Search Results for: stress

June 9, 2022 By GOQii 1 Comment

Top Stress Busting Foods For A Healthy Mind!

Stress is a part and parcel of life. There’s no escaping it. Everyone endures stress and it is perfectly natural to seek some relief from it. In fact, relief is necessary because prolonged stress can lead to chronic stress which if left untreated, can cause heart-related issues, burn you out and affect your mental and emotional wellbeing. When faced with massive stress, we turn to food but are you eating the right kind of stress busting foods?

Top Healthy Stress Busting Foods

Don’t let relief come in the form of junk food. Instead, you can try these healthy stress busting foods:

Asparagus: is high in folic acid which helps you relax. A vegetable like this, which is high in folate, a calming B-complex vitamin known to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety and at the same time, produce dopamine for the brain. Enjoy cooked or raw asparagus to reap the benefits of this powerful food.
Avocado: Rich in healthy fat, magnesium and fiber, Avocado also contains vitamin B which benefits your nerves and brain cells while reducing stress. It has a substance called potassium which helps you by regulating your stress and blood pressure levels. Eating half an Avocado on a daily basis is good for you!
Almond: Vitamin B and magnesium help your body produce serotonin – a hormone that regulates mood and relieves stress, and Almonds are loaded with it! So don’t be driven nuts by stress, instead eat almonds!
Spinach: might not be on your go-to list of foods to eat when stressed, but it is necessary! The magnesium in Spinach can lift your mood and keep your stress hormones in check.
Coconuts: are rich in Medium-Chain Triglycerides, which is an excellent fuel for the brain and the body. The antioxidants in coconut can heal your system and protect your mind. Medium-Chain Triglycerides are excellent at improving your digestion and overall mood.
Walnuts: are known for their omega 3 content – which is very useful in fighting depression. They’re also packed with tryptophans which indirectly increase serotonin levels. When your serotonin levels are high, you feel more relaxed, calm and happy!
Pumpkin seeds: contain magnesium which helps in reducing stress naturally, decreasing the tension in your muscles. It also contains another mineral called zinc that keeps you cheerful always.
Eggs: have a good amount of vitamin B12, which are great for building mood. They trigger the production of feel good neurotransmitters like acetylcholine.
Ghee: Homemade or pure A2 Ghee is known to have medicinal properties that can heal your gut and improve digestion. Better digestion also improves your emotional state. This makes it one of the top stress busting foods.
Honey: is packed with anti-inflammatory properties which can increase the spread of serotonin and dopamine in your brain. Some raw organic honey can certainly make you happier!
Cashew Nuts: Apart from satisfying your taste buds, Cashew nuts are one of the best stress busting foods out there as they supply your body with a good amount of protein and zinc – which help you reduce stress and anxiety.

We hope you will incorporate these stress busting foods to your daily diet. Do you know someone who is perpetually stressed? Share this with them and help them find relief. For more articles on busting stress, check out Healthy Reads. Get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach by subscribing to personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

You can also purchase some of the above listed foods such as A2 Cow Ghee, Organic Honey, Pumpkin Seeds, Cashew Nuts and Walnuts for a discount using GOQii Cash on the GOQii Health Store within the GOQii App.

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June 2, 2022 By GOQii 5 Comments

How You Can Manage Stress With Nutrition!

Stress and nutrition have always been linked – it’s a fact that has been in existence for years. It’s no rocket science to realize that someone with a healthy and balanced diet is likely to be far less stressed than someone with a poor diet.

Stress has become a common factor in one’s life. Various factors such as pressures from home or work, some unforeseen circumstances or situations completely beyond our control that lead to stress. What’s even more common is that while stressed, people tend to eat. This involves a lot of comfort food like macaroni and cheese, pizza, and ice cream.

All these high-fat foods are usually the worst possible choices because they can make us feel lethargic and unable to deal with stress. To add to this, stress can drive up our blood pressure and raise serum cholesterol levels, wreaking havoc on our arteries and increasing risk of heart attacks.

Best solution? Low-fat, high-fiber, carbohydrate-rich meals with plenty of fruits and vegetables. They soothe us without sapping our energy and give us the nutrients we need to boost our immune system.

Which Foods Help You Manage Stress?

