#THE REAL DANGER IS WEIGHT CYCLING CAUSING LONG TERM DAMAGE TO YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

[flowerflamestars]

Course Correct snippet

Feyre played for time, biting the already beginning to disintegrate cardboard straw in her iced matcha. Feyre didn’t like green tea. Had been known to proclaim on many immoderate occasions that it tasted like grass, mournful that pretty tea latte colors couldn’t be worked into her grid without waste.

“Lucien always likes the omelets,” Elain pointed out, sunny. Nesta could hear the leather toe of her flats taping the floor. “We could split one?”   Feyre shook her head, setting back down the undrunk tea. “I’m not eating animal products. No sugar, no carbs, no coffee, no nightshades, no seed oils.”   Nesta’s normally very healthy blood pressure skyrocketed in a way she could quite literally feel.   “Seed oils?”   An open handed gesture toward the matcha, slowly separating as the ice melted under bright California sunshine.   “I’m on a cleanse!” She hopped up, catching the strap of her heart-shaped purse from the back of her chair, “Just running to the bathroom. Can you order me the kale kiwi protein smoothie? Thanks!”   The dark surface of Nesta’s coffee held no answers, but she gazed into it anyway. Three inches of liquid was about enough for a human being to drown in, theoretically.   “Do you think,” Elain was laughing, hushed, horror needing a sheer output, “That she knows almond milk has almond oil in it?”   Nesta heaved a sigh, tilting back in her chair. “Do nuts count as seeds?”   Hibiscus, darkly red and dreamy violet blue provided cover for the tables, trellis arched into a whole porch overhead. Feyre’s favorite restaurant, all day brunch. Feyre’s favorite foods. For her birthday eight months before, she’d eaten a waffle made out of bacon. “Maybe she’s pivoting into wellness content?” Elain asked, hysteria reeled in.

[therapybabbie]

December 18, 2020

i’m starting this blog so i can have a place to journal my progress when i start intensive outpatient therapy in a couple weeks. i’m having the worst mental health of my entire life right now, which is honestly saying something because this is (i think) the fourth time in my life that i’ve genuinely wanted to be dead. i wouldn’t consider myself suicidal because i’m too scared of pain, death, and hurting my family to ever actually do anything, but when i feel like this it’s more like i just wish i’d never been born or wasn’t conscious. 

anyway, my depressive episodes have only gotten worse with each succeeding episode, so i guess i’ve finally realized that it’s time to treat my mental health like the emergency it is. also, the more i age the more i start to notice the growing discrepancy between how my brain is maturing emotionally (it’s not) vs. peers in my age group (theirs actually are). i lack a lot of incredibly basic life skills, and i’m actually getting worse at them with age rather than better. i always thought my depression would get better as i got older, as my brain matured etc., but i guess i wasn’t thinking of depression as an illness that progresses if left untreated, and mine has been progressing like crazy. 

i’m becoming increasingly unable to force myself to do things that i don’t want to do, cope with negative emotions, feed myself, drink water, take medicine, prevent myself from impulsive behaviors, etc. i’m aware that i’ve been pretty dangerously dehydrated now for about 6 years, to the point that i have fainted a few times, had a lot of liver pain, and have chronic gum disease and have to go to the dentist every 2 months (spent at least $2,000 on that by now) bc i don’t have enough saliva to keep my gums or teeth healthy. what is the reason??????? i literally cannot force myself to drink water. getting up to get it is, like, painful for me, as well as having to get up to pee all the time if i’m actually hydrated. i really don’t know how to explain this because there is no reason why i’m doing this to myself when it is so easy to fix and it’s causing such horrible problems with my body. all i can say is, it sounds insane because it is.

i also do not eat like a normal person, to the point that i know i’m anemic and vitamin deficient, but can’t do anything about it. i don’t cook food or eat at home because something about that process is incredibly painful to me. if i put myself in a situation where that’s what i have to do that day, i will just not eat. i usually just end up getting really expensive favor orders or fast food. this is super unhealthy to the point that it’s impairing my brain function, not to mention being a waste of money, but i cannot stop. in college, my social anxiety was so bad that i pretty much avoided meals to the point that i don’t get hungry the way a normal person does anymore. most of the time, i don’t get hungry at all because my stomach is in a lot of pain from either anxiety or just unhealthy eating habits. every once in a while, i get incredibly hungry but then i order a bunch of food and can’t eat very much of it because my stomach gets weirdly full quickly. this hasn’t even resulted in weight loss, however, because all of the food i’m eating is unhealthy and i don’t do anything to exercise.

aside from becoming increasingly unable to care for my health in even the most basic ways, i’ve had a lot of negative things happen to me this year that i can’t cope with. the worst has been my breakup with m, which has been a catastrophic year-long shitshow and been difficult for me to process or understand. he broke up with me back in september 2019, we got back together by that november, he started treating me like shit by january, i dumped him on Easter, he wormed his way back by late may and even though i wouldn’t get back together with him we were still hanging out constantly until august when i found out some disturbing shit he did back in january and started this terrible cycle of cutting him off every few weeks only to let him back in my life to some degree.

