver function) and antioxidants

Leafy Green Veggies- so powerful, chloryphyll (suck up blodd toxins), eliminate chemicals, pesticides)

Avocados- produces glutathoine which liver needs 

Apples- High in Pectin

Olive Oil- cold pressed, organic olive, hemp, or flax oil help create lipid base in body to suck up toxins in body

 B vitamins improve fat metabolism and liver function and clear congestion

Cruciferous Vegies- natural emzymes necessary. Cabbage- helps activate 2 crucial enzumes that help liver flush. Artichoke, asparagus, okra and brussell sprouts also fabulous.

Lemon / Lime- citrus = vitamin C helps make toxins water soluble. Drink in morning for liver stimlation

Walnuts- Argenine amino acid help detox amonia and support glutathione production in liver

Turmeric- liver favorite spice that assists enzymes in 

LIVER CLEANSE- 

-DAY 1: carrot / beet/ cabbage / spinach/ lime juice or smoothies 1 day before

-DAY2: Fast all day (9.5 PH water good). Minimum stop eating by 1pm. Mix 4 tables spoons of edible EPSOM SALTS divided into 3 separate cups of water.  Drink one Cup at 6pm. At 10pm once COMPLETELY ready for bed, mix a glass of extra virgin organic olive juice and 3 lemons worth of juice. Get in Bed and drink fully, immediately lying on our back or right. Expect a bit of sleeplessness.

-DAY 3: 7am or later- Drink 2nd Cup of Epsom Salt water.  Return to Bed or watch relaxing move 9am Drink 3rd Cup. Expect a lengthy release from your urine and bowels.  Continue juicing and eating VERY clean. No alcohol, processed foods, or sugar.

-DAY 4: Eating from the list above, continue to flush with PH water and get plenty of rest.

YOU DESERVE TO FEEL GOOD

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GETHSH is a wellness blog dedicated to researching the variables in the formula to feeling good. All suggestions should be reviewed with your licensed practitioner and taken on your own free will.

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My personal supplement protocol

Focus. Energy. Clarity. Calm.

In pursuit of a brain that works and a mood that's happy, I've tried a ton of things.

My supplement cabinet is now filled with nutritional hacks for PMS relief, focus, mood boost, and hangover avoidance. I prefer trusted brands that have good sourcing and come recommended by friend and functional medicine superstar Dr. Stephanie Daniel. Her suggestion toward Julia Ross's book on amino acid therapy kept me off anti-depressants during a tough time. I am now convinced that one trigger for depression is a depleted brain.

When the nutrient suggestions started getting overwhelming, I created a graph to keep them organized. I color coded the supplements so I could see which colors/nutrients played a role in multiple benefits. Notice how green Omega3 is involved in everything.

Everyday I make sure to get my Bs, Cs, Ds, Omega3s, minerals, and amino acids. Here's why:

Amino Acids are building blocks that help make our skinny/pretty/happy hormones and brain chemicals. B vitamins pull double duty in the body!! They are the mechanics that help convert these building blocks into hormones and are also the soldiers that buffer against stress. If we're stressed, we often don't have enough Bs left over to make enough feel good chemicals. With that workload, we go through a lot of Bs and many of us require a converted "methylated" form. Vitamin B injections work well for many and I love them.

Vitamin D3 is the energy, happiness, thyroid function, appetite suppression, bone strength, and immune system 'super hormone' that most of us are low in. I like Vital Nutrients D for when I travel and an under the tongue spray for home.

Omega 3s are the good fat our brain craves. Mood and clear thinking are directly tied to Omega3 fatty acids present in the body. The aging brain needs even more.

Minerals are the cofactors that make sure the important reaction in the body take place. Magnesium, the calming mineral that is crucial in the brain is involved with over 300 chemical processes in the body!

Probiotics are the good gut bacteria linked to happy mood, manageable waistline, and possibly everything else! Fiber feeds our good bacteria, sugar feeds the bad bacteria, and probiotics refill the ranks giving us more of the good. Helpful if our partying lifestyle, stress, or antibiotics have killed off our good guys. Below are the daily 5 I take.

I start my morning with a ton of lemon water to flush my organs and get my adrenal, immune, and skin supporting Vitamin C.  I take my brain and mood supporting amino acids on an empty stomach. If I want extra focus, I'll take a Neurothera or a NooTroo nootropic. If it's a tea/coffee day, I like the bullet proof executive style of blending nutrient rich grass fed butter into my tea for delicious brain food.

After a couple of hours of fasted work time and flushing of my system, it's time for a protein rich meal with eggs or salmon. Here is where I take the fat soluble supplements like B, D, and Omega 3 that absorb best in the presence of fat. 

If the work morning has left me anxious, I'll take a calming NeuroCalm filled with Taurine, GABA, Magnesium, and L-Theanine.