Water: It hydrates a person, makes one more energetic and less stressed!
Asparagus: I know, these slender stalks are known to make your urine smell funny, but they are high in folate, which is essential for keeping your cool
Avocados: These creamy fruits stress proof your body. Rich in glutathione, a substance that specifically blocks intestinal absorption of certain fats that cause oxidative damage, avocados also contain lutein, beta-carotene, Vitamin E and more folate than any other fruit.
Berries: Blueberries have some of the highest levels of antioxidants known as anthocyanin and they have been linked to all kinds of positive health outcomes, including sharper cognition. But, all berries, including strawberries, raspberries and blackberries are rich in vitamin C which has been shown to be helpful in combating stress.
Chocolate: besides the healthy antioxidants in this treat which push chocolate to the top of most heart-healthy food lists, Chocolate also has an undeniable link to mood but, moderation is key to it.
Green tea: has an amino acid called theanine. This slimming food is a brain booster as well as enhances mental performance.
Oatmeal: a complex carbohydrate, Oatmeal causes your brain to produce serotonin, a feel-good chemical.
Fresh fruits and vegetables: Vegetables have high fiber content, which is helpful in treating constipation -another long term effect of stress. Fresh fruits and vegetables provide an array of vitamins and minerals that are great for reducing stress.
Fish: such as Mackerel contain Omega fatty acids, which are extremely good for the heart and can protect you from heart diseases. Fish also contains choline – a great memory booster.
Yoghurts: provide minerals including calcium, essential to maintain well functioning nerve impulses.
Herbal Products: Herbal items such as Dandelion, Chamomile, and Passion flower to name a few, relax both the body and mind.

Having said the above, there are certain foods and drinks that can aggravate stress. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you should avoid some of them completely but, it is advised that you consume them in moderation.

Foods That May Trigger Stress

Tea, coffee, cocoa, energy drinks: These drinks contain neuro-stimulators like caffeine and theobromine, which are proven to heighten stress.
Fast foods and takeaways: contain high levels of protein, fats and carbohydrates that don’t contain vital minerals and vitamins, which in turn induce stress.
Sugar: Stress causes an increase in blood glucose levels, which can in turn lead to a higher risk of developing diabetes.
Soda, Alcohol, soft drinks and chocolate drinks: The high level of carbon dioxide and sugars in beverages can aggravate stress. Soft drinks need to be considered as an unnecessary addition to your diet.

So before you go in to grab that cold aerated beverage or have a cheesy burger to relieve your stress, think twice and instead go for the healthier food options suggested above!

We hope this article helps you manage stress with nutrition! For more tips to help you manage stress better, check out Healthy Reads or ask an expert by subscribing for GOQii’s personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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May 9, 2022 By GOQii 3 Comments

How Can Walking Help You Overcome Stress?

Stress is inevitable given the fast-paced life all of us lead. It is something that can take over us completely if we do not make an effort to overcome it at the right time. There are many ways you can minimize and cope with stress and walking is a great way to overcome stress!

Most believe that walking only helps one lose weight or get into shape. But, it’s way more than that. It also helps you overcome stress. Exercise in almost any form can act as a stress reliever. Being active can boost your feel-good endorphins and distract you from daily worries. Walking is one way to lower your stress levels.

Any kind of Aerobics exercise (more than 2 minutes of walking is Aerobic exercise) has the power to swing an individual’s mood. If it is done every day, it can enhance self-esteem as well.

How Can Walking Help You Overcome Stress?

Pumps up your endorphins: Walking increases your overall health and your sense of well-being and preps you up to take more steps every day. Walking also has some direct stress-busting benefits. Whenever you do any kind of aerobic activity you release endorphins (feel-good hormones). The higher your level of endorphins, the greater your sense of calm and well-being. No wonder that walking can make you feel so good!

Meditation in motion: After a fast-paced game of racquetball or several laps in the pool, you will often find that you have forgotten the day’s irritations and concentrate only on your body’s movements. As you begin to regularly shed your daily tensions through movement and physical activity, you may find that this focus on a single task, and the resulting energy and optimism, can help you remain calm and clear in everything you do.

Improves your mood: Regular Walking can increase self-confidence, it can help you relax and it can lower the symptoms associated with mild depression, stress and anxiety. Walking can also improve your sleep, which is often disrupted by stress, depression and anxiety. All of these walking benefits can ease your stress levels and give you a sense of command over your body and your life.

So whenever you feel you are stressed, go for a walk and come back feeling good and stress-free!

We hope this article helps you! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more on exercise and fitness, check out Healthy Reads. If you are new to working out, join a LIVE GOQii Pro Class within the GOQii App and get the right guidance, in real time by an expert. Download the app and book an online class now.

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April 6, 2022 By GOQii Leave a Comment

How to Break the Cycle of Adrenal Stress?

