6 Stress Management Strategies To Improve Your Fat Loss

Stress can help us achieve many positive things – whether it be finishing a project at work before its deadline, studying for that exam or giving us the strength to lift the weights we thought we weren't capable of lifting!

Implemented at the right time, stress will help the body to achieve many great things. However, some of us just cant seem to find the "off button" for stress and if left unmanaged, stress can amplify and spread throughout your entire body.

This can have an incredibly detrimental impact to both your physical and mental health.

6 Stress Management Strategies (To Improve Your Fat Loss)

Managing our stress is the key to living a happy and healthy life, as much as we might think we are able to manage the stress in our life OK, just about all of us get overwhelmed at times, allowing stress can get the better of us.

Today we'll be sharing with you six of the best tips to help you:

• Reduce your overall stress levels

• Lower your cortisol levels and in doing so...

We will help you identify lifestyle factors that may be working against your attempts to reduce your levels of stress on a daily basis.
 

Tip 1: Never Be Too Busy To Take Time Out

Too often we are so consumed within the depths of our work schedule, training program, and whatever else life throws at us that we often push our own needs aside. As a result, our happiness, motivation and potential for success is greatly diminished.

Nobody will give you a "High-five" for burning yourself out, and your body won't appreciate being pushed while living in a constant state of stress and frustration just for the sake of "tearing it up in the gym".

When you subject yourself to immense pressure and stress on a daily basis without taking time out to re-energise and recoup... You are preventing yourself from being able to commit to your endeavours at the highest level.

As we often need to learn the hard way, our body will not perform and look how we want it to if we're constantly subjecting it to physical and mental stress on a daily basis.


Thus, managing stressful periods in your life can be relatively simple, you just need to ensure you implement the right techniques to allow yourself to unwind and relax.

What to do?

• Dedicate time each week or month to "Recovery Time". This time is to be spent relaxing or doing something you enjoy. A weekly massage is a great idea.

• Value this time with as much as you would an important work meeting or training session. Don't skip or delay this important period of time. 

• Plan your time off, organise an outing with friends, weekend away or something similar.

• If you're short on time... something as simple as going to the beach, walking the dog or listening to your favourite audio book whilst out enjoying the sunshine will suffice.

• It's also important to remove all distractions while you're enjoying your scheduled relaxation time... So turn your phone off to help you clear your mind of stress... even if its just for a short period of time. You'll most likely find this difficult at first, but turning off your phone so you can't be interrupted is quite possibly the most important step of them all.

You can modify and apply these tips to suit just about every aspect of your life when it comes to taking time out.

Tip 2: Switch Off From Social Media

Social media is a great tool that can help us connect with new people, discover new places to eat and have a laugh at endless memes. The downside to social media is that it's starting to replace one-on-one human interaction... (Receiving a like on Facebook or Instagram isn't the same as catching up with friends in real life).

Furthermore, comparing your progress to what others post on social media is a bad idea, a very bad idea. With the advent of Photoshop, FaceTune and Instagram filters, social media gives us an unrealistic expectation of how our lives should be or how underwhelming our gym progress might appear to be in comparison to "them".

If you're struck with boredom, you might open Instagram and scroll away 15 minutes of your life, during that time you might see others posting about going to a festival, catching up with friends or making great progress in the gym. Your life (by comparison) may not seem as exciting and your gym progress not nearly as impressive as what the user "festivalsNflexing95" posts on their feed. This annoys you – it shouldn't.

Seeing the progress of others should inspire you, not demotivate or irritate you. If social media is having a negative effect on you, switch off and focus on your own progress... everyone is running their own race.

Those 15 minutes you wasted getting annoyed at the illusion of success being crammed down your feed could have been better spent researching new training techniques, reading through the latest information about health and fitness or spent exercising.

What to do?

• Ensure you have the contact details of your friends and family, then deactivate all social media for a week or so. You'll be amazed at how much more time you have during the day and how much happier you'll be when you're not scrolling through social media.

• Find something productive to do with your time. Set some goals for your training and seek additional information for personal development. 

• If managing stress is the issue, address and identify the cause of your stress, reflect why this issue is having an impact on your life and plan a way to help reduce the impact that stress is having on you.

Tip 3: Meditation

Many of our problems can be solved, or at least understood and handled better by dedicating enough directed thought and energy to the issue at hand. In this day and age we usually have several different projects on the go, we receive various types of auditory and visual stimulation and distractions just about everywhere we go.

