Cortisol: 10 Ways To Manage & Reduce Stress – Ep. 220
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“No matter how much you exercise or nutrients you eat, if you do not manage your stress levels, you really can’t be healthy overall. We always want to look at the external world of what can we do about our health rather than look at our wellness internally. Being healthy isn’t just about being at a certain weight but also about feeling happy and knowing how to manage our stress. If you don’t know how, then you’re going to sabotage your weight loss and health goals.” – Devon Dionne
On this week’s episode of the Open Sky Fitness Podcast, we’re discussing an important topic: cortisol and stress. In our talk, Devon and I will go over what cortisol and stress are, external vs. internal stress, how it affects our bodies, and how to reduce and manage it.
Why is understanding stress so important? A lot of people don’t actually focus on this aspect of their health when they should because being stressed is actually a big problem for your health.
Very often stress is actually all based on your own perception and control over a situation. There are both internal and external factors that can affect it.
Health Problems Brought On By Stress
“Stress increases more stress in so many ways.” -Devon Dionne
There are numerous problems that are brought on our minds and bodies because of stress including:
- Weight gain
- Hyperthyroidism
- Heart disease
- Sleep problems
- Gut health issues
- Slow metabolism
- Memory loss
- Anxiety
10 Ways To Manage & Reduce Stress
“The more you can focus on the positive and less on the negative, the better you’ll feel. It’s really not that complicated.” – Rob Dionne
Here are ten effective ways to both manage and reduce your stress. Don’t worry over trying to do all ten at once. Instead, we suggest you focus on doing two of them this week as a way to begin helping your stress levels.
- Sleep more and use less blue light in daily life
- Eat healthy, nutritious foods while reducing gluten, caffeine, and sugar
- Exercise – balance the amount while still challenging yourself
- Meditation – Breathwork or an activity like yoga
- Spend time with friends and loved ones
- Make time for yourself to do things that you love to do
- Visit with a therapist to talk about what’s going on in your life
- Shift your perception of what’s happening around you
- Keep a gratitude journal to write in every day, week, or on a regular basis
- Plan efficiently, prioritize, and avoid situations or people that cause you to stress out like news on TV or being on social media
Free Gratitude Journal Download
To help you begin focusing on healing from stressful thinking or anxious thoughts, we’ve put together this Free Gratitude Journal that you can download here:
What You’ll Hear on This Episode
00:00 Open Sky Fitness Introduction
1:15 Opening comments with Rob and Devon
1:30 About today’s episode – stress and how to manage it
2:00 Check out last week’s show: OSF 219 – Combating Anxiety & Depression With Anthony Treas
2:20 Tune into our past #TBT episode with Tony Horton
3:00 Sign up now and get 50% off on our next Sky Fit Challenge
4:00 What is cortisol? What is stress?
7:00 External Stress vs. Internal Stress and the health problems they cause.
11:50 How stress directly relates to our weight, reproductive system, mood, and alertness.
14:00 Adrenaline vs. cortisol hormones.
15:30 How our body creates it’s own sugar and glucose to store it as fat.
18:30 The hormones, leptin and insulin, and their relationship with our stress and fat cells we produce.
21:00 Health problems caused by chronic stress.
22:30 10 Ways to manage and reduce both your stress and cortisol levels.
46:00 Get started reducing your stress with our free Gratitude journal you can download.
49:00 Continue the conversation in our Open Sky Fitness Podcast Group
51:00 The positive impact of being more structured and organized can have on your life.
52:30 Final comments with Rob and Devon
53:00 Turn your health around with an awesome community in our Sky Fit Challenge
54:50 Open Sky Fitness Closing
RESOURCES MENTIONED DURING THE SHOW:
- Leave us an iTunes review
- Subscribe to our podcast and take your health to the next level!
- Join The Open Sky Fitness Podcast Group on Facebook
- Sign up for our Sky Fit Challenge!
- Clean up your diet with our 7 Day Paleo Reset
- Contact Rob and Devon to apply for One-On-One Coaching Sessions
- Learn more about our new sponsor – ButcherBox
- Check out last week’s episode: OSF 219 – Combating Anxiety & Depression With Anthony Treas
- Tune into our past #TBT episode with Tony Horton
- Learn more about stress: What is stress? | The American Institute of Stress
- Find out more about the effects of blue light: Blue light has a dark side – Harvard Health
- You might find these other Open Sky Fitness episodes helpful:
- OSF 218 Perfectionists Vs. High Achievers: Which One Are You?
- OSF 194 Hack Your Digestive System
- OSF 182 How A Strong Community Can Save Your Life
- OSF 180 Adrenal Fatigue: What Is It And How Do You Heal?
- OSF 160 Metabolism: How It Impacts Your Weight Loss
- OSF 129 Active Recovery From Stress
- OSF 121 Keys To A Healthy Gut
- OSF 021 Talkin’ Sleep And Nutrition With Shawn Stevenson
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Do The FREE 7 Day Paleo Rest
Simply go to 7DayPaleoReset.com to sign up now
One of the best things you can do for your mind and body in your mission to get healthier is to focus on your nutrition. That’s why we’re allowing people to sign up now to join us for our next Free 7 Day Paleo Rest! It’s all done via Facebook so no annoying emails that will fill up your inbox.
As part of the 7 Day Paleo Reset, we will provide you with:
- Introduction to what the Paleo Diet is all about
- 7 Day guide to easy Paleo recipes
- What batch cooking is and how to incorporate that into your lifestyle
- Various content resources including generational eating habits, the importance of building a wellness community, and how to begin a new healthy lifestyle.
- How to make an impact on your life and life a life full of wellness.
Look Out For Our Upcoming
Throw Back Thursday Podcast Episodes!
We’ll be releasing new podcasts episodes on Thursdays that discuss previous episodes we’ve done, but we need your help! Go to the Open Sky Fitness Facebook Group and tell us what your favorite episodes are. Then, Devon and I will re-listen to that episode, pick out the best parts and share even more insights on the topic.
We won’t just be regurgitating the same information over again. Since we began this podcast, there’s so much more information out their on health, nutrition, fitness, and personal wellness. So, each Thursday we’ll really just be going deeper into your favorite topics!
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Thanks for listening/reading episode 220 – Cortisol: 10 Ways To Manage & Reduce Stress! We hope you have gained more knowledge on how to be a healthier you.