Because my stress hormone cortisol is unfortunately high, I also take a daily adaptagen formula that builds back my buffers giving me more stress resilience. I wrote the FreeTheFat weight loss program around this product after seeing stress' connection to stubborn weight retention.

The desire to feel focused but calm while lowering both my inflammation and cortisol inspired the CALM HAPPY FOCUSED bundled. Neurothera is the addition here with it's cognitive amino acids and mood boosting herbs.

The rest of the bundles are found on the supplements page and shown below.

Notice that the same 5 supplements are put into different combinations for desired mood effect. These are my favorite addon to my daily essential 5. I like the CALM HAPPY FOCUSED 4 pack -which is the same as buying Calm Pack + Happy Pack (but cheaper when bought together). Not until I venture out of mood / stress  and into beauty / hangover helper do new supplements emerge from the antioxidant family.

If I've been partying alot, I take the 3 antioxidant rich blends found in the BEAUTY BLEND. The hair/skin nails for beauty, antioxidant formula for anti-aging and the liver detox to support my liver.

If I'm running low in general, I'll restock with the biggest bundle THE WORKS that comes with wonderful digestive enzymes to get the most out of my food and free radical destroying antioxidants to help with aging and hangovers. This has the highest overall savings but still feels like a huge sticker shock even though I can do the math logically.

And finally, my super secret for when I'm truly depleted: IV therapy. 

Dr. Ahluwalia of Dryp.com has locations all over the bay. At $200-$300 a pop it gets pricey but man does it work to put you back in the game. I love the master antioxidant Glutathione add on!! Come flu season, opt for the extra zinc and selenium.

Love to hear your tips and tricks!

Here are a few other helpful graphs I put together along this journey to feel good.

Amino Acids and their Benefit:

Nutrient Benefits

Always open to new nutrient suggestions, leave yours in the comments below.

How to survive your first CryoTherapy session.

Cryotherapy is a bit mind blowing. Using Nitrogen gas to drop the air temperature around your naked buns to -238 for a 3 minute healing recovery session appears to not only speed post-workout recovery, it has anti-aging, calorie burning, healing, skin renewal side benefits.

Being on my wellness checklist, I headed over to the Performist in Palo Alto to see what this state of the art Cryo experience was all about.

After a health questionaire and taking my blood pressure, I'm shown a changing room where a robe, socks, and slippers await. I'm told that metal is no bueno at low temperatures so any, ahem, body jewelry would have to be removed. 

I got down to socks only and bravely walked into a room with a metal standing tube and a nitrogen tank with way to much frost on the knob to elicit comfort.

This was going to be cold.

Once in, I ditched the robe, put on the snow gloves, and looked at the count down as the nitrogen was turned on. Being walked through the benefits was helpful as the temperature plummeted.

The benefits are pretty appealing.

Better post workout recovery as lactic acid is whisked away with the blood flow racing to warm your core. Healing mechanisms turned on. Skin purification for the same reason. As the body pulls the blood out of the extremities toward the core, the dirty blood gets drawn out of the muscles and limbs. Upon returning, it's much cleaner, nutrient rich blood.

Our blood becomes enriched with oxygen, enzymes, and nutrients. The body begins to eliminate damaged cells and toxins from your internal organs and tissue.

Did I mention the endorphins?? There's an endorphin feel good that lasts hours as well as a calorie burn of 500-800 calories as your body revs up the metabolism and calorically prioritizes keeping you warm. 3 minutes of discomfort = up to 800 calories!? 3 minutes that is also healing, revitalizing, anti-aging. I can do this! 

Then there's the white fat cell die off that adds an extra benefit.

The "cool sculpts" of the world use this same technology but only on the "problem areas" freezing and killing the fat cells who eventually get pee'd out after filtering through the system.

. Apparently, the outer layers of skin are those affected by the temperature and that's where the bad white fat cells live. So even in this total body recovery freeze, the outer layers of skin will sacrifice those fat cells first leaving them unprotected against the cold. You'll notice these areas get coldest. Fabulous side effect.

The last 20 seconds are the trickiest. the mind starts doing the "yup, I'm done!" My legs got impatiently tingly & i wanted to sit down.

And then it was over. Upon exiting, I threw my robe back on and was instructed to walk around awaiting blood flow to return to my arms and legs. I really wanted to sit as I had little faith in my legs capabilities. I was assured this was all psychological and my legs were fine. 

Depending on how you handle stress, you may see that side of yourself pop up. I noticed irritation toward the nitrogen administrator. My fight or flight had been triggered with the extreme temperature. What a little fighter I am!

To recap: It's tingly cold, a little unnerving, and your nipples get hard and irritated, but that level of benefits for 3 minutes of discomfort is sooooooo worth it!

Pro Tip: Finding a calm, accepting meditative breath is helpful in accepting the therapy and receive the benefits. Like all of life, accepting discomfort helps it pass quicker and the lesson learned faster. Only when I started to resist it, did I experience the most discomfort and impatience. 

ICE ICE BABY!