Constant distractions can make it difficult to keep a single train of thought at any given time, add a stressful lifestyle into the mix, and our brains don't quite perform how we like them to.

Being under stress, combined with trying to juggle and think about numerous tasks at once will make it difficult for us to focus our efforts towards the issue at hand when we are trying to multitask.

What to do?

• Dedicate at least 5-10 minutes a day to Meditation.

• Start by sitting in a quiet area of your home, workplace or car, any quiet area will do. Ensure that this time you spend with yourself is away from phones, a computer or any other form of distraction near by.

• Empty your mind and sit in stillness, focus on your breathing and embracing the rare moment of silence that you're experiencing today, this time can also used to focus on a single thought, problem or stress in your life. 

• Use this time to visualise and identify the solution to your problem, trust that the solution is there and that you will always find the solution to your problem.

We often know the solution to our problems, even if it is hidden somewhere in the back of our minds. We just need to be direct enough with our thinking in order to help bring that solution to light.

Our favourite guided meditation app is called "Headspace" - check it out here.

Tip 4: Identify, Be Aware and Keep a List of Your Major Stress Triggers

Being able to identify the situations that cause you to stress is one of the best ways to avoid or at least help manage stress.

If certain activities, social interactions or pressure from others is a major cause of stress for you, set out a plan to help reduce stressful impact that the situation may have on you. This can include planning ahead, avoiding the situation (if possible) or as much as we might hate to do it, asking for help from others.
 

Tip 5: Commit to Your Sleep Schedule

Adequate sleep is necessary for optimal health as it allows our brains to recharge and our bodies to rest.  Inadequate amounts of sleep have been linked to people suffering from the negative effects of stress significant more than those who are well rested.

A lack of sleep can leave people feeling irritated, overwhelmed with simple tasks. A sleep deprived and stressed individual often lacks the motivation, energy, enthusiasm and brainpower to commit their best efforts to the task at hand.

Experts recommend a minimum of 7-10 hours sleep a night, some people can get away with less for a short period of time, but it's not advised if you're seeking optimal health.

What to do?

• Aim to be in bed by a specific time. Set yourself to have a goal of getting AT LEAST 7 hours of sleep per night.

• Remove distractions that keep you up at night.

• Keep your phone away from the bed to avoid the late night social media fix which will only rob you of valuable.

• Do things such as read a book, stretch or meditate before going to bed. Any of these activities will help you relax before you go to bed, allowing you to fall asleep faster once you're in bed.

• If you miss out on a few hours sleep, try a short 15-20 minute power nap during the day if possible. Who doesn't love a midday nap?

Tip 6: Decrease Your Stress with Supplementation

If you're looking for a supplement to help with fat loss and to give you a boost in energy, use the one that won't leave you feeling scattered and run down once it wears off.

Many try and use caffeine as a stimulant to get a quick boost of energy in an attempt to  perk themselves up to try and make up for a lack of sleep or poor nutrition. The problem is that although caffeine might work in the short term, the long terms effects of relying on caffeine for energy will eventually start having a negative effect on your training along with increasing cortisol levels.

A prolonged increase in cortisol incurred by relying on caffeine for energy will only make your efforts towards your goals of fat loss or muscle gain feel like you're fighting a losing battle.

The solution?

Enter Hydroxyburn® Clinical.

BodyScience is well versed on the benefits of caffeine use during exercise through supplementation but their knowledge doesn't stop there. As we now know, excessive caffeine intake can raise cortisol levels, we need cortisol to function, but don't want an excessive amount present for too long, otherwise we start to experience the negative effects of prolonged high cortisol levels.

Hydroxyburn® Clinical is strategically formulated and is formulated with well researched ingredients and herbal extracts that will not only assist our body in feeling more energized, the formulation will help control our cravings, blood sugar levels and also reduce cortisol levels in the body, all of which will assist in fat loss.

Hydroxyburn® Clinical contains a well researched ingredient named "Melissa Officinalis" (Listed as Bluenesse®). Bluenesse® is a strong cognitive enhancer that has been shown to significantly reduce cortisol levels and improve performance. Supplementing with Bluenesse may alleviate systemic stress and has been shown to stimulate an almost immediate increase in mental alertness and a feeling of wellbeing.

Implementing Hydroxyburn® Clinical into your supplement regime can mean the end to the viscous cycle of peaks and drops in energy that people often experienced when they solely rely on caffeine for energy and alertness.

Shop Hydroxyburn® Clinical Now.