It’s been years since I’ve read a book with the word ‘diet’ in its title. However, the Thrive Diet by Brandon Brazier was mentioned repeatedly to me by people that I respect. So, I’ve bought the book.
Chapter one, the only one that I’ve read yet, is all about stress. This chapter alone is worth the price of the book! Very well worded to help anyone understand how much stress we are under all the time. I find this especially difficult to get across to men (sorry guys, but stress seems to be a bad word to you).
Stress has become a word that is tossed around regularly. It is used as a feeling now – “how are you Beth?”, “Oh, I’m pretty stressed today”. Most people mean that they are overwhelmed, tired, and/or having an otherwise rough day. While this is a fairly accurate description of stress, it’s only part of the picture.
In my initial interview with new patients, I always ask them to define the word stress for me. Top answer is always being overwhelmed. It is said in varying ways such as “too many people with too many demands”; “my boss expects more to be done in a day than I can accomplish”; “juggling kids schedules with work”; and so on and so forth. For many, they don’t have a clue as to how they may begin to diminish their stress levels.
We all know that stress causes problems for people’s health. It has been linked to all sorts of chronic disorders not to mention the more acute problems like anxiety and heart palpitations. But how many of you know how to reduce your stress levels? You want me to start doing yoga too? Add more to my plate? Go to meditation class? Are you crazy? Who has time for that?
Men especially say that they don’t experience stress. Like admitting that there is stress in their life is admitting that they aren’t coping well. That’s not the case.
Stress is in the air we breathe via pollutants; stress is in the water we drink via pollutants and additives; stress is in the emotions we carry via worry, anger, and excitement; stress is in the foods we consume via highly-refined-nutrient-depleted-calorie-dense ‘foods’; stress is in the stimulants we use via sugar, alcohol, caffeine. Stress is imposed via exercise (varying intensities results in varying stress for varying fitness levels). Read his book. Written much better. The long and short of it is that stress is everywhere and it’s not all bad. We just need to learn how to optimize the stressors that we are exposed to.
I’ll keep you posted on what I think of the rest of the book. So far though, it’s a winner.
Yours in Health,
Kerri Fullerton ND
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