luckily, each time letting him talk to me again has gotten shorter and shorter. the last time was two weeks ago and we were only on speaking terms for a week total before i told him to leave me alone again, so that is progress. it just sucks when you so desperately want to believe that someone was who you thought they were while you were together, yet they keep doing more and more to prove that that was fake and they are actually a bad person. i wish i could’ve just had a normal breakup, where i’m sad about the loss but still think the person is fundamentally good. instead, i’m dealing with all these crazy feelings of realizing m was never who i thought he was, was not really a good person at all, and probably did not love me (at least not the way most people feel love or the way i loved him). it sucks to realize that nobody has ever actually been in love with you and that the person you’ve been in love with the most in your life did not really exist. it makes me hate myself, honestly.

i haven’t used benzos since my birthday 1.5 months ago, but that was another problem i was having basically from june-october this year. i’ve never loved any feeling as much as i loved benzos, other than being in love, but the love was not ever real and the benzos were, so it was probably better for me overall (ha ha). taking xanax or clonazolam was like being submerged in a hot tub that i could breathe in. taking them every night was like slipping into a pool of warm water that was also a portal into another world where i was literally someone else who couldn’t even comprehend the idea of anxiety, let alone experience it. i’m sorry, but people who don’t do drugs don’t understand that there actually is not any genuine human experience you can have that feels better in the moment than drugs do. the only problem is that the drug feeling comes with so many negative side effects that it isn’t worth it. coming to terms with the fact that i will never feel as good as i did with drugs, that i will feel good again but in a different way that takes a lot of work, has sucked. i was damaging my brain and body so bad that i was near killing myself and i’m pretty lucky my heart didn’t stop from everything i was combining (coke, benzos, adderall, alcohol). now i’m only letting myself drink and do coke (but NEVER together...i don’t even like coke unless it’s by itself or with benzos, it feels so dirty when you mix it with drink).

anyway, i also just don’t like my roommate but that is honestly the least of my worries. still, it sucks coming home and having her be there and just feeling how much she hates me seeping through our shared wall. i don’t know why i am so good with letting go of friendships but so bad at letting go of romantic relationships LMAO. i mean, i don’t get rid of friends easily at ALL. i’ve only lost 2 friends in the past 12 years and they were friendships i’d had for 13 years and 10 years, respectively. but once i decide i’m done with a friend, i don’t feel sad at all or think about them and if i ever do it’s just like “wow i really don’t like that person.” so it’s been good that i haven’t felt sad about that, but it just sucks that she’s still in my house and i have to kind of be reminded that she exists. and it’s bad for my self esteem bc i know she doesn’t like me, yet she’s aware of anything i do at my own house (although i never see her thankfully). anyway, i’m really excited to start IOP and work on my emotional skills and hopefully get my mind right.

[howtoloseweightfastsafely]

How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

I think an apology is in order. On my part.

I've dropped the "C" word on and off and mentioned how it can lead to stress, inflammation, disease and more.

And I've mentioned that it can especially lead to excess belly fat.

But I haven't actually explained it more in depth, or explained how it works.

And I haven't given you some simple strategies to reduce it.

Sorry.

Let's get into it now, and end any confusion.

As you've realized if you read the chapter title, the "C" word is Cortisol.

Cortisol is better known as the "stress hormone", which your body produces to help with certain necessary responses.

Before we get into the "bad side" of cortisol, let's discuss its merits.

One of the more well-known cortisol-related responses is the "fight or flight" reaction you have when you're in danger. In this scenario, cortisol plays a vital role in telling your muscles and liver to release certain enzymes, acids, fats, and glucose, in order to give your body the energy it needs to fight or flee.

This response was crucial just as much in evolutionary times, when faced with a life-threatening bear for example, as it is these days, when you may sense danger on a dark, empty street in a bad part of town.

Beyond the fight or flight response, cortisol is known to help metabolize glucose, fats, and protein, it is an anti-inflammatory, and it regulates blood pressure and cardiovascular function.

Lastly, it is the main component of the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR), which refers to the slightly elevated cortisol levels we have in the morning. These levels gradually drop down as the day progresses. The CAR is thought to be an evolutionary mechanism that helped us wake up, and go on waking the rest of the day.

Now that we've covered the "good", let's get to the "bad".

The main idea to understand here is: beyond the acute, helpful cortisol functions (fight or flight; helping with recovery post-workout) and the morning awakening response, cortisol can get very chronic, very fast.

And when it gets chronic, research shows we're faced with everything from unmanageable stress levels to a wide variety of major diseases (heart disease, Alzheimer's, depression, and various cancers immediately come to mind).

