Trim your Middle with Time-Saving Strategies

What’s for dinner?

When should I exercise?

How many E meals have I had today?

When am I going to walk?

What should I eat for a snack?

Is this enough protein?

What Trim Healthy fuel should I eat next?

Can you feel your increased heart-rate? Or the sweat beading along your hairline? Maybe you’ve found a nice quiet corner to hide in until all these questions go away.

Has freestyling your Trim Healthy eating plan turned into a recipe for stress?

Do you feel like you might just explode if you have to field one more question or make one more decision?

While we don’t want to live in calorie counting land, living without a plan is a sure recipe for hormonal disaster.

Let’s take a 30,000 foot view to see what is going on in your body when you try freestyling decisions every day.

Estrogen serves as your main hormone to counter cortisol and works as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent. 

Cortisol is your primary stress hormone and high levels of it dumped into your bloodstream can cause inflammation. When you are faced with constant decision making, those cortisol levels start to rise. You might feel this as increased heart rate, brain fog, exhaustion and decreased immunity. 

But as you move into your menopausal years your estrogen levels naturally decrease. This means you lose your key opponent to high levels of cortisol i.e. stress. 

One of the key areas you might notice increased cortisol is around your middle. High levels of cortisol can trigger your body to shift fat from other areas to your midsection. And when you leave every decision to the last moment your body simply can not handle the stress. Your brain goes into overdrive and your ability to counter that cortisol spike is limited.

So how can you use time-saving techniques to curb your stress response and decrease belly fat? I like to call it “make decisions ahead of time.”

And it’s as simple and as complex as it sounds. 

Let’s start with the big ones: meals and lifestyle habits.

You are not making a restrictive plan, you are making a plan to reduce your stress levels. This plan should free up your brain and not become another roadblock.

Take a look at your meals throughout the week. How can you reduce your decisions? Can you theme each night? Would choosing the fuel type for each meal free up brain space? Can you limit the recipes you pick from and put them on repeat?

Take some time to jot down meal ideas that work for your lifestyle. Think of ways you can make decisions ahead of time. Set yourself up for success in this key area so you can move away from high levels of daily stress.

Your lifestyle habits like movement and exercise play a huge role in midlife weight loss. But if establishing and keeping those habits is related to more decision fatigue then you aren’t doing yourself any favors. You become a sitting duck for more stress which probably shows up as increased belly fat. Ugh!

Let’s free up your brain energy by making these decisions before you get to them. First, choose the time of day you can commit to exercising & moving. Next, create your workout playlist and gather your equipment in one location. Create a plan that makes getting your workout done as easy as a click of the button. Free up your brain energy for more important tasks and you will reap the rewards of less stress and less brain fog.

Implementing time-saving strategies is not “just for fun”; you can impact your health in a powerful way when you make decisions ahead of time. 

Choose strategies that will save you time, energy and set you up for success.

In Get Your Trim On Tribe membership we work together to create a plan each week for weight loss success. You can eliminate decision fatigue with Tribe membership because you get menus and workout plans to keep you on track.

Join Today!