Find your Goldilocks stress level. By this I mean not too high, and not too low. Stress is a fascinating component of human physiology. We actually need a little stress to get going, pump out some dopamine, and have reason to embrace the day. If we had no stress at all, in the form of some basic daily excitement, we’d be practically comatose.
The central nervous system (CNS) has a sympathetic (fight or flight) and a parasympathetic (rest and digest or repose) side. The ideal balance between those sides is not 50/50. It might be more like 90/10 (parasympathetic/sympathetic). It’s certainly not the other way around.
Obviously the sweet spot (Hah!) in the middle can be a broad range depending on the person and the situation. But the real problem with stress is the typical modern pattern. This is different from our ancestral, or primal stress patterns and it’s definitely worth examining.
For 2+ million years, as the australopithecus-homo habilis-homo erectus-homo sapiens evolutionary journey occurred, stress was a very pulsatile experience. We existed with a very low stress baseline and then had these periodic spikes which were over quickly. Think of a scene where everybody is relaxing around the fire and then a saber-tooth tiger rolls into camp. Everyone bolts for the trees but someone doesn’t make it. The tiger has a meal and then moves off. Everyone climbs down out of the tree and life goes back to normal. Or how about this one. You and some of your clan are walking across the savanna and heading back to the cave. Suddenly a violent thunderstorm appears over the mountain and is bearing down on you. Everyone hauls ass for 10 minutes to make it to the cave and beat the storm. Normalcy and balance are restored. This pattern, when on a graph, looks like a flat baseline with the occasional spike.
The graph of stress in typical modern life looks different. There are many more stressors and they are given greater weight or impact. Consequently, we tend to have a moderately high, chronic baseline, and that situation is in complete opposition to our biological design. There’s no recovery and the chronic stress has a sandpapering, eroding effect on our health and metabolism. When this happens, it essentially blocks bodcompopp because the body is more focused on its perception of a constant, life-threatening situation.
Our challenge is to get right with stress and pull that baseline down. Make our graph look more ancestral than modern. How do we accomplish this? Well, there are many books on the subject. At the risk of oversimplification, we all benefit from having a mindset that allows us to frame situations in ways that don’t elevate our stress response when it’s not absolutely necessary. Accomplishing and maintaining this mindset is not necessarily easy or quick. But it’s critical for living our best life. Regarding fat loss, I always like to remind clients, and myself, that FAT BURNS IN A FLAME OF CALMNESS. And in similar fashion, fitness and muscle grow accordingly.