Stress!!!

Okay, so we all know that stress is not good for keeping your body healthy. Not only does it affect your blood pressure, it gives people headaches, tight shoulders, and the overwhelming urge to punch someone. And let's face it, a lot of us turn to food in times of stress. "Just a cookie to calm me down." or "I'm having a bad day. I deserve a cheeseburger and fries!" We seem to forget that bad food won't take away our stress, it will just make us tired and bloated and stressed. We also forget that the best stress buster is exercise. And yet, when I'm super stressed, the last thing I want to do is go for a walk or hit the gym. I want to throw something fatty down my throat then slip into a mini food coma.

Now they're talking about cortisol - it's something your body produces in times of stress to pack on belly fat! Yes, that's right - God made our bodies to react to stress by giving us jiggly bellies! Ugh! The horror! I understand the biology and history behind it - we used to be cave dwellers, dying of hunger. Stress-induced belly fat was life saving. But it's 2009, and there's a McDonald's on every block and a pot luck something-or-other every other week. Surely our bodies could hurry up and evolve into lean, mean, fat burning machines. I say we push our bodies into this millennium and go for some stress induced calorie burning! How about every time our bodies feel stress our belly shrinks a little? That would be awesome!! I'd eat a mountain of cheeseburgers then go bungee jumping - I'd be fitting into my old clothes in no time!

Ah, but I'm dreaming... I guess this is my way of relieving some of the stress of the day. I need to take a deep breath and somehow make it through my stressful day without grabbing a piece of that delicious looking coffee cake JW brought in for us. Maybe I'll go tickle some children - holding kids always puts a smile on my face and makes me feel like everything's going to be okay. There's my new mantra - kids, not cookies... breathe in ... children, not chips... breathe out ...