Stress and Weight Gain

Have I mentioned that the back to school season is an extremely stressful time for me? Not because anything in particular happens now but because August is when school starts. It's when we stopped home schooling, when Holly two medical procedures, all in all tough times during this season. It has left a lasting impression on me. It's called the Anniversary Effect but that is a discussion for another time. Anyway recognizing this stressful time has empowered me to be prepared to react in healthier ways!

Today, I wanted share what I have learned about Stress and Weight Gain. It's the gut/brain connection in action. You probably already know that when you are stressed out, you eat. What I have discovered is that this is not just a mental thing, it's a physical reaction. I am slowly recognizing that stress actually makes me feel hunger. I mean, put your hand on your stomach and on a scale of 1 to 10 how hungry are you? And that feeling during times of stress is not reliable for me. I can eat breakfast and one hour later really think I am hungry, even though I should not be!

Elizabeth Scott, Stress Management expert for the VeryWell wesite explains some effects of stress on weight gain. One of which is how stress effects your metabolism:

Metabolism

Do you feel like you're prone to putting on more weight when you're stressed, even if you're eating the same amount of food as you always have? Too much cortisol can slow your metabolism, causing more weight gain than you would normally experience. This also makes dieting more difficult.

What does this mean when I step on the scale? It means I am probably not going to lose weight.The good news is it doesn't mean I'm going to gain either. There's a BIG HUGE IF right there. 

IF I move more during stressful times

IF I make better food choices during stressful times

IF I am consistent with my Plexus supplements (to help regulate blood sugar and reduce cravings)

IF I wait between meals

IF I drink water

Sharing this here with you in the hopes that you can change the way you react to stress with real actions. If you are interested in learning more about Plexus could help, send me a message on Facebook, Peggy Fisher.  Or you can read about Plexus here.

Gut Brain Axis

The whole gut/brain connection is really, really important to understand. Stress directly effects your weight and shape. If you are already making good choices and already exercising but not seeing results, this is something to consider. This article  doesn't include a Probiotic as a key to overcoming stess, but I believe probiotics have made a huge difference in my healing from the inside out. The author does mention how a magnesium deficiency can lead to food cravings!

The Biggest Loser

11 years ago, it was season 2 of The Biggest Loser. I remember looking at a female contestant weight and thinking, "That's what I weigh. Is that what I look like?" Of course I didn't walk around in spandex....but still. It is some small comfort to me to read this article about how your body actually does change the way it processes food once you lose large amounts of weight. Dr. David Ludwig's quote, "that shouldn’t be interpreted to mean we are doomed to battle our biology or remain fat. It means we need to explore other approaches”, gave me Hope that I needed to try a different strategy, what worked before was not going to work this time. #tryplexus #whatif#PlexusCouldChangeEverything #icandomore

How's that working for you?

At last there is progress towards emptying out the abandoned house next door. I feel for those owners and who ever is actually working inside that house. It made me thing about how hard change is and that reminded me of Dr. Phil.

So a 11 years ago I lost 70 pounds on a portion control/spiritual weight loss program. Yay! That was great! I said then and I will say it again now, you must find something that works for you. There is no one way to lose weight. Focus on what is working for you, and if it's not try something else.

Once the Adrenal Fatigue set in, what worked before did not work anymore. At. All. And every single pound came back. It took me a long time to change my thinking to match. Although I was seeking answers, seeing doctors, googling, in the back of my mind there was this fear. I was afraid I could feel worse. I was afraid to waste money, I was afraid to fail.

And then there are the answered prayers that overcome my fears. I think sometime my absolutely weakest prayers are the ones God hears, the ones that I whisper full of doubt. I remember praying for an answer to my struggle with weight 11 years ago and the phone call I got from my sister saying, "Let's do this."

This year, once I overcame fear and actually tried Plexus, I remember praying about being an Ambassador on the way to ECU orientation this summer. When my complete-stranger-roommate-for-one-night pulled out a bottle with the Plexus label, I could not believe it! What are the chances?

My goal this time around is to Make Good Choices, and if my weight drops, so be it. I feel better and can do more, and that is soooo worth every penny!
#howsthatworkingforyou #dontwait #PlexusCouldChangeEverything#icandomore

What does Healthy mean to you?

It took me about 3months of reading Joe's Plexus journey to healthy to be brave enough to try to change. What if this could change everything? And it has for me! Old habits are hard to break but the support of these supplements has pushed me to be better than yesterday! And that is my healthy!! #icandomore #plexuscanchangeeverything

Sugar and Adrenal Fatigue

Tuesday means the baking begins in earnest over here. That means there will be sugar e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. Cake scraps, cake batter, frostings, fillings. This is not the place to hang around if you are trying to choose healthy. Even so, I LOVE my job as a Cake Lady!! Thank you Plexus for helping me help myself!

