The thought of losing weight often brings terrible visions of cardboard-tasting fat free cookies, endless hours of treadmill workouts, the prohibition of such wonders as ice cream sundaes and more. Losing Weight Doesn't Have to be Stressful. While laying off the ice cream sundaes doesn’t hurt your weight loss prospects, losing your belly fat doesn’t have to be the end of enjoyment as you know it.
In fact, there are many awesome things you should be doing more of to help yourself lose body fat. The key is to develop a healthy lifestyle, which often includes stocking up on the things you take lots of pleasure in such as sleep, sex and relaxing.
Before you roll your eyes, remember that stress causes a raft of destructive hormones to shoot through your body. These same hormones encourage the body to hold onto fat among other negative side effects.
Managing your stress can actually be one way to help battle your belly bulge.
Stress Management Techniques to Lose Fat
1) Get a Good Night's Sleep
The benefits of sleep often go unappreciated. In a hectic world where there always seems to be more work than hours in the day, the easiest solution seems to sleep less and work more.
Getting a full night’s rest is critically important to maintaining a healthy body and mind. While you sleep, your body makes repairs the millions of little damages that occurred throughout the day. Your mind recharges itself in order to get ready for a new day of absorbing information.
Everyone knows that a good night’s sleep makes you feel great. That’s because your body and mind are rested and ready for the day. People who do not get enough sleep tend to get sick easier, have trouble concentrating and perform worse in school and in the office. They also tend to weigh more.
Lack of sleep means your body can’t eliminate those stress hormones. Belly fat could be the result.
2) Sex For Stress Relief
Yep, if you want to work on controlling your weight, more sex could be the answer. Regular sexual activity is a great stress reliever. Being intimate with someone releases feelings of love and tenderness, which can help eliminate the stresses of the day.
Take this advice carefully, and make sure you have a partner you care about and love.
Sex does burn some calories, but not enough for it to be a recommended exercise. Simply, sex makes us feel good about ourselves and good in general.
3) Relax More
Which brings us to our last awesome habit to increase: relax more. Try to find time throughout the day, every day to take a deep breath and relax.
Find a place you feel safe and comfortable, where there is not a lot of disruptive ambient noise, and let all the worries and stresses of the day melt off your shoulders.
Relaxing techniques such as meditation, yoga classes or simply listening to calming music have been shown to reduce stress, elevate mood, increase concentration and, yes, increase self control when that ice cream sundae comes a’ calling.
If it’s been a while since you’ve taken a vacation, consider taking some days on a beach somewhere warm.
Another suggestion is to make no plans for a weekend. Read a book, watch a movie, go for a walk through the woods in spring. The laundry isn’t going anywhere, I promise.
Each person has their own special relaxation routine. If you haven’t found yours yet, experiment. It can be as simple as laying a little longer in bed before getting up in the morning, running a bath in the evening, or taking a jog down a trail during lunch.
Find somewhere to just be you, where no one is making demands on your time. Treasure that routine and let it empower you for the rest of the day, week and year so that you can stay on the right track, develop good habits and get rid of that belly fat.
Belly fat isn’t just about “calories in vs. calories out.” Nor is it just about treadmills, weights and pushups. Your level of stress impacts how your body responds to calories and takes care of itself.
Instituting awesome habits that are sure to make you feel great: getting a full night’s rest, having more sex and finding time to relax every day, will keep you in fighting shape to defeat your belly fat once and for all.