Let me elaborate.

For starters, there are many different reasons that people have excess cortisol in their system.

There are a few recurring themes, though - namely, diet quality (or lack thereof) and stressful life situations (long-term pressure at work, financial issues, relationship or spousal tension, caring for elderly parents, etc.). And from a genetic perspective, many are naturally prone to anxiety or depression., and the stress/cortisol output that comes with it.

There are some "unknown" causes of chronically-elevated cortisol, too.

Besides chronic stress, the top 2 hidden causes are:

1. Excessive gym time followed by under-eating

a. High intensity, long duration exercise (especially "chronic cardio") training is proven to increase cortisol significantly

b. Basically, any time spent over 60-75 minutes ramps up cortisol like nobody's business, and it's made worse when we're too hard on ourselves to decide to eat next to nothing after a tough workout

c. Follow the workouts in the "6 Weeks to Lean" manual and you'll be outta the gym before you need to worry about cortisol building up.

d. Essentially, weight lifting, cardio, and any other high-intensity workouts deal with 4 main hormones:

i. Testosterone

ii. Growth Hormone,

iii. IGF (insulin-like growth factor)

iv. Cortisol

e. The first 3 are the anabolic hormones that build muscle (more muscle = less fat = healthier body and healthier 'look'). The last one, cortisol, is useful in certain circumstances but can also become very detrimental.

f. The key here is output of the anabolic hormones (testosterone, GH, and (IGF) stops after about 60 minutes of workouts, but cortisol keeps going and becomes chronic (and damaging to the body)

g. So, if you're working out for 2 hours, that's 1 hour or more of muscle-ruining, fat storing Cortisol permeating through your system. So, work hard and fast during workouts, and then stop!

h. Cap workouts at 1 hour, or 1 hr and 15 minutes including warm-ups. Then get adequate rest and recovery!

2. High levels of caffeine and sugar, which keep you "on edge" 24/7.

a. High cortisol in the bloodstream often correlates with the morning coffee... and the brunch coffee and post-lunch coffee, and the subsequent sodas and energy drinks consumed throughout the day.

b. But let's not be hypocritical - I have my morning cup of coffee, and most people do, too.

c. It's not unhealthy to have a bit of caffeine in the morning, and a few cups of tea throughout the day. However, it's important not to overdo it. (A surefire way to overdo it is drinking 3+ cups of coffee, plus sodas or energy drinks all day like many people do.)

Basically, having too much cortisol can have a highly negative impact on your body in the long term.

Too much cortisol means your body enters a catabolic state, whereby your body starts cannibalizing its own tissues (including bone, muscle and even brain matter) to get energy. Too much cortisol also signals your body to store excess fat, particularly in the midsection region (stomach, love handles, and butt/hips).

The reason for this is that your body thinks it's in mortal danger (the "fight or flight" response), so it's suddenly willing to use whatever resources it has available at its command to survive.

And when the body is spending time trying to fight off this perceived "danger", it doesn't give a rat's you-know-what about burning fat. On the contrary, any food at or above your limit will be stored as fat in the exact place you're trying to avoid putting it on!

You see the problem here: You drank that second cup of coffee because you like the way it tastes with those little hazelnut creamer packets they have at 7-11, and you inadvertently released a bunch of cortisol in the process.

And these chronically elevated cortisol levels mean increased stress, and increased stress causes mood swings, anxiety, depression and flat-out shrinkage of brain cells.

If your cortisol has been elevated for a long time, it's also possible your brain isn't even producing healthy levels of serotonin and dopamine anymore - causing you to enjoy pleasurable feelings less, and feel down in the dumps more often.

As mentioned, your cortisol levels are supposed to be naturally high in the morning - one of the actual good effects of the stress hormone is to help you feel bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when you first wake up. But they're supposed to drop off during the day - which means you have to be careful about the amount of caffeine you take into your system, and most importantly, when you take it into your system.

It's pretty simple: No caffeine after 12 PM (2 PM is OK if you go to bed around 12), except for a cup of green tea if you really need it. Generally, you want to have your last bit of caffeine at least 10 hours before bedtime, since cortisol levels are so closely correlated with our sleep/wake cycles. So for most people who go to bed around the 10-11 p.m. hour, it's best to stop drinking soda, energy drinks or coffee by noon. It's also best to have a daily "goal" of no more than one soda/energy drink/cup of coffee per day, and 1-2 cups of tea at most.

You want to max out at 400 mg. of caffeine per day (most coffee has between 150-200 mg already!) Your body doesn't really get much benefit after one, anyway - and you're just maxing out your stress levels!

While you're taking a long-term, nice and easy approach to reducing your caffeine consumption, here are some other methods by which you can naturally reduce your cortisol levels.

 Interested in losing weight? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

Read the previous article about "The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)"

Read the next article about "7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)"

Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster, and feel great doing it.

Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com