A little reminder for my day: Insulin is the mother of every other hormone in the body!! If things aren't working in your body, try balancing your blood sugar and see what happens! Because of high sugar diets most people have some level of insulin resistance….that means your cells quit noticing when your pancreas release insulin. It's like walking into a loud room - at first your ears hear the noise, but after an hour or two you don't really notice the noise any more.
Plexus Slim helps balance blood sugar, which may in turn reduce cravings and binge eating. Plexus products are about helping your body achieve a balance so that it can function as intended. Often times as a consequence of this balance, people can naturally let go of excess weight.
✅ We don't have an energy drink...we have a drink that helps you gain natural energy by balancing your blood sugar.
✅ We don't have diet pills...we have probiotics and natural supplements which help balance your gut and decrease sugar cravings. Plexus is about getting healthy NOT about getting skinny. It's NOT a FAD. It is however HELPING THOUSANDS of people, no matter what their age, gain control over their HEALTH and FEEL their BEST!

New Goals

Just got back in town from Myrtle Beach and saw this post from Joe Harris. Had to reshare because 3 months ago, I had no energy to think about eating healthy, moving more or drinking water. Sleep was sketchy too. This rang true for me! Healing from the inside out has made a huge difference every day.

Plexus is NOT a REPLACEMENT for drinking hydrating water, eating healthy food, body-moving exercise, or getting a good night's sleep!!

Plexus IS a SUPPLEMENT system. By definition, it completes or ENHANCES something. In fact, I wasn't very good at ANY of those four things before Plexus. But now? I'm balanced from the inside, and it's the support system my body needed to encourage me to do a lot more of all 4 of them.

Sugar Cravings

Resharing from Joe Harris because this is so part of what I have experienced. I thought the sugar, especially chocolate, cravings were just a cross to bear.

Imagine your body as an imbalanced washing machine. It's not going to run smoothly again until you stop and re-balance what's in it.
Your body is a powerful machine and when it's out of balance, it's hard to control (I was there way too long). Exercise is great, diet is great, together they are better, but here's the kicker -- you'll still have cravings until you re-balance your gut. Only THEN will you get the full results of your healthy diet and exercise.
#guthealth #plexuscouldchangeeverything #oneofthereasonswhyiloveplexus

Energy Level

The absolute best part of this Plexus Tri-plex has been the increase in energy. Over the last few years, the kids and I both began to cringe when I said, "I'm just really tired. " I knew their reply would be, "you're always tired." In the last three months I have done more, felt better and said, "Yes" more than I have in years! I wasn't here telling you how great going decaf was 4 years ago but I am telling you today that Plexus can make a difference!#tryplexus #icandomore

Caffeine and Anxiety

Clearly I had to make some changes in my diet. And for one year I completely gave up caffeine. I think it was a Christmas season that finally broke my resolve. Sugar too had to be cut way back. And then I tried counting carbs, counting protien, balancing carbs and protein, no sugar, fake sugar, and the pounds began to pile back on. No matter what I did or didn't do. And I felt awful. 3 months into this experiment with Plexus and I am slowly losing weight, I wake up feeling good! And I don't lean on coffee to keep me going! #tryplexus #icandomore #myplexusstory

Gut Check

Good Morning all, the first time I saw this was when I began really consider Plexus. I mean 5 years of melatonin. What if there was some other way? I'll share more about melatonin, the good and bad for me. This right here is the beginning.

🔹The majority of #melatonin, that hormone that helps you sleep, is made in the GUT.
🔹The majority of #serotonin, the hormone that makes you happy, is made in the GUT.
🔹80% of your #ImmuneSystem is in the GUT.

Think your #GutHealth isn't important??? Fix your GUT health and be amazed at what happens!
#inboxmefordeets #icandomore #tryplexus

Recovery from Adrenal Fatigue

Is there a cure for Adrenal Fatigue? I haven't found one. There is recovery though. Since I started using Plexus Tri-Plex, I have had one episode of Adrenal Fatigue after 5 extremely busy, stressful days, 3 of those days were 14 hours work each. Although I was disappointed that my body could not go the distance, the next day I was super surprised. I felt OK. Definitely needed rest but rebounded so much faster. The week following that, I filled 9 cake orders and celebrated Holly's First Communion. Exciting stuff right there!

Anyhoo found this description of Plexus Slim on the web. This author began supplementing her diet with Plexus Slim in 2014. Her facebook page mentions that she is still using this drink as of April 2016.

My Plexus Story

My Plexus story will never be Joe's Plexus story! I will not ever tell you about my great work out, or how many awesome steps I took today. More than likely, it'll be pics like this. Who-hoo! I took the furthest space at the grocery store!

