Why You Can't Lose Weight: Emotional Burnout

For some reason I'm resisting writing this to you. I have some blocks about these sorts of topics- self-care, self-love and slowing down... my guess is you might, too.
I feel like so much has been written about the negative aspects of stress already and yet we all experience stress and don't really know how to change it.
Escaping from chronic stress is a driver for many unconscious and addictive behaviors. When we struggle to control our intentions, our emotions can drive us to seek more of what we don't want.
What does that mean? Unconscious addictive behavior will never fill the void that is meant to be filled with living your creative purpose.
So I will be writing more on that topic. But, right now I want to focus on what keeps your weight loss stalled.
Recently, there have been many articles circulating about how the emotional to do list of the household falls on the women in the world mainly. The thinking, listing and obtaining the hundreds of household things even before they are known to be needed by the rest of the house. The thinking, listing and obtaining of food, the preparing, the serving, the cleaning up. The constant cleaning, organizing, washing and jeez... I'm exhausted.
Even if significant help is offered during some part of these tasks, the emotional burden generally still falls on the woman. Even if she is working inside or outside the home, or both... the stress of it running smoothly still falls on her. You. Me.
This significant stress, which is sometimes minimized by society and men, is always running in the back of our minds.
Why don't men feel the weight of this burden? First of all, men have different priorities. They generally prioritize providing money to make these tasks possible. Men have their own kind of stress, its usually just different.
Men are also much more resilient to stress. They are less sensitive by design, it makes sense if they are the hunters/providers, they need to deal with much more intense situations for a shorter amount of time.
Women's hormones make us much more sensitive (of course some of this is genetic and some is environmental) to sensory factors, emotional factors and disturbances in the force. It also goes the other way, our hormones are deeply affected by our psychological state.
We were not meant to live in chronic stress that is never solved... and that is where our physical body gets thrown out of balance.
If you are in a chronically hostile relationship, or even one that is unstable and doesn't provide the emotional security you seek, your hormones will suffer greatly. This could be romantic or any other significant relationship.
If you are having to work at a job that's not fulfilling and also struggling to make ends meet financially and under debt that you don't see yourself getting out of, this is incredibly stressful.
This stress is registered on the pituitary-thyroid axis and is seen as a threat in that feedback loop. Threats mean lock down to your fat stores. Threats mean something bad, like starvation or illness may be close at hand.
Chronic dieting, chronic illness and other stressors can also lead to a disruption in the thyroid. Household toxins, clothing additives, pesticides and other compounds can also inhibit this loop.
Do you see why so many women are struggling with their thyroid? And eventually adrenal fatigue. Pushing through it is a bad idea.
Sugar, refined flour combined with low fat diet will also accelerate this process and make it much worse, inciting inflammation. Drinking excess caffeine all day will also make this problem worse. Anything that might seemingly help you cope, like fast food, alcohol or binge watching Netflix all night, will make it worse.
How do we start to heal this huge problem?
1. Getting a system of organization that will take the anxiety and burden of all the tasks you carry in your mind, easing the burden of stress. Really start to look at how to change your life to make it less stressful.
2. Eating a low glycemic diet that is high in vegetables, especially green vegetables and seaweeds. Use high quality fats, such as olive oil, coconut oil, coconut milk.
3. Using Adaptogen herbs, such as holy basil, ginseng or ashwaganda.
4. Making sure your levels of selenium, Vitamin B, Vitamin D are adequate. Seek help with supplementation if necessary. Spend times outdoors several times a week.
5. Stress reducing exercise such as yoga, pilates, barre, walking in nature, meditation.
6. Use guided meditations, acupressure, massage or therapeutic touch as you need. Do not force yourself to do modalities that cause more stress.
7. Use essential oils such as frankincense and myrrh.
8. Try to get 8-10 hours of sleep while you are healing.
9. Detoxification through sauna or hot baths will help clear toxins from your system and give you a relaxation response.
10. Consider increasing your spiritual or volunteer practices, if you feel these will add to your happiness, explore giving more. Minimize time around people who are a negative influence on your life.
11. Meet with a credit counselor or debt expert to make a plan for how to get your financial house in order. Hopefully think about what changes you can make in the future to provide security for yourself, additional schooling or training.
Sea Glass Beach tea contains the adaptogen herbs useful for helping overcome these problems: Holy Basil. Newport Skinny Tea daytime contains the adaptogen herb Ginseng which is also beneficial for hormone balance. Both are on sale now.
Remember that this self-healing is subtle, its a game won in inches not miles. Anything that reduces your stress will help, do not underestimate the impact your psychological emotions have on your physical and emotional bodies. It could be as simple as watching happy movies, cleaning out your closet or just swapping babysitting with a friend one night a week.