Search Results for: blog stress and weight gain

Nutrients for Reducing Stress

Being a single mom is stressful, but did you know that there are certain nutrients that can help reduce stress and anxiety? There are certain vitamins and minerals that can help you manage your stress levels throughout the day. Vitamin B6 helps your body to produce serotonin, a hormone that produces a calming effect on your body. When your stress levels are high, which is often if you are a single mother, Vitamin B6 is completely depleted throughout your body. Instead of feeling calm, you find yourself on edge, easily irritated, and overwhelmed. Green beans, bananas, and avocados are all … Continue reading →

Reducing Holiday Stress

A fit lifestyle encompasses more than just eating right and exercise.  It includes getting enough sleep, cutting out bad habits such as smoking and other areas that affect your overall health. In fact, stress can wreak havoc on your body and may even contribute to weight gain.  With the holidays in full swing, its time to think about the impact that stress can have on your body. Medical experts say that this is the time of year in which people are prone to heart problems, such as heart attacks.  Stress can be physical, emotional, financial or a combination. Learning how … Continue reading →

Halloween-Themed Weight Loss Plan for Brave Parents

Have you seen Hershey’s newest Halloween treat? The Screme Egg is a twist on the chocolate giant’s popular Easter sweet, the Cadbury Creme Egg. The shape is the same, as is the egg’s white filling, but the Halloween version features a green yolk-like center instead of yellow. If that doesn’t make you scream, perhaps the nutritional value will. A single Screme Egg contains 150 calories and five grams of fat. While that may not seem like a frightening amount, consider that the average adult can fit roughly four of the eggs in his or her mouth at one time. Add … Continue reading →

Why Aren’t I Losing Weight?

A question that is asked by many is this…why aren’t I losing weight when I am eating healthy and exercising? This can be very discouraging. It seems like you are doing everything right, yet the pounds aren’t dropping. Well there are some important things to consider. The first is that it could be your body is gaining muscle. This is especially true if you have been doing a lot of resistance (strength) training. Another potential reason is that while you may not be losing pounds, you could be losing inches. This is why it’s always a good idea to not … Continue reading →

Re-Thinking Stress

We all know that stress is bad for us, but as single parents, it often comes with the territory. Trying to juggle working and being a mother takes a lot out of you and at the end of the day you find yourself overworked and exhausted. The times you are feeling the most stress are often the times when you are unable to find happiness, but that’s not all, when you are under an intense amount of stress your body kicks into action and produces cortisol. Cortisol isn’t necessarily a bad thing; it is what gives our body the fight-or-flight … Continue reading →

Stress and Weight Gain

Stress is a part of life. We experience it in many forms and on different levels almost daily. Stress can be rooted in your job, finances or relationships. In this world of uncertain jobs and economy many are stressed out. The stress of money can easily put more strain on relationships causing more overall stress in your life. Stress can build up over time or you can experience a steady flow of stress. No matter, stress is stress and getting stressed out can have a detrimental effect on your weight. When you are stressed your hormones basically go wonky and … Continue reading →

Causes for Not Losing Weight

Despite changing your eating habits and exercising on a regular basis, you may be experiencing the frustration of not losing weight or even worse, putting on a few pounds. This can lead you to believe that your fitness changes aren’t really making a difference. But hold on…there may be some explanations for it that you need to explore. For instance, we know that eating salty or sugary foods can put on the pounds. But we fail to recognize other factors that can also contribute to weight gain, with one of them being stress. Yes, stress can cause you to gain … Continue reading →

Combating Stress with Fitness

How do you handle stress? What do you turn to? While some may turn to junk food, the television or shopping…others are learning that the best way to not only combat stress but even help prevent it is through exercise. Stress management is something many of us could learn today. Life is coming at us in all directions and it can easily cause us to feel overwhelmed and sucked under. It can also lead to serious health problems. So learning how to combat stress is the best way to stay healthy. If you engage in regular physical activity, you are … Continue reading →

The Connection Between Sleep, Exercise, and Mental Health

I know my mental health has had its ups and downs, as I’m sure yours has too. So what do we do when we’re not at our best emotionally? When my mental self is not at its healthiest, most often I’m lacking in some basic areas, such as sleep and exercise. For me, these two things have a direct impact on my mental health. First, if I go for extended periods without enough sleep, I will soon be grouchy, agitated, and angry at the world. I tend to snap on people for no reason and have limited impulse control. But … Continue reading →

Holiday Pounds and Inches

Around this time a few years ago, I was in my obstetrician’s office for a routine checkup. I was five months along. After glancing at my stats, my doctor noted that my weight had jumped up quite a bit. Up until that point, I had gained little to no weight, and now I had put on about ten pounds or so. “I did notice that I had gained quite a bit extra this month,” I said. “It was all of those thanksgiving dinners and holiday parties I went to.” I was not exaggerating, either. I looked back on the three … Continue reading →