I am so encouraged by other peoples posts abt workouts and exercise to get fit but for now I will focus on healthy on the inside. I am finding time to walk, because I Can Do More and most of all because I am worth it! You are worth it too! What will your Plexus story be? #myplexusstory #icandomore#imworthit

Gut Feeling

Once that long summer was over and the kids all back in school, I began "The Year On the Couch". I laid around alot. Read a little, watched tv and posted cake pictures :-) People keep telling me I was trying to do too much. There is no way I could do less. No way. But even the thought of a field trip with Holly was too much and brought on the trembling, tears and nausea. So I kept looking for solutions, healing from the inside out. With a multivitamin, peanut butter bread and melatonin, I kept going as much as I could. Over the next two years I was able to do more.

That's about when Joe Harris began posting relentlessly about how great he felt and how Plexus had changed his life. Things about healing from the inside out, how a healthy gut can effect your mood, and increase your serotonin levels. April 1st, I started the Plexus Tri-plex.

About a week after that, someone asked how I was and I said, "Fine." And was startled to realize that I was! Really. Fine.#tryplexus #myplexusstory#icandomore

Find a Happy Place

About that long road back to a healthy me. About 5 months into this, I really could not do much of anything. I learned some coping strategies, like peanut butter on one slice of whole grain bread before I got out of bed helped. And melatonin became my friend. Melatonin works the opposite of cortisol in your body. So If I woke up trembling, I would cut a tiny piece of melatonin and lay back down for a little bit. The trembling, nausea, crying would stop. With the help of many, many friends we limped through that last homeschool year. I saw plenty of doctors too.

But by February, I knew the kids had to go back to school. I began resigning from everything. Everything I volunteered in, every meeting, field trip, homeschool co-op. I needed to rest. Except for Cake! I stubbornly refused to give that up. Enjoying that creative process helped as much as anything.#tryplexus #icandomore #myplexusstory

Chromium and Adrenal Fatigue

How to describe Adrenal Fatigue? I don't know if I can but I will share the bits and pieces I have put together. When you are exposed to continuous levels of stress your adrenal glands don't function right (that's a layman's term) and can produce regularly high cortisone levels. Here's one succinct description of what happens:

"Under stressful conditions, cortisol provides the body with glucose by tapping into protein stores via gluconeogenesis in the liver. This energy canhelp an individual fight or flee a stressor. However, elevated cortisol over the long term consistently produces glucose, leading to increased blood sugar levels."
(http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/111609p38.shtml)

And that's where chromium, the main ingredient in Plexus Slim, makes a real difference for me! Chromium helps balance your glucose levels over the course of the day. For me that's the difference between a life worth living and laid out on the couch waiting to see what happens next! #tryplexus#icandomore #myplexusstory

Do One Thing...

Diana Wood Gave me this one Christmas and really, Cake was the one thing every day I could count to bring back Joy. Following my doctor's orders (and everyone else's too!) I began treating Depression all the while feeling like I was treating symptoms not the actual problem. Don't get me wrong, I was in bad shape. I needed help. And the prescriptions did help. But did not stop all the anxiety attacks or improve my sleep. As I began to feel better, I did a little research on my own. When I felt strong enough to stop taking the prescription and start adding vitamins, I did. I wanted to treat the problem not the symptom. Depression is a side effect of Adrenal Fatigue. Along with trembling, poor sleep, anxiety, crying, shortness of breath. And the long road back began in earnest. #seekhelp #tryplexus#icandomore #chromiumcanhelp

Adrenal Fatigue

Depression. No one wants to be diagnosed with that. Sure enough that's what everyone said 5 years ago. But I thought it was something else. Does depression make you tremble? Or cause your blood sugar to soar one moment and plunge the next? I call it Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome and it has been a long road back to my healthy. Plexus is the best step toward healing from the inside out I have taken yet! My story will take awhile to share and I hope that if you are struggling with energy, fatigue, and anxiety my journey will give you hope! It started two weeks after this picture was taken. Can't look at this without seeing the storm ahead. #tryplexus #myplexusstory#adrenalfatigue

The beginning of Choosing Healthy

Just before April, I was so completely miserable, overwhelmed with all that I needed to do and frustrated I told Lee, "Something needs to give." Meanwhile Joe Harris is posting relentlessly about how great he feels and how much work he is doing and the steps. And Plexus. So much about Plexus! I finally decided "I can't feel worse." Started with Plexus Tri-plex#tryplexus #icandomore #myplexusstory

What could Plexus do for you?

Because I am a by-the-numbers kind of girl, I had to see how many cake orders I filled over the last three months. 120. One hundred and twenty. And how many this same time last year? About 50. There is no way I could have accomplished all this without Plexus! I have felt so much better and been able to do more that I signed up to be a Plexus Ambassador <3 span=""> Excited to share my Plexus story with you!  #lifeworthliving #icandomore #myplexusstory