Now, I know what you might be thinking.

“Duh, of course I am! I don’t need you to tell me that.”

But, the obvious: eating fast food every day, not working out on a regular basis and skipping meals, isn’t exactly what I’m talking about.

I mean, what if YOU (your body) are making you fat.

The infomercials tried to address this issue several years ago, but did a poor job explaining it.  On top of that, they blamed your body and told you the answer was in a pill that cost $150 per bottle.

Remember this infomercial?

If you’ve attended any of Trinity’s seminars on nutrition and fat loss, you’ve been introduced to the idea of you and your body making you fatter.

What I’m talking about is Cortisol.

What’s that? Cortisol is a hormone in your body. A stress hormone.

When you are stressed, Cortisol is released.

Why? (I’m glad you asked)

“Back in the day,” when cavemen were roaming the earth they would have an occasional encounter with a dinosaur or another animal larger than themselves.

Have you ever heard the phrase “fight or flight?”

Cortisol plays a part in it.

Cortisol and Adrenaline are released to give a short burst of increased strength and endurance.

You can either stay and fight of the attack or run really, really fast and leave the danger far behind.

And that is where “fight or flight” came from.

Now, if there is a threat and you do have to run then everything in the body is normalized again after the excess of both the Cortisol and Adrenline are used.  However, if there’s continued stress on the body and no signs of an outlet for the two hormones to work properly, YOU will store the excess as fat.

For example,

YOU are late for work due to traffic…. STRESS

YOU spill coffee on your dress and have an important meeting…. STRESS

YOUR boss is angry because YOU didn’t have the report completed on time…. STRESS

YOU don’t know if you will have a job tomorrow or the next day, or the next…. STRESS

YOU’RE fighting with your significant other… STRESS

and on

and on

and on it goes.

These aren’t considered life threatening events so Cortisol will not be used properly. It will cause more stress on the body and cause you to store fat.

So, YOU are making yourself fatter!

But, there’s an easy fix for this too.

There are tips and techniques that will help you to use these hormones in order to keep them from having negative effects on your body.

The easy answer is relax, breathe and unwind.

Here are some ways to accomplish that…

Slow, deep breathing. Usually 10 – 20 repetitions work great.

Listening to soft music (or any music that helps you relax)

Meditating

Laughing

Taking a short nap

Closing your eyes (no interruptions) and visualizing the events (past, present or future) the way you intend for them to happen. It only takes 2 to 5 minutes.

Taking a walk

Lifting weights

Cardiovascular exercise

Yoga

Proper nighttime sleep

Taking a hot bath

….do you get the point?

You need to find things, simple things, you can do (the more the better) to relax. Then when times get tough, call a time out and do one of these to get you back to a relaxed state.

Posted under Body Mind and Spirit Balance

Hi, Ladies! It’s Shelby here!

I stole the password to the blog and have added this story in before Nathan finds out.

I heard on NPR yesterday during my ride into work that several girls’ schools, in Afghanistan, were destroyed by car bombs. The offense of these schools was simple.

They attempted to educate girls. Unfortunately, there were casualties: young girls who wanted an education and were willing to risk death to obtain it.

Hearing this made me wonder what those people who carry out these types of attacks would think of Trinity, a ‘school’ where women are taught to strengthen their bodies and their minds.

A place where they are encouraged to push their limits to accomplish more than they did the day before. I believe that property damage and casualties would be in our future.

However, we do not have to add fear of explosions to our list of excuses for why we didn’t make it to class. It’s very easy to overlook how fortunate we are, as women, to have the rights we’ve grown to take for granted in this country, such as going to the gym.

We can make ourselves stronger, live healthier lives, learn to defend ourselves and compete in sports freely without worry of the government or radical groups keeping us down.

Remember the next time you come up with an excuse for why you don’t want to go to the gym (or make yourself better) and the women out there dying for the opportunity to do the same.

Posted under Uncategorized

Here’s a short video from Will Smith.

Will is a famous actor starring in Bad Boy’s, The Fresh Prince, In Pursuit of Happyness and many more!

Many actors and actresses just don’t live on the same planet we do, but I think Will Smith does!

I encourage you to watch this daily until you believe you can have everything you want too.

It’s out there for ALL of us.

We must have the courage, persistence and determination to go out and get it!

FINISH STRONG!

Posted under Motivational, Uncategorized