When it comes to stress, we often talk about work pressure, personal issues or chronic disease. But there are other elements that influence stress as well. For instance, in your experience, have there been times when you constantly feel tired but can’t explain why? You feel overwhelmed by situations you could handle easily? Do you find yourself drained of energy you may have enjoyed once upon a time? Have you struggled to get out of bed in the mornings even after sleeping for long hours? If this sounds familiar, there is a chance that you are suffering from something called ‘Adrenal stress” or “Adrenal Fatigue”. Simply put, your adrenal glands may be under-performing. All that chronic stress you have been masterfully coping with has finally caught up! Your adrenal glands are responsible for supporting you and sustaining a level of vigilance. Adrenal Stress happens when they show signs of strain.

Is this a death sentence? No! But it is a sign of imbalance. Chronic stress is a part of life. But if left unchecked and unassuaged for too long, it can lead to hormonal depletion, exhaustion, and adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal Glands and Stress

To understand the above, we need to understand how health and metabolism are affected by hormones. One of the glands that play an important role in metabolism is the adrenal cortex. The adrenal cortex gland releases hormones which are vital for biological function. To be more specific, there are two parts which release hormones – Adrenal cortex and adrenal medulla. Adrenal cortex hormones regulate sodium levels, salt, and balances blood volume which directly affects blood pressure.

Another hormone (Cortisol) regulates metabolic rate of carbohydrate, proteins, and fat. It also regulates immune responses. It is responsible for suppressing inflammatory reactions. So it is a potent anti-inflammatory hormone. Finally, the adrenal glands are best known for secreting the hormone adrenaline, which rapidly prepares your body for action in a stressful situation.

When you are stressed, the hormones of the adrenal medulla are released after the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. The adrenal medulla helps you deal with physical and emotional stress. You want these responses to happen. From an evolutionary perspective, it’s part of why we have survived for so long as a species.

If you encounter a stressful situation, you want your body to fire up stress hormones to feed you energy and adrenaline. You WANT to be able to run from a potential threat or beat it back. The problems come in when you have that relatively high level of stress but then don’t actually end up using that extra energy in the form of movement.

Adrenal Stress, Belly Fat and Weight Gain

During times of stress, there are actual physiological changes that happen in our body. Most of them are helpful for our survival (such as in the situation described above). But, if we continue to experience stress and we don’t actually end up running from our perceived threat or beating it back, those stress hormones increase our blood sugar (in an effort to give us energy) which then requires insulin to bring it back down.

In the short term, it feels like an energy crash. In the long term, it can lead to weight gain. When the adrenal glands are overworked, the body prepares itself by storing fat. We crave food, indulge in binge eating and we gain weight.

Adrenal imbalance causes a number of issues, including the abdominal fat deposition. When we have long term stress, both insulin and cortisol remain elevated in the blood, and the extra glucose is stored as fat–mostly in the abdomen. Studies suggest that fat cells have receptors for the stress hormone cortisol, and there are more of these receptors in our abdominal fat cells than anywhere else in our bodies. Moreover, belly fat is an active tissue, which responds to stress by depositing more fat. This cycle can not end until a step is taken to tackle the root cause of stress.

How to Break The Cycle

Go Easy On Food: Eating small and frequent meals helps cortisol balance the blood sugar and take off some stress. Cortisol counterbalances the action of insulin. Under stress when cortisol levels are elevated, it results in a perpetual need for insulin. Eventually, our bodies can develop resistance to it. Hence the name “insulin resistance”. In other words, our body can become less sensitive to insulin, forcing it to produce more for the same effect. If it stops to work altogether, that keeps glucose levels high in the blood.
Time to Eat: Our body has circadian rhythms which work closely with cortisol, which is highest in the morning and gradually declines throughout the day. When we eat we elevate our cortisol, so it is best to start heavy with breakfast and go light post evening. Heavy evening meals are the prime reason for an expanding waistline. A Higher waistline is associated with metabolic and lifestyle disease.
Unplug: Give time to yourself. Unplug means a disconnect from cell phones, laptops, work, any digital devices. Take out sometime which you spend only with your thoughts. It makes you realize your priorities and your goals better.
Sleep: As this gland also controls our circadian rhythms, it is responsible for our sleep cycle. Good 8 hours of sleep will make you take fewer calories through the day. Lack of sleep also makes one drowsy and ends in low energy levels creating stress. Maintain an 8 hour sleeping time for the body to regenerate.
Workout: Exercise is the best remedy to reduce stress by releasing pent up energy. As stated earlier, the whole reason our bodies respond to stress by producing more cortisol is so that we have energy available to spend. Having more energy isn’t a bad thing if you actually use it.

The best way to reduce stress levels is to have fun! Having fun and laughing should become one of your top priorities in life! It has multiple benefits, one of them being stress relief. Looking at the day ahead, ask yourself what is that one thing you can do for your body to support your adrenal glands? Then ask yourself how you can set aside some time for fun!

Want to know more about managing stress? Check out Healthy Reads or get expert advice directly from a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized health coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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