Getting back into shape doesn’t just depend on nutrition: what do we need to change to feel really good?
Many people struggle with their bodies for years in an attempt to lose excess weight and shape their physical form. Despite all the efforts and commitment to obtaining concrete results, we often get stuck in a physical form that we don’t like or that doesn’t belong to us.
The reasons can be many and different from each other but, unfortunately, our approach is always the same. If we can’t lose weight or always feel bloated we tend to blame ourselves, eat less and train more. When we realize that even this drastic approach fails to work, we enter a vicious cycle of negative thoughts that only makes things worse.
So what is the secret to freeing yourself from it and finding a new balance? It’s all in the approach, which cannot be aimed only at losing weight but must take into consideration our life as a whole.
How to reduce excess weight and bloating? There is only one key
Unfortunately, most of us tend to lead really busy lives. For this reason sometimes we remain crushed under really high levels of stress, which prevent us from dedicating ourselves to our well-being in the most correct and fruitful way. Stress is a big obstacle to losing weight.
Stress is the cause of many unpleasant symptoms that we can experience on our body, especially in certain periods. Among these there are bloating and digestive problems, headaches, muscle tension and pain, joint pain, and recurring headaches.
Imposing a very strict diet on ourselves and maybe a very tough training plan does nothing but increase stress levels of our organism, favoring the secretion of cortisol, famous as the “stress hormone”. This hormone swells us out of all proportion, so paradoxically, the more we stress about losing weight the less results we will be able to achieve.
What then is the solution? The secret is in a holistic approach, that is first and foremost capable of identifying and reducing all sources of stress. Only when we have managed to free ourselves from exhaustion and chronic tiredness we will be able to start taking care of ourselves, dealing more easily with all the small and large sacrifices associated with a weight loss process. For nutritionist Leslye Pario, who has studied in depth the consequences of stress on our metabolism, to achieve a state of well-being we must have “awareness of one’s limits and the determination to overcome them.”